Goldknopf and Tessler Deny Knowing of Reported Conscription Meeting

Agudat Yisrael lawmakers Yitzhak Goldknopf and Yaakov Tessler said Thursday evening that they knew of no meeting on conscription legislation of the kind described in an earlier report. Goldknopf, who represents Gur, and Tessler, who represents Vizhnitz, said no representatives had attended such discussions on their behalf. “We do not know of any meeting dealing with the conscription law,” the two lawmakers said in a joint statement. They said United Torah Judaism was working cooperatively and responsibly to resolve yeshiva students’ status under the instructions of leading Torah sages. The earlier report described a consultation held November 10 at the home of the Slonim Rebbe’s son to formulate Hasidic negotiating demands. It said an unnamed rebbe, representatives of Gur and Vizhnitz, and other rabbis participated. The reported demands included personal signatures from all 48 change-bloc lawmakers committing to support an exemption from military conscription, along with an override mechanism if the High Court invalidated the legislation. The initial report also said a document appeared to indicate contacts with the attorney general. Later Thursday evening, she denied participating in talks with Haredi parties on a new conscription-exemption law.