Haredi communities are changing: Now its boys are proud to wear the IDF uniform - opinion

On Remembrance Day six years ago, I was filmed speaking to my hassidic students in the study hall of HaMidrasha HaChassidit yeshiva high school in Betar Illit, about the importance of acknowledging this holy day. The video went viral on YouTube. 

Today, I am proud to report that the 13 ultra-Orthodox Netzach Educational Network day schools which have grown out of that midrasha held Remembrance Day events this year. 

In our kindergartens, children lit candles and said psalms for those who lost their lives. In our elementary schools, pupils were given the names of fallen soldiers to research and created a memorial room to display the profiles they wrote. In our hassidic yeshiva high schools, boys attended classes given by their yeshiva heads and learned Mishna in memory of those who were killed defending Israel.

The ultra-Orthodox world is changing. For the first time this year, the Beit Shemesh municipality – now headed by ultra-Orthodox Mayor Shmuel Greenberg – held the city’s first Remembrance Day ceremony with a hazan and a hassidic choir. (We are proud to partner with this municipality with six of our schools in Beit Shemesh.)

A history of violence against Jews 

This is an evolutionary change rather than a revolution, with changes already noticeable before the October 7 pogrom. 

Pogroms are a familiar part of Jewish history – they are part of our DNA as victims of antisemitism throughout the centuries. But on October 7, for the first time, the Israel Defense Forces were able to fight back against and actual pogrom, and our holy soldiers have been battling with Hamas ever since.

My own role in the war for the IDF Home Front Command has been in recruiting ultra-Orthodox men to serve in non-combat roles in what is known as Shlav Bet. Their numbers are small but significant because they reflect a change in attitudes. In communities where IDF uniforms used to be spat upon, they are now worn with pride. 

Following terror attacks in Har Nof, Ramot, Bnei Brak, and Elad, groups of ultra-Orthodox men have signed up to join local armed defense teams and undergone basic training. It is no longer shocking to see a hassid in his Shabbat clothes and shtreimel carrying a machine gun to defend his family, his community, and yes, his country. 

Since October 7, our schools have taken on a wide range of hessed activities – organizing accommodation, running activities, and distributing groceries to displaced families from the North and the South; tying tzitzit onto IDF vests; volunteering on farms that need workers; visiting parents who are sitting shiva for their sons killed in battle; and delivering gifts to women whose husbands are serving in the IDF. 

For the first time, ultra-Orthodox high school students are thinking about what it means for parents to lose a son in battle, or for a mother to send her husband off to war and have to look after her children by herself for weeks and months. They are reflecting on what it means to make sacrifices for our country.

Gratitude is one of the important Jewish values. We try to reflect it in our schools and in our lives. It is one of the cornerstones of our programs for Remembrance Day, and we can see increased levels of gratitude toward the IDF all across the ultra-Orthodox community in Israel. 

However, showing gratitude is not enough. We want our students to see themselves as full participants in the Israeli nation, which means that we share the pain and acknowledge the sacrifice of our brothers and sisters. We cannot stand by as their blood cries out from the ground. Since 2018, we have taken the lead on this issue and encouraged the ultra-Orthodox community to find acceptable ways to commemorate Remembrance Day and to become more engaged citizens on every level.

The Netzach Educational Network has been asked by the Education Ministry to develop an entire civic studies curriculum, customized to include ultra-Orthodox values, and this will be shared with 74 state-regulated haredi elementary schools around Israel. It focuses on core values such as the rule of law, mutual responsibility, and respect for others, and it encourages students to appreciate what it means to be citizens of a Jewish state. 

OUR DARKEI-SARA girls high school in Jerusalem has developed a transformative program of visits to significant sites around Israel that tell the story of the establishment of the State of Israel out of the ashes of the Holocaust. It encourages the students to develop gratitude for the pioneers who gave their lives for our country, and to those who continue to defend our borders.

Concurrently, our network is pioneering an innovative Social Emotional Learning (SEL) curriculum with the teachers across all 13 of our day schools, to help address the emotional needs of their students and answer difficult questions that are typically brushed aside in ultra-Orthodox schools. 

Next year, we will introduce SEL classes for all of our students, helping them to become more empathetic in their interactions with their peers, and teaching them how to connect with people from different backgrounds as they integrate into Israeli society.

Soon after October 7, we published a list of the Hebrew names of 12 Netzach graduates who were fighting on the front lines in the Gaza war. Some of these boys were present in HaMidrasha HaChassidit when I gave my first class about Remembrance Day in 2018. I am extremely proud of them, and of the other graduates who have served their country in other ways and who are studying to become doctors, engineers, lawyers, and accountants. 

It is my hope and dream that all of our graduates will go on to play an active role in Israeli society, influencing their ultra-Orthodox peers – and perhaps even joining the next generation of haredi political leaders that we so desperately need. 

May the memory of each and every one of those who have been killed al kiddush Hashem (as martyrs) be blessed, and may they inspire us to build a more unified and caring society.

The writer is the founder and president of the Netzach Educational Network, an educational entrepreneur, media spokesman for Israel’s haredi communities, and winner of the 2023 Jerusalem Unity Prize for Education.