The uneven burden of Military service in Israel

There are those that do and give, and those that don’t and take.

My name is Tuvia Book.  I am a reservist in a combat medical extraction unit (Palmar) on the Gaza front.  I’ve served now hundreds of days of reserves (Milluim) over the past twenty-one months since the Swords of Iron war started.  And yet, there are tens of thousands of people in this country who do not serve.  They don’t serve compulsory service, and they don’t serve in the reserves.

I am talking about the Haredim, the ultra-orthodox Jews in this country.  It’s no secret, the IDF are short now about 10,000 to 15,000 soldiers every year just to fulfil the missions that are on the table today.  Never mind what will be in the future!

This bothers me, and many serving soldiers and their families, and is it spoken about in my IDF unit.  One issue everybody’s united on as we sit around the proverbial bonfire and talk about things, is that there is total consensus about the issue of the unequal burden of service.  It is a huge issue.

How do you explain that Haredim claiming that they do not work, and do not draft to the IDF, because they are too busy learning Torah? It does not reflect Judaism then or now.  Abraham, Joshua, Deborah, David, were all fighters in the Biblical period. The Maccabees and Bar Kochba fought for our beliefs and land.  Jews worked the land.  The Rabbis of the Talmud and post Talmud (Rashi, Miamonides etc.) all had professions.

How is it now, in a Jewish state, that an entire community claims that they do not need to work, serve, or share the national service in the name of religion?  All of this when their brothers are going for the fourth or fifth time to reserves in Gaza, and they sit on the side and do nothing?  That is not my religion.  It is not Judaism.

The same government that has basically finding loopholes to keep soldiers serving is also trying to fast forward laws against any ultra-orthodox Jews serving any type of service, including civilian service (Sherut Leumi), purely for political expediency!

One of the problems in this country, of which is no shortage of problems, is the uneven burden of service. It’s not just soldiers who are serving, it’s the families.  My commanding officer has a three-month-old baby at home, in addition to another child.  His wife has basically been a single mum for almost two years already. He has barely been at work.  It is affecting the entire society. There’s those that do and give, and those that don’t and take.

—

Tuvia is currently serving as an IDF combat medic on the Gaza front, on his seventh deployment since October 7.  His latest book, “Jewish Journeys, The First Temple Period” (Koren/Maggid: 2025) is now available.