The IDF’s push to recruit Charedi men into special military tracks has failed miserably thus far, with only 338 out of 10,000 eligible Charedi men joining the military since July, the army announced Tuesday. This marks a compliance rate of less than 3%—a steep drop from the 10% seen in the summer’s initial batch of 3,000 summons.
The IDF’s target for 2024 was to enlist an additional 3,000 Charedi men, bringing the annual total to 4,800 draftees. Even if achieved, this would leave 60,000 to 80,000 eligible men unconscripted, but would represent progress – at least in the IDF’s view.
Despite intensified efforts, the low turnout underscores the influence of Roshei Yeshiva and Rabbanim who have paskened that Charedim must resist the draft as lawmakers debate legislation that could delay sanctions for noncompliance by up to seven years.
The government faces mounting pressure from the High Court of Justice, which ruled in April to restrict funding to yeshivas that fail to meet draft requirements. Additional childcare subsidies for non-compliant families are also at risk of termination in February. However, the government has offset these financial pressures by channeling funds into Charedi kehillos through alternative means.
The IDF has largely refrained from enforcing draft orders, avoiding large-scale arrests and deferring to the government to resolve broader societal tensions.
Of the 338 recruits, 211 entered combat roles while 127 joined support units. Many were placed in the newly-formed Chashmonean Brigade and northern upkeep units. The Netzach Yehuda battalion and select units in the Givati and Paratroopers brigades also absorbed new recruits.
The IDF says expects further enlistment throughout January but remains uncertain about the scale of participation.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
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3 Responses
I don’t like the headline.
At a time where 100’s of our brothers are dying in war, and 1000’s are injured.
The least the Yeshiva world can show is empathy, instead of more division
Cool picture showing three soldiers wearing “moshiach yarmalkas”.
Recently HaModia published an interview with HaGaon Rav Avraham Yitzchak HaCohen Kook, Rosh Yeshivas Maor HaTalmud of Rehovot. Two significant things came out in the interview: A former talmid of his now runs an organization to support shmita observant farmers. Of the ninety such farmers in the area surrounding Gaza, not one suffered any personal or property damage in the attacks of Simchas Torah, even though their neighbors didn’t have it nearly as good. He also told of an army unit with just one Chareidi solder. Before the unit once went out on a mission, the commander told the Chareidi solder that the mission was expected to take three hours to accomplish, and the Chareidi soldier was not to join them on the mission but rather to stay on the base and say Tehillim and daven for them. An hour later he came back and said that in the merit of that soldier’s prayers, the mission had been accomplished in a third of the time it was expected to take, and from then on whenever they went out on missions the Chareidi soldier was going to stay behind and daven for them.
Another anecdote: Last winter I went a number of times to the kever of the tzaddik R’ Gedalia Moshe of Zhvil in the old Beis Olam near the Knesset, who promised to intercede on behalf of anyone who would visit his kever on successive Monday, Thursday and Monday and say a given seder of Tehillim. One day, I think it was a Thursday, there was a big commotion from the women’s side of the mechitza, which I didn’t appreciate at the time, not liking to be disturbed by a lot of women’s voices. Then later in the day my wife heard from a friend of hers who had been there at the time what the commotion was about: A woman from a secular kibbutz came and reported that, in spite of being totally secular, she had come done the whole seder and on the evening of the second Monday her son had been released from captivity in Gaza.
IMHO this deserves a lot more publicity, and indeed all the demonstrators on behalf of the captives should be told that the fate of the captives depends much more on their tefillos than on their demonstrations and pressure on the government.