Wise as Rabbis Sherer and Neuberger were, they realized they needed a face for this campaign, and both agreed that there was nobody better to represent the group than Rabbi Herschel Schacter, a musmach of Chaim Berlin, Torah Vodaath, and Yeshivah College.
A partial invite list for the emergency meeting
“I have pieced together from notes jotted down in my diary and in various reports of meetings attended, the highlights of these two months. Actually, I do not know why I am doing this, except my sense of history dictates that somewhere there be a record of a battle over one of the most serious spiritual crises that ever faced the yeshivos movement in our country. During all those weeks, I had a loyal partner in Rabbi Neuberger of Baltimore, who similarly attempted to divest himself of his immediate obligations.”
—Rabbi Moshe Sherer
The Vietnam War, which drove a wedge deep into American society, brought about a highly unusual alliance as it wound down. Though the Nixon administration was pursuing a policy of “Vietnamization” and steady troop withdrawal by 1971, collapsing troop morale and the anti-war “GI movement” among soldiers led the president to seek changes to the draft law to increase enrollment. On January 28, 1971, upon the urging of Curtis W. Tarr, the director of Selective Service (the independent government agency that administers military conscription), President Nixon called upon Congress to abolish deferments for divinity students as part of a draft policy overhaul. If this passed in both the House and Senate, then yeshivah students would be instantly eligible for the draft.
Perceiving the full implications of this bill for yeshivah students, Rabbi Moshe Sherer, president of Agudath Israel of America, sprang into action. What followed was three months of intense lobbying and networking with religious leaders across the spectrum, both Jewish and non-Jewish. Catholic bishops, Protestant ministers, and divinity school leadership from every denomination within the Jewish community were all contacted by Rabbi Sherer, Rabbi Herman Neuberger, and their team, in hopes of garnering widespread support that would ensure the divinity school draft proposal died in committee.
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