The IDF since 2014 has been using new methodology to check chareidim who apply for deferment from military service based on their lifestyle which includes limud Torah. A comprehensive Ynet report based on Facebook findings, no less than 4,000 ‘chareidim’ ages 17-24 who were given a deferment are not chareidi, but maintaining a secular lifestyle.

These people are however dressing up as chareidim and receiving deferments as members of the chareidi community when in fact a growing number of non-frum citizens IDF officials explain, adding they are evading military service for one reason or another but have ceased leading a chareidi lifestyle. Ynet reports they were once chareidim but today, not maintaining a frum lifestyle. Officially speaking, these 4,000 failed to meet the criteria to learn 45 hours weekly and as a result, their draft deferments were revoked. These are people who were raised chareidi but are no longer following that lifestyle.

The new reality for them is they must serve in the IDF and most have already received draft orders, with some already serving. Manpower Branch officials report hundreds of them have already filed an appeal against the decision to revoke their draft deferment. For some of those who appealed, they were able to prove they are engaged in limud torah for at least 45 hours weekly and their deferment from service was reinstated. A small number of the group were arrested by military police after refusing to enter the military after ordered to do so.

The IDF is using private detective agencies to assist, as they have been doing to randomly to check frum girls given approval for Sheirut Leumi because of their religious lifestyles. In some cases, the detectives follow the girls for a period of time and determine in fact, the girls who claimed to maintain a religious lifestyle are not religious at all.

Soldiers from the Manpower Branch began checking Facebook pages of chareidim who have been released from military service and in thousands of cases, these ‘chareidim’ do maintain a presence in social media platforms and they uploaded photos of them at the beach, “not exactly dressed as chareidim” as the report puts it.

Ynet explains persons in the Manpower Branch are well-aware that many of the chareidim who receive a draft deferment do maintain social media pages and they are out their combing these pages for information that points to their lifestyle. They have learned many who maintain Facebook pages are not exactly sitting in beis medrash 45 hours weekly as they are compelled to do in order to comply with the terms of their deferment. In each case in which a deferment is canceled, the person does have the right of appeal.

A Manpower Branch source quoted anonymously adds “We are interested in permitting those who are in school to remain there but we enter yeshivos and some are simply not really there. We have always had enforcement but now, we are using social media including Facebook and with the era of smartphones, we can do real detective work that was not possible in the past. When a youth appears with pants that are far from his shoes you realize they aren’t his pants and then when we look on Facebook, we see he has many friends who are just like him”.

The youth’s false declaration being a religious Jew is a crime but the IDF is not filing with police for the IDF is not interested in this. “We aren’t looking to flood the police with complaints” the official states.

The report states that talmidim of over 1,000 different yeshivos in the chareidi and Zionist camp and kollels were found to be lying about their religious lifestyle. Warning letters from the IDF were sent to each of these persons before canceling their deferment seeking clarification.

(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)