U.S. Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee, on Wednesday visited the home of Lithuanian Haredi community leader Rabbi Dov Landau in Bnei Brak.
“In addition to soldiers, we need Torah scholars, who will remind us who you are and why you are here,” Huckabee told the rabbi during their meeting, in a reference to the current controversy over the IDF draft exemption bill that would excuse most Haredi men from military service
At the beginning of the meeting, which was held through an interpreter, Landau asked Huckabee to deliver a message to U.S. President Donald Trump.
“Please, tell President Trump to work for the Torah world. The Jewish people live and exist by virtue of the Torah. Torah scholars are the protectors, and their status must be preserved and their value sanctified,” he said.
The rabbi said that the world of Torah is in danger, due to the intention to recruit Haredim to the IDF.
“It is important for me to tell the ambassador that the community of Torah and mitzvot-observants here in the Holy Land is currently in dire straits, as the legal system issues arrest warrants against yeshiva students studying Torah for the ‘crime’ of studying Torah,” he said.
Following the meeting, Landau said that the Torah protected and still protects Israel. “The Torah is what stood for the people of Israel throughout its years as a people, and thanks to it and only thanks to it, it survived all the exiles,” said the leader of the Lithuanian community. “Any harm to Torah study and students is a harm to the entire people of Israel and harms its right to exist as a people, and even to the entire world, as it is said, ‘If I had not kept my covenant day and night, I would not have established the laws of heaven and earth.'”
Landau also thanked the American president for his support for Israel. “I would like to express my appreciation and respect for President Donald Trump and the American nation for their steadfast stand, especially in the recent war with Iran,” he said.
