On the haredi draft: Israelis are no longer tolerating the current situation - opinion

As a child, I used to look up to haredim as the perfect example of what a Jew should be.

I came from a newly Orthodox home, and the haredim (ultra-Orthodox) I encountered in New York in the 1980s served as role models, filling in the blanks and gaps in my own Jewish identity. I went to haredi schools, and to this day I am grateful to the rabbis there who taught me what it was to be a Yid.

I would often spend Shabbat at the Yeshiva of Staten Island, which served as both a high school and a kollel for older married men dedicated to studying Torah. The haredi community is known for its distinctive features, and non-Orthodox Jews and ba’alei teshuva (newly Orthodox individuals) easily stuck out in numerous ways. I am continually amazed by how oblivious I was to those cues.

Despite my noticeable differences, I was warmly welcomed and made to feel like a part of the haredi community. The older boys went out of their way to ensure that I felt included and accepted. I was never made to feel “less than” or inferior in any way.

I have a vivid memory of the Pepsi machine where boys could buy cold drinks. In those days, a can of Pepsi cost 50 cents, and the vending machine did not accept dollar bills. A coffee can next to the machine was filled with quarters. People took four quarters and would leave a dollar bill in the can so that they had change for the machine. As a 10-year-old, I remember being amazed at how the money was left there on an honor system, confident that the boys would not take the quarters for themselves.

Then it dawned on me: “This is a yeshiva. Of course they would never do that!” It all made sense.

These same boys would walk over an hour on Shabbat morning to our synagogue to help make a minyan, read from the Torah when necessary, or simply add some excitement to our Simchat Torah celebrations.

They were role models whom I admired. I’m certain that while my parents deserve most of the credit, if I had received a Modern Orthodox education alone, deprived of these experiences, rabbis, and acceptance, I wouldn’t be religious today, let alone live in Israel.

I owe my soul, and my children’s, to the haredim I met in my youth. There will yet be generations of Jews because of their influence.

I SHARE these memories because they are not unique to me but have been experienced for decades by many others across countless communities. It is because of these warm memories, and the love I have for haredim, that I write about the haredi draft.

I am well aware that the haredim in the Diaspora are different from the community in Israel, but the warmth, sincerity, and dedication to Judaism are the same.

Will haredim draft?

In the past, the haredi exemption from the draft was a question of fairness alone. Why should one population spend two to three years of their lives in the army, risking their lives, delaying their education and entry to the workforce, while the other sits and studies? And if it were an issue of fairness alone, I would remain silent in my gratitude for the special role haredim play in preserving Jewish life.

And while the present war, which has claimed the lives of hundreds of soldiers, has exacerbated the question of fairness, this is not about justice. My point is not to demand that haredi blood be spilled in equal numbers to the rest of the population, God forbid.

The problem is twofold. The first is that we need more soldiers. The IDF estimates that an additional 10,000 soldiers are needed to fill its ranks. Even if the war ends tomorrow with total victory, we will be going in and out of Gaza, fighting terror in Judea and Samaria, beefing up the borders of Lebanon, and now Syria, for at least the next decade. The lack of manpower translates to more days of reserve duty and a thinning of the IDF’s ranks, preventing it from fulfilling its mission.

IDF service would pave the way for the haredi population to enter the workforce and begin accumulating capital for themselves while generating tax revenue for the state. We desperately need this tax revenue to fund this war and bolster defense expenditures in the coming decades.

Many Israelis are no longer tolerating the current situation, and I fear that they are beginning to harbor hatred toward the haredim. This is not merely a matter of religious versus secular differences. Much of the religious public has proven its ability to balance Torah learning and observance with army service, and is in the forefront of the ongoing protests. I fear not only the hatred but also the creation of a real schism that will not be healed.

Recently, Rabbi Tamir Granot – head of the hesder yeshiva Orot Shaul, which integrates yeshiva studies with army service – released a brilliant video imploring our haredi brothers to join the army.

Rabbi Granot, who lost his son Amitai at the onset of the war, offers the haredim a road map to military service that would be exclusive to them and would not require them to surrender or yield anything in their practice or customs. His address should be published and studied for decades to come as a tour de force of a Jewish vision of war and law.However, while his video was widely distributed in Israel, the very people for whom it was intended ignored it. Of course, they did. They do not regard the rabbis of the National Religious community as rabbis, never mind leaders. At best, they are considered learned heretics.

Therefore, nothing will persuade haredim to join the army until the government ceases its economic incentives. Only then will the invisible hand of the market compel the haredi population to enlist in the military and achieve economic independence and freedom.

This needs to happen for Israel. And it needs to happen so that haredim don’t drift off and evolve into a separate people not just distinct from, but separated from, the rest of Jewry. We need each other too much for that to happen. ■

The writer has a doctorate in Jewish philosophy and teaches in post-high school yeshivot and midrashot in Jerusalem.