The 95-year-old leader of the Lithuanian (non-Hassidic) haredi community, Rabbi Dov Lando, arrived at the Beit Lid Military Prison on Thursday to visit Refael and Baruch Itzhakov, yeshiva students from Tel Aviv who were arrested for not reporting to the IDF recruitment center.
The rabbi visited the prison despite his age because of the increased attention the arrest received in the haredi community.
According to associates of Rabbi Lando, the rabbi has held important meetings to discuss how to deal with the arrests of yeshiva students, and that he is "unable to sleep" while yeshiva students are in prison.
During the visit, Rabbi Lando told the detainees, "Be strong and hold on. All of haredi Jewry is behind you. With G-d's help, you will get out soon, you will be yeshiva students again, as you were until now. G-d will help you with everything. Be strong and don't be enticed by anything. Everything is fake, nonsense."
The rabbi explained the purpose of his visit: "I came to be here and join you. It's a bit difficult for me, I'm a bit old, but I still came. I wanted to see and visit you and give you support."
When the detainees thanked him for visiting, he answered: "I did what everyone must do, and I'm not here on my own behalf; I come on behalf of haredi Jewry."
The rabbi concluded: "I wish you again that soon you will be yeshiva students again and G-d will help, hold on tight, stand strong, brave, don't pay attention to their temptations. Falsities and nonsense, lies.
"You are yeshiva students, we are all with you together, and I come not just on my own behalf; on behalf of haredi Jewry, who wants what's good for you, that you'll be back in yeshiva, and outside they'll begin to understand that yeshiva students are really yeshiva students. You can't do whatever you want to them."