Haredi leaders call for global day of prayer, fasting to protest arrest of draft dodgers

 https://www.timesofisrael.com/haredi-leaders-call-for-global-day-of-prayer-fasting-to-protest-arrest-of-draft-dodgers

Ultra-Orthodox leaders have called for an international day of prayer and fasting on Thursday in response to recent government efforts to conscript ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students and arrest those who ignore government orders to enlist.

Rabbi Dov Lando, the spiritual leader of Degel HaTorah, one of the factions of the Haredi United Torah Judaism party, issued a public appeal to Jews around the world to treat the day as if it were Yom Kippur Katan, a minor fast day in which worshipers recite prayers usually read on the Jewish Day of Atonement.

In the United States and Europe, Haredi Jews are “preparing to tear open the gates of heaven to overturn the conscription decree that threatens the Torah world,” party newspaper Yated Neeman declared on its front page on Tuesday, quoting Lando as saying that “Jews are persecuting Jews because they are learning Torah.”