Av Beis Din of 'Eida': "Don't go wild and don't hurt police" • exclusive recording

An initial clear and emphatic disapproval against the campaign of offending soldiers and policemen: Av Beis Din "Eida Hareidis" Hagaon Rabbi Yitzhak Tuvia Weiss, spoke to thousands of yeshiva students at the forefront of attempts to dislodge them from yeshivos and recruit them to the tracks of the army, and had various open reservations about harming policemen and rampaging through the streets.

The Gab"d openly disapproved of harming policemen: "It is not appropriate for bnei yeshivos to use such egregious conduct, we must sanctify G-d's name in all our conduct," he said.

The comments were made at an emergency meeting held last Thursday, at the Beit Israel halls in Jerusalem. At the end of his remarks, the Av Beis Din raised his voice and spoke against violence. The recording reached Behadrey Haredim and is presented here.

Freely translated into English, this is the content of what he said: "We ask when you go out of hear, not to run wild in the streets, no good comes of it to anyone. Every one should go on his way peacefully, do not run wild in the streets, and not hurt the police, it does not suit us. Such behavior is not for us, it might suit them but not for us. Our people do not act this way, one should go to the street and sanctify G-d's name, go home in peace and tranquility, and this way you should have all the best, blessing and success."

It should be noted that the remarks were made a day after leaders of the Jerusalem police command came to the house of the Av Beis Din in Givat Moshe neighborhood of Jerusalem, and expressed their concern over the radicalization of discourse in haredi neighborhoods across the country in general and Jerusalem in particular. Concern arose following the Harda"kim campaign, when soldiers and police were attacked in haredi neighborhoods, and after snapping a Haredi soldier, a young ba'al tshuva who came for a visit in Meah Shearim, who was rescued after a complex and highly loaded operation by a large police force.

Even before the conference, it became clear that the leaders of the Eida Haredis are trying to moderate the extremists in their community. In preparation for the conference, an internal dispute arose in the 'Eida', between the moderates and extremists.

The original plan was to hold the conference at the Vayomer Yitzchok site, on Shmuel Hanavi street in Jerusalem, but the police has not confirmed holding the event.

Extremist elements in the Eida sought to hold the conference never the less - without a police license at the Zupnik square in Mea Shearim neighborhood. These leaders approached the Toldos Aharon and Dushinsky heads, to instruct the boys to attend the rally - but were met with resistance. The reason: they did not want the scenes which occurred at the previous demonstration at the recruiting office to be repeated.

Due to the resistance, the protest organizers realized that low participation is expected and announced that they will cancel the event. But then came a compromise: to hold the meeting in a closed hall.

David Gloiberman, an activist in the Eida Haredis, told Behadrey Haredim that shortly after it was decided to cancel the conference, factors in the Eida proposed to hold the assembly at the Beis Yisrael Halls in Ezras Torah and activists who opposed earlier, confirmed their participation .

'בחדרי' גם ברשתות החברתיות - הצטרפו!