Haredi, Harvard, Home Front Command: The enigma of Moshe Arbel

Interior Minister Moshe Arbel of Shas is unlike many other Israeli politicians.

For one thing, he doesn’t particularly want to be a politician, and doesn’t have higher political aspirations. If it were up to him, he would be far from the public eye, working on his doctorate in law or spending time with his family.

For another, at the outbreak of the Israel-Hamas war on October 7, Arbel requested of party leader MK Arye Deri to relieve him of the dual duties of interior minister and health minister and leave him just with the former, due to the immense workload of running these two major ministries during wartime. Power and influence are currency for politicians, and who else in Israel’s political scene today volunteers to give up a major ministry?

“I see myself in the political arena as a reservist and not a career officer,” Arbel said. His use of military jargon is also rare for a haredi politician – indeed, Arbel served in the IDF and in the reserves for years until he became a member of Knesset.

He said he is “not motivated by survivability,” and that it does not matter to him whether he serves another term in politics or not. As a result, he is focused not on reaping short-term achievements but “preparing the ministry’s foundations” so that, when he “hands the keys over” to his successor, the ministry will be better than it is now. “The State of Israel needs people who enter public roles with modesty and with the understanding that they have not conquered territory but are there to serve the public,” he said.

Moshe Arbel's political, rabbinic, and IDF career

ARBEL, 40, is a father of four and lives in Petah Tikva. Public service runs in the family, as his father served on the Petah Tikva Religious Council and was a Shas activist. But Arbel himself was a full-time Torah student until his mid-twenties, and was ordained as a rabbi. He then joined the IDF Home Front Command in a unit responsible for identifying corpses; earned bachelor’s and master’s degrees in law from the Ono Academic College; served in the IDF reserves as a military prosecutor; earned a business administration certificate from Harvard University; and began a doctorate in law at Reichman University.

Following the 2013 national election, Arbel served as a legal adviser for Shas, as a legislation adviser to then Knesset member and current Labor Minister Yoav Ben-Tzur, and as a chief of staff for Deri. In April 2023 he was appointed as both health minister and interior minister, after Deri was blocked from the positions due to previous criminal convictions.

The Jerusalem Post interviewed Arbel in his Knesset office on April 8, and the first issue to be discussed was the ongoing crisis over the haredi exemption from IDF service. As both a longtime haredi yeshiva student and a long-serving IDF reservist, Arbel’s perspective is important.

His approach can be summarized as follows: The IDF has a real need for soldiers, and haredi men who do not study Torah full-time should commit to IDF or other national service. At the same time, Torah study isn’t just a spiritual vocation but an enterprise of national importance.

Arbel called this “the national story of a group of Torah students... who labor day and night over the Torah,” out of which will grow “great Torah [scholars] with broad shoulders.” According to Arbel, these “broad-shouldered” talents are necessary in order to uphold the tradition of “the power of leniency,” a leading policy in the halachic rulings of former Sephardi chief rabbi and Shas spiritual leader Rabbi Ovadia Yosef.

“The day where we enter the debate with the deep understanding that there is a national, ethical duty to maintain these Torah students, along with the duty to maintain an economic, military, and socially prosperous state, we can create an ecosystem of understanding that does not wish to erase the identity of the other side,” Arbel said.

This fundamental premise is more important than the details of a specific haredi conscription plan, he added.

Furthermore, Arbel argued that enabling haredi men to serve in the IDF while maintaining their lifestyle is a liberal value as well – IDF service isn’t just a duty, it is also a right. The IDF currently does this “sufficiently” and should continue doing so, he said. He stressed that yeshiva students who were not actually studying and who were “catching a ride” on the blanket exemption should serve in the IDF like all other citizens.

Arbel’s approach regarding Torah study and IDF service reflects a broader view on haredi education in general. He explained that the major haredi school systems teach a core secular curriculum of some form, but that this needs to be expanded and improved. His son, for example, studied at a haredi high school yeshiva, which combined long hours of Torah study with full matriculation exams. There are many such initiatives sprouting up, and “good things are happening” – but the state needs to facilitate this – for example, by lowering the high costs of the institutions that offer these sorts of combinations.

Arbel didn’t rule out giving haredi teens the option of studying Torah full-time. He himself studied only Torah in his teens and completed matriculation requirements later on, and the years of Torah study granted him a work ethic and analytic skills that served him later on in life. But such a system is not appropriate for everyone and should not be forced on haredi teens who aren’t equipped for it, he argued.

ARBEL’S WORK in the Interior Ministry has garnered praise from both sides of the political divide, and the ministry was favorably mentioned for its work following the October 7 Hamas massacre.

Asked about this, Arbel was quick to give credit to the ministry workers. He explained that the ministry includes three branches and described its adaptations post-October 7 in each branch. These changes led to a learning process that led to broader initiatives not just related to war.

The three branches are the local authorities; immigration and citizenship; and urban planning and development.

Following October 7, the local authorities required receiving special powers and funding, especially those whose residents were attacked and/or evacuated. On the issue of immigration and citizenship, many of these evacuees left their homes without their passports or other identification papers, and the ministry created roaming emergency offices that went to hotels in order to provide services for the evacuees. Finally, on the issue of urban planning and development, Arbel had the ministry pass temporary executive orders to cut bureaucracy in order to speedily construct new schools and medical centers for the evacuees.

In the days and weeks after the massacre, some of the survivors were traumatized to the extent that they were not willing to leave their hotel rooms in order to meet with the roaming immigration offices. This led Arbel to wonder why they could not order new documents online, and he worked with the defense and other authorities to begin providing this service, whose pilot is set to begin at the end of April. Wait times in Israel for immigration services such as renewing a passport are notoriously long, and the ability to order a new passport online could drastically improve this. The idea to enable online documentation orders was an example of how the ministry’s ad hoc adaptation to war needs led to broader initiatives, Arbel explained.

He said he also puts a specific emphasis on services to Arab municipalities.

“On the day I entered office I said that we must understand that we are public servants of all of the citizens of Israel – those who voted for us and those who didn’t, even those who are acting against us,” Arbel said.

He added that at a certain point when there were protesters outside of his home, he said to his children that he is happy to live in a country in which people can protest outside the homes of elected officials, which is not to be taken for granted.

Dealing with Arab municipalities includes unique challenges – a major one, for example, was Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich refusing in 2023 to channel NIS 200 million of funding due to the concern that it could end up in the hands of criminal organizations. Arbel confronted Smotrich and succeeded in getting the funds through. In some rare cases, there were also management problems, such as certain families who won the municipal election refusing to provide services to other families. Arbel added that “good things” are happening in Arab local authorities, citing as an example the town Jatt near Haifa, which elected in the recent municipal election a young engineer who is unaffiliated with large families. This shows that residents understand the importance of proper governance aimed first and foremost at improving their daily lives.

Arbel views local authorities as key factors in bridging social gaps. “The goal of local authorities is to break through cement ceilings,” he said. Socioeconomic gaps in Israel are unacceptably high for a country the size of a district in California, and correct investment by municipalities, such as in fundamental aspects of formal and informal education – schoolrooms, teachers, hot meals, etc. – could serve as the basis for real social mobility, which Arbel said is “one of the most significant tools in our national resilience.”

The war between Russia and Ukraine and the rise in antisemitism worldwide since October 7 has led to increased interest by Diaspora Jews in moving to Israel. Another notable initiative that Arbel mentioned was creating an “aliyah eligibility document.” What happens, Arbel explained, is that potential olim sometimes express interest in moving to Israel but do not follow through with the process, such that if they want to renew it later on they will have to start afresh. Instead, Arbel proposed enabling these families to complete all of the necessary paperwork without actually making the move – and thus enabling them to make aliyah immediately in the future if they wish.

Arbel preferred not to express his views on the situation in Gaza and the public debate about how much Israel should concede in a hostage deal. But perhaps more important than his work in the Interior Ministry and his support of haredi enlistment is his sympathy for the families of the hostages.

He said he is concerned by criticism that ministers had not met enough with the families of hostages since the war broke out, and said that he meets at least once a week with a family. The meetings are difficult, and the families are experiencing immense pain and anger, but as a government minister Arbel said he does not have the right to avoid the families. He added that he “allows himself to cry with the families,” and that his moral duty is “first and foremost to see their pain.”