Israel’s Ultra-Orthodox Jews Are at a Crossroads as Military-Draft Orders Arrive
Push to enlist Israel’s Haredi Jews comes as the military struggles to boost its ranks while fighting a multifront battle
RAMAT GAN, Israel—Yechiel Wais was so excited to join the Israeli military that he couldn’t sleep the night before he went to a military enlistment site this week. The 19-year-old from an ultra-Orthodox family hoped to join an Air Force unit that loads munitions onto planes.
At a military recruitment center a few miles away, Shlomo Roth, also 19 and ultra-Orthodox, said he burned the last draft letter he received as he stood with a group protesting against the military’s enlistment of men from this self-secluding corner of Israeli society.
“For us, being in the army is worse than death,” Roth said.
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews, or Haredim as they prefer to be called, are at a critical juncture. So is the Israeli military, which, after a June Supreme Court ruling, is now aiming to draft some 3,000 Haredi men who had previously been exempted if they studied Jewish holy texts in religious seminaries full-time.
Despite the interest shown by young men like Wais, most Haredi leaders fear the military is a melting pot that will pull ultra-Orthodox men into mainstream Israeli culture. The military might soon have to decide how to handle large-scale draft dodging at a time when its struggle for additional manpower has been exacerbated by the nearly yearlong war in Gaza.
About 300 men from Haredi and religious backgrounds enlisted alongside Wais on Monday, a special day the military arranged for religious recruits. But most Haredim are still resisting draft, even with the deadline for their conscription expected by year’s end.
In mid-August, Israel’s military said only 48 of the first 900 ultra-Orthodox youths who received the court-mandated draft orders appeared at an induction center to complete their initial evaluations. In the past, most Haredi men would appear and receive an exemption, said Israel Cohen, a political commentator for a Haredi radio station. But the community is now hardening its position. Before the June court ruling only extremist fringes of Haredi society pushed men to avoid contact with the military, he said.
“Today all of the Haredi mainstream says this,” he said, referring to rabbinical leadership that leads Israel’s various Haredi communities. “It is a de facto extreme step.”
The debate around Haredi enlistment comes as the military struggles to boost its ranks, stretched by fighting in Gaza, on Israel’s northern border with Lebanon and in an expanding front in the West Bank. Last month the military said it was recalling thousands of discharged reservists back into service, and the Defense Ministry is pushing legislation to increase mandatory-service minimums and reserve-duty commitments.
The push is also igniting long-simmering tensions between ultra-Orthodox society and the largely secular Israeli state. Haredi communities argue they contribute to Israel’s Jewish soul and provide protection through prayer. Mainstream Israelis feel resentful that they leave the burden for building Israel’s economy and security to others.
“There is a huge chunk of society for which nothing’s changed, Oct. 7 never happened,” said Uri Keidar, who served as a reservist for five months in Gaza after the Hamas-led attack on Israel that day. He heads an Israeli civil-society organization that seeks to reduce religious sway over the state. “The contrast is so stark at the moment,” he said.
Haredi participation in broader Israeli society is an increasingly urgent matter. The group is one of the population’s fastest-growing. Out of the 1.3 million ultra-Orthodox Jews living in Israel today, about 80,000 are men of draft age. By 2050, experts say ultra-Orthodox men will represent 41% of Israel’s potential draft base, putting further pressure on the issue for a solution.
Moti Kaminshtein, 27 and Haredi himself, is working to persuade his coreligionists to join the military.
“I don’t say that every Haredi has to enlist,” he said. “I say that enlisting in the army doesn’t hurt being Haredi.”
To avoid running afoul of rabbinical leadership, Kaminshtein and the program he works with don’t push men still engaged in religious study. But he said he believes it is possible to remain Haredi while serving. “We show them that there is a good way to do something good for Israel,” he said.
Kaminshtein said he escorted about 150 men from ultra-Orthodox Jewish backgrounds to their enlistment on Monday with a group he runs called Tahles, which translates to bottom line.
Shortly before midnight on Sunday, the military told the conscripts to report the next morning to a park ground outside Tel Aviv to begin their enlistment procedures to head off harassment. The few who did walk through the base’s gates were greeted by groups of Haredi protesters screaming “traitor” and demanding they remove their kipot—or skull caps—markers for observant Jews.
The military has made some efforts over the years to attract ultra-Orthodox recruits, from creating special units for religious soldiers with support infrastructure to launching campaigns to entice men in under the premise it would help them build a career. But experts say that fewer than 2,000 soldiers today are from an ultra-Orthodox background, many of whom have subsequently become less religious.
“They didn’t really come,” said Yossi Klar, who formerly served as a member of the military’s Haredi recruitment unit.
The war changed the military’s approach toward ultra-Orthodox recruits, which weren’t previously seen as a priority. Directives from the top pushed the Israel Defense Forces to redouble efforts to bring in Haredim, and made it more willing to put in the investment to accommodate their lifestyle. “We got to the point that the IDF needs them and wants them,” said a defense official involved with Haredi enlistment.
The official said that the military just opened two new programs for Haredi recruits, including the Air Force unit that Wais is joining. She said efforts to personally call Haredi youth and explain their options have boosted interest, but protests and social pressure remain obstacles. “There is a will, but there is doubt,” the official said.
It is still unclear how both Haredi youth and the military will handle widespread draft dodging. The military’s general process is to send about three appearance orders before beginning a legal procedure, and if someone is declared a deserter, they can be blocked from leaving Israel or arrested.
The tension, among Haredim and in the country at large, is unmistakable.
“We are a state in war, in an existential war,” said Wais, moments before boarding a bus to join the military.
Carrying placards decrying attempts to draw Haredi society into Israel’s mainstream, Roth and his fellow protesters said the same