seminary

Gallant was also unhappy at plans to continue to allow Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students to be exempt from serving in the military.

He studied at a Jesuit seminary before heading to Johns Hopkins University to pursue a degree in medieval French.

The Israeli Supreme Court ruled in June that the state must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish seminary students into the army.

He then traveled to a seminary in Najaf, Iraq, for religious studies, but two years later he and other Shiite students and clerics were expelled by Saddam Hussein’s government.

But the politically powerful ultra-Orthodox have traditionally received exemptions if they are studying full-time in religious seminaries.