The Ultra Orthodox Vs. The IDF - VICE News Reports

Since Israel became a state, the Haredi population has been exempt from serving in the military. However, growing pressure from the secular community regarding the group’s high unemployment rate, state benefit dependence and lack of military service led to a new law being passed in March 2014 that requires Haredi men to provide military service. 

Vice News reporter Alex Miller visited Israel and the Netzah Yehuda, an ultra-Orthodox battalion made of volunteers, to get their point of view on the conscription law, as well as leaders of the ultra- Orthodox community to get their viewpoint on the military and how the ultra-Orthodox serving will affect them.

Reports show that approximately 20 percent of men lose their religious identity while in the army. Yoelish Krauss, the unofficial director of EDA Haredit, says, “They want to draft the Haredi in order to extinct them.”  For the ultra-Orthodox, taking boys out of Yeshiva and putting them in the military is corrupt to the community, which values the study of the Torah above all else. 

Netzah Yehuda training camp in the Jordan Valley had more than 800 members as of 2013, which is still a very small percentage compared to the rest of the IDF. For those serving, challenges are faced every day but expected.  According to one soldier, serving in the military as an ultra-Orthodox member is different because “you’re serving a higher purpose.” Abuse from their own community sometimes goes hand-in-hand with joining the army, he continued. Some boys get kicked out of their homes, and video footage has shown ultra-Orthodox military members getting physically assaulted.  With the Haredi population estimated to make up 25 percent of Israel by the late 2050s, it is projected that serving in the military, ultra-Orthodox or not, will become the standard.