Students in Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef's Kollel [Torah study institute providing stipends for married men] in the Har Nof neighborhood of Jerusalem have been asked to carry a weapon, if they own one, to their daily studies. The administrators have been warned by police that terrorists might target them, or another yeshiva, as occurred in Yeshiva Merkaz HaRav Kook nearly a year ago.
In the attack in Merkaz HaRav, last March, eight students were slaughtered by a lone terrorist as they studied in the yeshiva library. The murderer, a resident of an eastern Jerusalem village, walked easily into the unprotected yeshiva carrying his rifle in a box.
Ever since then, the yeshiva entrance has been locked and guarded, and other yeshivot have followed suit.
Porush Asks for Review
MK Rabbi Menachem Porush (United Torah Judaism) has asked Public Security Minister Avi Dichter to order a comprehensive review of the security situation in all yeshivot throughout the country. Porush said that a recent random sampling of yeshivot in Jerusalem has turned up the fact that many of them are not suitably protected. Many yeshivot do not have guards, he said, and the guards at others are occasionally unarmed and/or untrained.
Porush praised Chief Police Superintendent Pini Cohen for taking the initiative to conduct the review of Jerusalem yeshivot. Porush quoted Cohen as having emphasized “specific intentions of potential terrorists to carry out attacks in public buildings in general and religious institutions in particular.”
Rabbi Yosef’s Kollel has recently taken extra precautions, locking all entrances and asking students to carry weapons. The new rules took effect after police in Jerusalem informed the administrators of the increased terrorism threats.
The Kollel is run day-to-day by Rabbi Yosef’s son Rabbi David Yosef. Rabbi Ovadiah, the former Chief Rabbi, gave a weekly class there until he recently took ill, and is expected to resume the practice shortly.