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Adam Gross

23-08-24 Memo [IDF Chief of Staff to Haredi Rashei Yeshiva] – A Different Way

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To Haredi Rashei Yeshiva: The IDF has decided no longer to draft yeshiva students. Rather, we will now ‘draft’ your yeshivot.

This is a new vision and a different path. It recognises that mistakes have been made. It strives towards a path rooted in Achdut Yisrael and Ahavat Yisrael, to defend Eretz Yisrael, in the authentic traditions of Am Yisrael, placing our trust in Tzur Yisrael.

Key provisions include:

  • The IDF will co-fund massive new yeshivot. Each will be state-of-the-art, furnished with every facility to enhance Torah study and create an optimum learning environment.
  • They will be located in strategic border locations – today our enemies come not only for ‘hay and straw’.
  • Your yeshivot, and their faculty, bachurim and avreichim, will not become part of the IDF, nor will they be subject to our policies.
  • Rather, each yeshiva will be subcontracted to provide services to the IDF from your yeshiva environment.
  • These services will include an agreed mix of military and support services. There will be provision for deployment during times of conflict under agreed conditions.
  • The services will be provided according to a procedural manual overseen by certified supervisors and evaluators from your yeshivot that the IDF will train.
  • Provision of services will require fulfilment of upfront and ongoing training requirements, which will be delivered by certified trainers from your yeshivot that the IDF will train.
  • Each Rosh Yeshiva will decide which among their faculty, bachurim and avreichim provides those services.
  • Provision of these services will fulfil not only the security requirements of Eretz Yisrael, but also build skills and strengthen the livelihoods for your bachurim, avreichim and their families, to build vibrant, resilient, Torah-centered communities.
  • The IDF expects each yeshiva to ensure that both Torah study and the defense of Eretz Yisrael takes place around-the-clock, closely linking our nation’s security to the study of Torah, an unceasing source of merit for Am Yisrael before our Rock.
  • Together, the IDF and the Yeshivot, will co-fundraise the residual funding to give donors the merit of supporting in tandem Torah study and the defense of Eretz Yisrael.
  • In offering this vision, the IDF “remembers the Lord our God, for it is He that gives us strength”, and in so doing repudiates any prior or future claim that “my strength and the might of my hand that has accumulated this wealth for me” (Deuteronomy 8:16-17).
About the Author
Adam Gross is a strategist that specialises in solving complex problems in the international arena. Adam made aliyah with his family in 2019 to live in northern Israel.
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