Israeli Leaders Condemn Rabbi Dov Lando Over Anti‑Zionist Remarks

Senior Israeli figures have sharply criticized Rabbi Dov Lando, head of the Slabodka Yeshiva and a prominent leader in the Lithuanian Haredi community, after a video recorded at his home in Bnei Brak captured him criticizing religious Zionism, questioning the need for a Jewish state and defending Haredi draft avoidance.

In the recording, addressed to a small group of rabbis, Lando said young Haredi men who avoid military service should not feel guilty for the sacrifices of Religious Zionists. According to N12, he claimed that soldiers "are being killed because we don't learn enough" and accused some rabbis of teaching a "twisted Torah" that leads to violence.

"Those who are getting killed - they are being killed because we don't learn enough," Lando said. "They are being killed because their rabbis teach them twisted Torah....They kill people for honor."

Lando argued that Torah study in yeshivas provides spiritual protection for the country and suggested that Zionist policies worsened hostility from the Arab world. He also said, hypothetically, that a UN administration or Arab rule could have been "an excellent situation" at Israel's founding.

He used stark language to describe the relationship between Haredim, the state and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF): "If we live among the robbers and the robbers save us, what to do? It's a problem, a big problem." He attacked secular Israeli society as having "no connection with Judaism" and called the state "a state of annihilation and heresy."

Photo: Rabbi Dov Lando is watched as he enters a vehicle in Bnei Brak. (credit: YAAKOV NAUMI/FLASH90)

RABBI DOV LANDO is watched as he enters a vehicle in Bnei Brak. (credit: YAAKOV NAUMI/FLASH90)

Political Reaction

Political leaders from across the spectrum condemned Lando's remarks. Gadi Eisenkot, leader of the Yashar party, wrote on X: "I strongly condemn the slanderous words of Rabbi Lando," calling the comments "anti‑Zionism in its purest form."

Avigdor Liberman, chairman of Yisrael Beytenu, criticized Lando's stance on the Haredi draft: "The money from the state they know how to take. To serve and defend it? No. Soon we will put an end to the rule of the draft dodgers." Liberman added that without those votes "Bibi has no government," and accused anti‑Zionists of saying Israel should never have been founded.

Former prime minister Naftali Bennett called the remarks "shame and disgrace," accusing Lando of being "antisemitic" and "anti‑Zionist," and criticized the current government for supporting Haredi institutions financially. Bennett vowed to withhold state funds from draft evaders: "Anyone who evades will not receive a single shekel from the State of Israel."

Context And Implications

The episode highlights ongoing tensions between Haredi communities and the wider Israeli public over military service, the role of religion in the state, and competing visions of Zionism and Jewish sovereignty. Lando's comments are likely to deepen political and social debate about draft exemptions, state funding for religious institutions, and the relationship between religious and secular Israelis.

This article reports the remarks and the immediate political fallout without endorsing any view. Quotations are drawn from the recorded remarks and public statements by political figures.