Draft of Ultra-Orthodox into IDF Off to a Smooth Start

JTA

Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu greets Orthodox soldiers in the Nahal Haredi unit.

The controversy had sparked a national debate, raucous protests in the streets and the collapse of a historic government. That came in the months after the Israeli Supreme Court had nullified a law exempting haredi Orthodox Israelis from military service and given the government until Aug. 1 to draft a replacement law.

More than one week after the law’s implementation, the Israel Defense Forces has yet to encounter any significant problems in putting haredi men through the draft process, according to a military source with knowledge of the issue.

The IDF had no official comment on the new process.

In previous weeks, thousands of haredim had gathered in the streets, holding protest signs declaring that they would rather spend their lives in prison than serve in the “Zionist army.” Another protest in Tel Aviv declared that secular Israelis, who had always served, would no longer be “suckers.”

But political stalemate won out. No law was passed and a broad government coalition created to solve this issue broke up.

The day before the Aug. 1 deadline, Defense Minister Ehud Barak sent out a news release stating that the IDF had one month to formulate guidelines on haredi military service that would accord with the Military Service Law of 1986, which subjects haredim to the same service requirements as all other Jewish Israelis. Haredim have been subject to the law since Aug. 1, and will be until the Knesset passes a new law on haredi service.

Under the 1986 law, 18-year-old haredi boys — until now exempt from the military draft while studying in a yeshiva — are eligible for the draft; their summons may come even before their 18th birthday. The penalty for refusing the summons: three years in prison.

The law includes a clause on religious exemptions from military service for women who observe Shabbat and keep kosher, but they do not apply to men. Men up to the age of 26 may be drafted, haredi or not.

Now haredi men born in 1994 and 1995 are or soon will be undergoing competency tests in math, Hebrew and general knowledge, as would any draftee. The first language of many haredim is Yiddish, not Hebrew, and their schools do not focus on math or general studies.

The military source could not give any details on the formulation of guidelines for haredi enlistment, but said the monthlong period was granted in part to allow the army time to prepare for absorbing thousands of haredi soldiers.

According to Haaretz, there are 54,000 haredi men of enlistment age who have not served in the IDF.

But even as the protests have died down, observers on both sides of the issue do not expect the controversy to be solved or a new law to be passed anytime soon.

“Right now there’s not a general feeling that something major is going to happen because of the political consternation,” said Rabbi Jonathan Rosenblum, a columnist for Mishpacha magazine, a major haredi publication.

Rosenblum, of Jerusalem, said that when the coalition broke up, “the sense of panic diminished considerably” in the haredi world.

Although the Military Service Law is in effect, Rosenblum was not worried that any of his seven sons, including a 17-year-old, would be putting on a uniform. Would the IDF be “subjecting them to military trial and imprisonment? No, I don’t think so,” he said. “I don’t think the government has a plan. There was nobody who was talking about putting people in jail.”

During government negotiations on a new law on the matter last month, the major proposals suggested fines for draft dodging, while others eschewed the idea of personal penalties.

A leading official in Hiddush, an Israeli organization that advocates for religious pluralism and equality, also does not expect new legislation — and a haredi draft with teeth — to move forward soon, despite his best hopes.

“The government won’t draft one yeshiva student,” said Shahar Ilan, Hiddush’s vice president. “The government isn’t doing anything. “This is a huge violation of the law.”

Ilan said that though most of the Knesset wants to see a new law enacted, no one is willing to take the necessary political risks.

“Netanyahu does not want to hurt the haredi parties” in his coalition, Ilan said. “There’s a majority for a mandatory draft but it’s theoretical because the parties that support a mandatory draft are not ready to break up the government for it.”

Rosenblum said that even were such a law to pass, the IDF would not have the resources or will to absorb so many haredi youth, whose strict observance of Jewish law puts them in special circumstances.

“There’s no way in the world that the vast majority of haredi boys are going to go into mixed units,” he said. “There’s no way in the world that the army is going to put in place haredi-accommodating units within 30 days.”

13 Comments

  • see

    was that so hard? its about time everyone pitched in and did their fair share!

    wait, millhouse has words of brilliance. NOT, BARF.

  • non starter

    From the text of the article it sounds like this is a non-starter, not a smooth start as stated in your headline.

  • Milhouse

    Learning Torah *is* the yeshivah bochurim’s fair share. So said the Rebbe, so how can anybody who calls himself a Lubavitcher disagree?

  • Throw the bums out!!

    If they won’t obey the laws of their country throw them all out!
    Deport them to Tibet the Dalai Lama loves students there.

  • Milhouse

    #5, First of all, nobody has the right to throw any Jew out of Eretz Yisroel. The land does not belong to the state, and nobody gave them the right to establish their state there. The land belongs to all Jews, and all Jews have the right to live there.

    And where does this avoda zara for the laws of the country come from? Did the Alter Rebbe obey the laws of his country? Did the Mitteler Rebbe or any of the rabbeim? Did the Frierdiker Rebbe? Does Oholei Torah obey the laws of the country? What kind of religion do you have?

    The Gemoroh is clear that learning Torah protects the nation and enables the military to have its victories. And the Rebbe was very clear that the main protection comes from the learners, NOT from the soldiers. The Rebbe said “yoser mimah shebaal habayis oseh im ho’oni, oni oseh im baal habayis”, and explained that the full-time learners are the baal habayis, who is giving protection and success to the soldiers, who are the oni in this moshol. But the oni also has a maalah over the baal habayis, which in this case is the mesirus nefesh that the soldiers have. So we see that an IDF soldier is also a fine thing to be, but it is SECOND to being a full-time learner. Only one who isn’t suited for full-time learning (and I mean real learning, not batteling) should go to the army. That is the Rebbe’s opinion, so how can anybody who calls himself a Lubavitcher dare to disagree?

  • Need both

    In the American Army, there is a saying,“If you don’t have people praying, those bullets don’t shoot.” If this true of a goyishe military, how much more so a Jewish one!
    So, if CH”V, all Haredi are distracted from their religious duties because of military imposition, then how can we expect to win a war?

  • Milhouse

    #7, You are an am ho’oretz. Since when is “dino” something you have to obey? And since when have Lubavitchers EVER let the law get in the way of doing the right thing? Did the Alter Rebbe obey the law? Did the Frierdiker Rebbe? Did the Rebbe obey the law when he founded Oholei Torah?

  • To Milhouse

    You sure can not rely on Torah study alone to protect Israel. That does not mean that Torah is not a protection. You need both, a real army and torah study.
    The thing is that in the Hareidi system everyone has to go through the yeshivah even those who just sit in Yeshiva and warm their seats. The sad reality is that “Torah Umonoso” although it is praise worthy is not for everyone. And if someone is just warming his chair in yeshivah he should get a job. It is OK for someone to remain frum and WORK. For that matter it is OK for someone to remian frum and go to the Nahal Hareidi division of the IDF if they are wasting their time in Yeshivah. Today if someone does not fit the Yeshivah mold he becomes an outcast and goes to work or to the secular division of the IDF and sadly drops everything. We need to encourage those who can not sit and learn Torah all day to be part of society but you can and should remain frum.

  • Milhouse

    #10, stop with the straw men. Nobody has suggested that every single Jew must spend his entire time learning Torah and the army should be empty. You are making up a stupid argument, in order to avoid addressing the issue that is currently on the table, which is the attempt by wicked people to force ALL bochurim to leave their gemoros and serve in the army, contrary to the Torah, the Gemoroh, and most importantly (for us) contrary to the Rebbe’s clear directions. Yes, we need both an army and learners; right now we have far more soldiers than learners, so maybe we should draft some of the soldiers to learn instead, rather than the other way around. The attempt to draft the bnei torah is an open war against the Torah. Not only is the purpose to destroy people’s yiddishkeit, since large numbers who go to the army fall off from their level, and if 18-year-olds are forced to go then they will be less prepared and less mature and even more will fall away; but also it represents an expllicit declaration that the Torah is not a protection. Those who are doing MORE THAN THE SOLDIERS to protect the nation are being told that they’re “not doing their share”! What sense does that make? They’re doing MORE than their share. The army should be THANKING them, and instead they’re being insulted and called parasites.

    And after they’ve been learning for three, five, ten years and they want to leave and get a job, the law prevents them because they still “haven’t done their share”; that’s a chutzpah. They have done so much more than those who go to the army, that their service should really be SHORTER than that of most soldiers, but at least it should be no longer, or at the very least five years of learning, or eight, should count and they should be able to get jobs.

  • Milhouse

    Remember also that there are MANY CASES of soldiers being forced to do aveiros. You cannot guarantee that your yiddishkeit will be safe in the army. It is a place of pritzus, and someone whose commitment is shaky should not go. Even someone whose commitment is firm will be faced with situations where he is ordered to do aveiros such as listening to kol isha, or breaking shabbos for non-pikuach-nefesh, or being worked to a state of great hunger and then confronted with a kitchen from which no yerei shomayim can eat. This requires mesirus nefesh, which not everyone has. A soldier must know that when he is ordered to do an aveira he must refuse the order and risk punishment.

  • Millhouse hit on target (pun intended)

    There can be no doubt that a bochur – ANYONE – exposed to the taavahs, rampant in the military, is in danger of succumbing.
    We, the Frum, already have problems with electronic images, via television, internet, etc. Be in an environment where you have the real thing?! CH”V what can happen.