Justice Minister Ayelet Shaked was a guest of honor at the Har Etzion Hesder Yeshiva dinner. She applauded chareidi lawmakers for supporting the amended draft law and added she is working to build chareidi hesder yeshivos.

The senior minister detailed her work as head of the Shaked Committee which laid the groundwork for the draft law in the previous Knesset. “In recent years we have been trying to harness the chareidim into this track and to build chareidi hesder yeshivos” she told her audience.

She explained that today there are a very small number of such yeshivos but she is hoping this number will increase. She is hopeful that the chareidi leadership will adopt the new draft law and that the belligerent attitude vis-à-vis the law in the media will disappear.

“When my chareidi lawmaker colleagues called me following a meeting of the Moetzas Gedolei Yisrael last week and one of them phoned me saying ‘would you believe the Torah Council has approved the draft bill’”.

Shaked feels this support is a major accomplishment regarding the chareidi tzibur and feels most of the chareidim support the bill and she is hopeful that the leaders will follow.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)