Israeli army reports surge in Haredi soldiers, 338 recruited in past week
As draft exemptions for Israel’s Orthodox or Haredi community continue to create rifts in the governing coalition, the Israel Defence Forces said on Tuesday that 338 Haredim joined the military’s various service tracks in the past week.
“The IDF is working to integrate members of the Haredi sector into the various tracks, while expanding recruitment options by establishing new tracks and placement targets, while also refining and adapting existing tracks to recruits while maintaining their conditions and lifestyle,” the army said.
Of the 338 new recruits, 211 enlisted as combat soldiers, while 127 took on roles as combat supporters. Among the highlights was that the IDF successfully inducted the inaugural cohort of the “Hashomonaim” Brigade and the maintenance system in northern Israel, as well as a second cohort for the Border Guard. Additionally, the “Hashomonaim” Brigade’s combat track was extended to reservists in Phase B of its development.
In tandem with the recruitment push, the IDF completed the issuance of approximately 7,000 recruitment orders to non-commissioned officers from the Haredi sector, targeting future enlistment cycles. This achievement fulfils the recruitment order objectives set by the Minister of Defence for this phase of the year, complementing 3,000 recruitment orders issued earlier in 2024.
The latest recruitment figures for Haredi combat roles included 70 recruits for the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, 19 recruits for the “Tomer” Company, 19 recruits for the “Arrow” Company, 11 recruits for the Air Force’s “Negev” Company, 35 recruits for the Border Police, and 57 recruits for the “Hashomonaim” Brigade.
Recruitment drives are set to continue throughout the month, with additional Haredi enlistments expected.
The military began making plans to draft yeshiva students after Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in June that exemptions for the Haredi community were illegal. The issue has not been resolved and is contributing to a coalition crisis that forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave the hospital over the advice of his doctors to cast his vote on government legislation on Tuesday.
Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country’s leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Haredi men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions. At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.
However, the Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel’s founding. In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel’s fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16% of the population by the end of the decade. According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.
A recent survey found that the Israeli public is shifting decisively in favour of integrating Orthodox Jews into military service. The Israel Democracy Institute found that only 9% of Israelis support the current arrangement exempting Haredim from military service, a steep decline from 22% ten months earlier.
