A number of senior Sephardic-haredi rabbis are furious after notices calling for a mass rally against the Draft Law erroneously claimed that the rabbinic authorities supported the demonstration.
On Friday, numerous notices appeared throughout Israel's haredi communities that called on the faithful to hold a prayer at deceased Sephardic icon Rabbi Ovadiah Yosef's grave in order to protest a law that would force haredim to draft into the IDF. The notice was signed by over 25 of the leading Sephardic-haredi rabbis, including Rav Shlomo Machpud, Rabbi Tzvi Fadida, and Rav Amnon Sabag.
However, none of these rabbis had in fact supported such a rally and the haredi luminaries rushed to put out statements on Sunday denying any connection to the protest.
"They wrote without my knowledge, and did not ask me or talk to me," fumed Rabbi Mapchud, who runs the Yoreh Deah Kashrut certification agency. "I already issued a counter-notice that I object to using my signature. It's true that I signed them a year and a half ago and already several times used my signature and did not ask me or talk to me, and I protested about it already. "
The grandson of Rabbi Tzvi Fadida told Kikar Hashabbat that his grandfather only supported the rally after being tricked by organizers who claimed that Lithuanian-haredi leader Rabbi Haim Kanievsky was behind it. "They lied to my grandfather," he said. "They claimed they were emissaries of Rabbi Kanievsky."