For decades erliche yidden in Eretz Yisroel have stared down the threat of being drafted into the IDF. From the fight over giyus bonos until today when, at the time of writing, a thousand yeshiva bochurim have received draft notices with potentially thousands more coming; the response has been unwavering: יהרג ואל יעבר. But what is so bad about serving in the IDF? Is that only for bochurim currently learning? Couldn’t accommodations be made for Chareidim to serve without sacrificing their Yiddishkeit?

What is the IDF?

Since it’s conception the IDF has been a tool to integrate and educate Jews into the philosophy of Zionism not simply defend the country of Israel. It was formed by David Ben-Gurion shortly after the establishment of the state of Israel on May 31st, 1948. On June 27th he swore in his top officers with an oath of allegiance. He told them,

“In the oath you have just sworn you join the chain of Hebrew soldiers from
the time of Joshua Bin Nun, Judges-Warriors, and Freedom Fighters . . . This
chain that was cut off from the days of Simon bar Kochba and Akiva ben
Yosef has been forged anew in our days, and the Army of Israel in its own
land is once again marching to battle to fight for the freedom of the nation.

The Chain of Hebrew Soldiers by Nehemia Stern, Uzi Ben-Shalom, Udi Lebel, Batia Ben-Hador 2022 Berghahn Journal

He described this day as, “something of the status of the ‘giving of the Torah’ and the laws to the army of Israel. He proceeded to demand all of the officers change their surnames from Yiddish to Hebrew and by the afternoon every senior commander had their new names announced. This was his view of the IDF, a conversion, a baptism. From Yidden to Hebrews, from Judaism to Zionism כקטן שנולד דמי.

Dr. Zvi Zameret, who served as the director-general of the Israeli Ministry of Education, writes that,

“Ben-Gurion believed that the IDF was the most important educational instrument, apart from the schools, and that it was “incumbent upon it to be . . .the cultural tool for the fusion of Diaspora Jews, their unity, and cultural elevation.”

The Melting Pot in Israel: The commission of Inquiry Concerning the Education of Immigrant Children During the Early Years of the State, p. 50 (as cited in The Empty Wagon)

Until today the Zionists still view their army as much more than simply a mechanism for defense. In 2002, Shimon Peres, a Prime Minister of Israel who, at that time, was serving as the Foreign Minister, told a group of new immigrants, “The definition of a Jew should not depend on having a Jewish parent or grandparent, but on how parents raise their children. a Jew is someone who raises children in Israel, sends them to the army and sometimes even loses them in battle.”

And even more recently, the current Chairman of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Israel (WZO), Major General Doron Almog, wrote a letter 2024:

We are charged with the task of forging connections between Haredim, Datiim, Conservative Jews, Reform Jews, secular Jews, and Masortim. Today, all of these groups remain enclosed within the defined boundaries of their worldviews. It doesn’t have to be this way. . . The IDF and the Israeli security forces are not just a defense system ensuring the state’s physical existence; they are also a force of social cohesion that has an impact on all areas of life.

Full letter here

The quasi-religious perception that Zionists give the IDF is not just in their general outlook. In 2001 the rabbinate of the IDF established the Jewish Consciousness Unit. The subsequent Chief Rabbi of the IDF Rabbi Rontzki wrote a letter in the rabbinate’s newsletter describing the function of this unit:

A soldier who sees in himself a link in a long chain of Jewish military fighters with a national history behind him that is thousands of years old, and that placed before him a distinct Jewish mission and vision—that kind of soldier can call forth immense inner strength before going out to combat in defense of his nation and land.

Separately, he stated that the primary purpose of the military rabbinate was to “aid the commander in strengthening the combat spirit from the sources of Torah and the rabbinic sages.” The Jewish Consciousness Unit later left the hands of the Religious Zionist IDF rabbinate and was handed over to the Manpower Division of the IDF to be integrated into the Education and Youth Corps, who say openly that they see the IDF as, “as educators who accept the nation’s children into their hands for a significant period of time.” They created the new Identity and Jewish Consciousness Unit tasked with teaching all soldiers about their Jewish identity as is connects to their service in the military.

In fact, in addition to giving a Tanach to new recruits, every IDF commander is officially required to “present educational material related to Jewish life and tradition to their subordinates several times a month.” This education about Jewish identity is aided by seminars run by the Identity and Jewish Consciousness Unit to train officers in “the military strategies of Tanach” and “leadership בדרך התורה.” These seminars last a week, with a mix of secular, Religious Zionist, and ‘Ultra-Orthodox’ officers hearing about what is means to be “Jewish soldiers” from their secular, or nearly secular, superiors.

In short, from the creation of the IDF until today an open and prominent purpose for military service was not just physical defense but philosophical education. To teach people what is means to be a Jew. That the real Jews aren’t in Yeshivos in Bnei Brak but are the heroes on the frontlines, אפיקורסים together with מאמינים all united for a common purpose. They are trying to correct a misconception that Jews are a ממלכת כהנים וגוי קדוש that they are מאמינים בני מאמינים and a nation that could be said about it ישראל ואורייתא וקשב”ה חד הוא. And remind it’s members that The Jews are a nation with a state and an army, religion is optional.

Giyus Bonos

In 1951 Ben-Gurion began a campaign to conscript frum women in “Sheirut Leumi” or national service, and the National Service Law officially passed in 1953. The idea allowed for a more palatable alternative to enlisting in the army. Where as men where exempted while they were in Yeshiva, why shouldn’t women contribute to the national cause in a non-combat position that could easily accommodate their religious needs?

The Rabbonim in Eretz Yisroel, led by The Brisker Rov, The Chazon Ish, and R’ Isser Zalman Meltzer among others immediately rejected the idea out right. It was paskened that for women to go to the army was yehareg ve’al yavor. After years of fighting and without an ounce of budging the government backed off from their threats and entered into a new agreement with the Chareidim to exempt all Chareidi women from all service.

See below the kuntres ההיסטוריה חוזרת about the history of giyus bonos with psokim from R’ Moshe Feinstein, The Steipler, and many others.

Giyus Bnei Hayeshivos

There have been various attempts to enlist Chareidim in the army since the saga of giyus bonos; but the current push to draft bnei yeshiva started in 1999 when the Tal Committee, headed by Justice Tzvi Tal, was created by Defense Minister Ehud Barak to find a solution to the Chareidi exemption recently deemed discriminatory by Israeli courts. The resulting “Tal Law” tried to slowly increase Chareidi enlistment through incentives and “combined service” (army service together with yeshiva enrollment) as well as prohibiting employment for anyone which a yeshiva deferment.

Nachal Chareidi

Alongside this proposal The Nachal Charedi Battalion (now know as the Netzach Yehudah Battalion) was formed to entice Chareidi recruits with kashrus, separation from women, times to daven, and even shiurim and shmuessen. A kosher version of the army.

According to Israel’s Ministry of Defense website Netzach stands for Noar Tzioni Chareidi or Chareidi Zionist Youth (although organizations looking to appeal to Charedim often refer to is as the Chareidi Military (Tzvai) Youth). Rather than a full three years of military duty they serve for two years with a third year for education/job training to help them integrate into the Israeli workforce. Since this would appeal to many non-Chareidi Israelis they restricted entrance exclusively to “Chareidim”, which they define solely by attending two years in a Chareidi educational institution regardless of current lifestyle. Even with that requirement, many still slip through the cracks as was brought to light after the Biden administration singled Netzach Yehudah out for potential sanctions for human rights violations. The media widely reported that Neztach Yehudah has become a popular battalion for the “hilltop youth” ultra-Kookniks who regularly attack and antagonize Arabs believing they are forcing yemos haMoshiach by conquering Eretz Yisroel. The Israel Democracy Institute (IDI), an Israeli think-tank that advocates Chareidi integration and whose president was Yohanan Plesner, former member of Knesset who led the committee on Chareidi enlistment (mentioned below) issued a report on Chareidi integration in 2016 entitled A Master Plan for Ultra-Orthodox Employment in Israel. In it they admit that only 70% of soldiers in Netzach Yehudah are even of Chareidi background. In a separate report commissioned by the IDI, Dr. Gilad Malach states of those soldiers who the IDF defines as Chareidi only 30% define themselves as Chareidi. That means that only about 20% of the so-called Chareidi unit even call themselves Chareidi. Indeed, the images of Netzach Yehudah look more like a Footsteps meeting than a unit made to fit the unique religious needs of the Ultra-Orthodox.

Rabbi Tzvi Klebanow, president of the NGO Nahal Haredi which partners directly with the IDF to encourage enlistment and support current soldiers in this unit, was asked in an interview if they have to contend with the philosophical differences of Chareidim not believing that the defense of the state of Israel is a religious duty because “the state of Israel is a part of the messianic process” like the Religious Zionists do? He answered, “. . . If you go up to a young Chareidi solider who’s in basic training . . . and you say to him ‘Yankel why did you recruit to Nachal Chareidi?’ so he’ll tell you . . . ‘I want to get an education, I want to get a job. . .’ If you find that same young man a year later he’s in a veteran unit . . . and you go up to him and you say to him ‘Yankel tell me, why did you recruit to Nachal Chareidi?’ 99 times out of [100] the response is going to be the same, he’s going to say ‘מה אתה חושב? I have to give to the medinah!’ . . The same Chareidi! That’s the transformation. . .”

These are Ben-Gurion’s word in practice, “the cultural tool for the fusion of Diaspora Jews, their unity, and cultural elevation”. Or as General Almog wrote, “a force of social cohesion.” It should comes as no surprise that almost all discussions of “Chareidi Integration” point to army service as one of, if not the main, way to break Chareidim out of their closed communities and integrate them into the larger Israeli society. In other words, to change their values from typical frum values to national Israeli values, exactly as Rabbi Klebanow described. The Shmuel Ne’aman Institute for National Policy Research, a leading think-tank for public policy in Israel, published a report in 2010 that stated,

“The assumption underlying the work of the Tal Committee members was that the
implementation of the law would gradually lead to increased recruitment of
Yeshiva students to military or civic service and, as a result, the possibility of
joining the labor market would be open to them and they would be even more
exposed to and integrated into mainstream Israeli society.”

Full English report here or a sample from the section of military service here.

See also Yaarimu Sod a kuntres with haskomas from R’ Yitzchok Zilbershtein and R’ Don Segal describing at length the plans for “Chareidi Intregration” in Israel. English version here or see below.

While a small number of Chareidim did, unfortunately, join the IDF this was viewed as an overall failure and in 2012 The Plesner Committee was created to implement a practical policy of “service for all” with quotas limiting yeshiva deferments to 1,500 “outstanding” students. It recommended extensive financial penalties and removal from social benefits for those who refuse to comply and aimed at 80% Chareidi enlistment with in four years ר”ל. The particular policy the Plesner Committee recommended wasn’t adopted as law and the government dissolved shortly after but in 2015 “The New Recruitment Law” (technically amendment 21 to The Defense Service Law) was passed and sought to implement the plans of the Plesner Committee with more flexibility given to the Minister of Defense in regards to total deferments and the timeline for implementation. In 2017 even this plan was deemed to lenient on Chareidim and was struck down by the Israeli courts paving the way for full conscription.

On July 21st 2024 the government followed through on its threat and sent 1,000 draft notices to Chareidi borchurim for the first time in the country’s history. Protests and assifas erupted from Yerushalayim to Bnei Brak with one clear message: “We would rather die as Jews then live as Zionists.”

Further Reading

R’ Aharon Schechter ZT”L Rosh Yeshiva of Chaim Berlin, on the giyus in Barclay’s Center June 11th, 2017 (Yiddish)