No Torah, No Army, No Shame
Yedioth Ahronoth, Israel, August 24
We have recently witnessed an increasing number of interviews and articles in which Haredi activists declare without hesitation: They neither enlist in the army nor dedicate themselves to Torah study. This is no longer the familiar refrain of “we study Torah, therefore we cannot serve.” No. Here are those who do neither, and they proclaim it proudly, in front of cameras, as if it were a badge of honor. Just last week, a report featured Haredi teenagers openly admitting that they neither study Torah nor consider conscription.
On another television panel, a young Haredi man openly mocked a reservist, accusing him of serving only for financial gain. And it didn’t end there. Another guest in the studio—whether Haredi or simply an activist—boldly announced he would never enlist, without even invoking the pretense of Torah study as justification. This flood of studio appearances tells us something profound. Today, the messages emerging from Haredi society reach us through two primary channels: the rabbis and the Haredi voices in the media. And lately, both deliver the same message: they refuse to serve, Torah or no Torah. Yet for some reason, we refuse to acknowledge the obvious. We bury our heads in the sand.
Just days ago, a survey conducted by the Super Data Institute and Kikar Hashabbat revealed that 69% of the Haredi public opposes military service even in units designed specifically for them. Meanwhile, in New York, a rally is being organized against the conscription of Haredim. Another rabbi declared on Haredi radio that the army itself is tantamount to idolatry, bloodshed, and incest. Another claimed that the wives of reservists are nothing more than complainers. These voices join a chorus of rabbis who, with one voice, insist: no to conscription, under any circumstances. To be honest, I hold more respect for those who genuinely devote themselves to Torah study and refuse enlistment on those grounds. I don’t agree with them, but at least they are consistent, guided by values they believe in. But we are no longer even there—and it is time to wake up.
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The handful who appear on television week after week present themselves as the true face of the community, bolstered by the backing of their rabbis and Torah leaders. They are untroubled by their failure to study, confident that they can continue working abroad or pursuing business ventures while secure in the knowledge that no one will draft them. They’ve left us with a haze of excuses about supposed “tailored tracks” that never seem to materialize, while in the meantime, they openly speak another language altogether.
The hard truth is that those who do enlist, who work, and who pay taxes are increasingly treated like suckers. They are disparaged on live television, dismissed as invisible, caricatured as people who exist only to “finance others.” What world allows this inversion of values, in which young men sit confidently before cameras declaring, without the slightest shame, “We do not enlist—and not because we study Torah all day, but because there is no track that suits us”? Since when do those who do serve have “convenient” tracks? Did anyone ask them whether military service was convenient for them before they enlisted?
This is no longer merely a matter of arrogance—it is a direct assault on the Israeli social contract. A society cannot endure when part of it demands rights without assuming duties, while mocking those who carry its burdens. We can debate values and priorities, but we cannot elevate irresponsibility into a principle. And when the outrage returns, when they once again protest the arrest of deserters and cry from every pulpit, “Not this way! This way you won’t be able to recruit us,” let us remember the plain and unvarnished truth: they do not want to enlist at all.
Ruth Elbaz (translated by Asaf Zilberfarb)
