Rabbi Yitzhak Neria, the Rosh Yeshiva of Torah B’Zion in Efrat, Gush Etzion, which he founded in 2008 after being exiled from Gush Katif, on Wednesday taped a message to his students and their families, announcing that anyone who is not vaccinated would be banned from attending classes, Kan 11 News reported Thursday morning.
ראש ישיבת ההסדר “תורה בציון” שבאפרת יודיע לתלמידיו כי מי שלא יתחסן – ייאסר עליו להגיע לישיבה. בסרטון שיופץ לתלמידים ובני משפחותיהם נאמר: “כולם מתחסנים, זו אחריות שלנו. כל גדולי ישראל האמיתיים ובהם ראשי הישיבה מורים להתחסן והתחסנו בעצמם” pic.twitter.com/tfTLtdHSsf
— כאן חדשות (@kann_news)
“Everyone is vaccinated, this is our responsibility,” Rabbi Neria says in the videon (see below). “All the true great men of Israel, including the heads of the yeshiva, say we should all get vaccinated and have been vaccinated ourselves.”
“The Torah is very important to us, it’s our life-giving potion, ‘for they are our life and they lengthen our days, [and on them we will meditate day and night],’ and anyone who does not get vaccinated causes the cancellation of Torah study,” Rabbi Neria said, explaining that unvaccinated individuals are likely to infect fellow students and bring about the shutting down of the yeshiva.
Rabbi Neria is the son of Rabbi Nachum Neria and the grandson of Rabbi Moshe Zvi Neria, “the father of the knitted yarmulke generation” and founder of the Bnei Akiva Yeshivot. Rabbi Yitzhak Neria was raised in the Jewish Quarter of Jerusalem and attended the Achinoam State Religious School in the Old City. He studied at the Sha’alvim high school yeshiva and later studied for six years at the Or Etzion Hesder Yeshiva, headed by Rabbi Haim Drukman, where he was also ordained as a rabbi. Rabbi Neria enlisted in the IDF and served as a communications man in Brigade 769 in Galilee.
After completing his military service, Rabbi Neria was sent by Rabbi Drukman on a mission to Jewish communities in Russia, with the aim of teaching Judaism and encouraging Jews to make aliyah.