Haredim aren’t Israel’s only draft Dodgers

Are ultra-Orthodox refusals to serve in the Israel Defense Forces a threat to the Jewish state’s survival? According to conventional wisdom since October 7, the answer is a resounding yes. Of the many conceptions shattered on that Simchat Torah, perhaps few were as critical as the IDF’s belief that it could succeed as a “small and smart” army.

As it became increasingly clear that Israel does not have enough soldiers to defend itself against Hamas, Hezbollah, and the rest of Iran’s regional proxies, the Israeli public’s attention — and anger — turned toward the ultra-Orthodox. While opposition to Haredi draft exemptions historically revolved around questions of fairness, disturbing realizations about the IDF’s manpower shortage suddenly morphed the debate into a question of Israel’s very survival.

There’s just one problem: too many Israelis are already avoiding the military — and they’re not Haredi.

In early 2023, Israel’s State Comptroller published concerning findings about IDF draft numbers. From all potential recruits in 2021, 31.4 percent avoided enlisting, of which only 17.6 percent listed torato umanuto (“Torah is his profession”) as their reason for not joining the army. 45 percent of potential female soldiers, meanwhile, did not draft. That same year, the IDF’s Manpower Directorate published recruitment rates per city. In Tel Aviv-Yafo (hardly a Haredi stronghold), only 68 percent of eligible recruits joined the army, compared to the nearby city Modi’in, in which over 90 percent of eligible men and 84 percent of eligible women drafted.

In the interests of fairness — and as a non-Israeli citizen — I won’t pass judgment on those who don’t draft, but I’ll let the IDF do it for me. In a meeting earlier this year with senior figures in Israel’s judicial system, Alon Matzliach, head of the IDF unit that oversees the selection and placement of new soldiers, made revelations that attracted only a fraction of the attention they deserved.

“There are young people who received a mental health exemption in recent years, and are suddenly coming to us to enlist because of the war,” Matzliach said. “So we tell them, ‘But you’re schizophrenic!’, and then they tell us, ‘No, it’s not mine or not me, it’s mom who took care of it.” According to Yedioth Ahronoth’s Yoav Zeitoun, who broke the story, the IDF estimates that thousands of 18-year-olds pay professionals to help them attain exemptions, despite being perfectly fit for military service. Indeed, in 2020, the IDF received 2,000 requests for draft exemptions on mental health grounds. In 2023, that number jumped to 9,000.

Summing up Matzliach’s concerns, Zeitoun wrote, “for a few thousand shekels for a lawyer and psychologist… any 17-year-old can easily receive an exemption from military service on mental health grounds, and the IDF can’t do anything about it.” The issue is so serious, according to Zeitoun, that Matzliach plans to “declare war on the phenomenon.”

Unfortunately, mental health isn’t the only issue the IDF believes is being exploited to avoid military service. Given the challenges dati girls (from religious Zionist families) often face in the army, many of them opt instead for sherut leumi, an alternative form of national service. Matzliach, however, expressed frustration at the continued trend of girls pretending to be religious in order to attain military exemptions, noting that he comes across girls “who learned in totally secular schools, and suddenly months before the draft date she becomes religious.”

To be sure, there are also promising trends among Israel’s youth. In the past year, Matzliach said, despite having the option of sherut leumi, the number of dati girls who enlisted in the army doubled.

Nevertheless, it’s clear that while Haredim are the most homogenous group to not serve, they’re far from the only Israelis avoiding the draft.

I understand the anger directed at the ultra-Orthodox by Israelis who continue to make unspeakable sacrifices to protect the Jewish state. On October 6, I didn’t know a single person buried on Mount Herzl. When, in June, I visited it for the first time since October 7, I found 3 people I know buried within 20 meters of each other. If before October 7, it was unfair for an increasingly large and influential segment of the population to avoid carrying that burden, the IDF’s manpower shortage now disturbingly on display leaves little room for doubt that continued draft exemptions for the overwhelming majority of Haredim is simply indefensible.

Of course, it bears mentioning that not all Haredim avoid military service. According to a 2023 document published by the Knesset’s Research and Information Center, over 20,000 Haredim joined the IDF between 2010 and 2020. And while 1,800 recruits per year may seem somewhat insignificant (and the IDF has acknowledged that those numbers are inflated), there’s reason to believe that Haredi attitudes toward military service are slowly but surely changing for the better — particularly after October 7.

Unfortunately, slow changes that are largely invisible from the outside are unlikely to offer Israelis much solace, and understandably so. The question of Haredim serving in the IDF desperately needs to be solved. But to hone in on the ultra-Orthodox while ignoring thousands of other Israelis who avoid the army is not only unfair — it belittles an issue that is hurting Israel’s ability to defend itself against those who want to repeat the horrors of October 7 until there’s no Israel left to defend.

The Jewish state deserves — and needs — better.