winnatal Israel’s Newest Army Recruits: the Ultra-Orthodox

data de lançamento:2025-03-30 10:04    tempo visitado:185

Israel’s ultra-Orthodox Jews were once exempt from military service — but now they are being drafted.

One of those new draftees, Yechiel Wais, was excited, hoping the military would help him integrate into Israeli society.

Among national universities, Princeton was ranked No. 1 again, followed by the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and Harvard. Stanford, which tied for third last year, fell to No. 4. U.S. News again judged Williams College the best among national liberal arts colleges. Spelman College was declared the country’s top historically Black institution.

Chaim Krausz tossed his draft orders, believing armed service would undermine his religious ideals.

And Itamar Greenberg responded by turning himself in to a military prison: He would rather serve time than fight.

Israel’s Newest Army Recruits: the Ultra-Orthodox

Photographs by Sergey Ponomarev

Text by Jack Nicas and Adam Sella

The journalists spent six months following the journeys of three ultra-Orthodox men who had been drafted.

They weren’t supposed to fight.

At Israel’s founding in 1948, the new nation’s leaders agreed that many ultra-Orthodox men — known as the Haredim, or God-fearing, in Hebrew — would be spared from mandatory military service. In exchange,66jogo Haredi leaders lent their support for the largely secular state.

The arrangement held for Israel’s first 75 years, until the Hamas-led attack on Oct. 7, 2023.

The resulting war in Gaza pulled hundreds of thousands of Israelis into battle — but hardly any ultra-Orthodox. The dynamic exacerbated tensions that had been simmering for years.

The Haredim, who average more than six children per family, now make up 14 percent of the nation, up from 5 percent in 1948. In 40 years, they are on track to account for half of all Israeli children.

As the numbers of Haredim have grown, many Israelis have become frustrated that their own sons and daughters are sent to fight while the Haredim receive government subsidies to study the Torah.

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Last summer, the tensions broke open. Under pressure, the Israeli Supreme Court ruled that ultra-Orthodox men were no longer exempt from service. The military has since sent draft orders to 10,000 Haredi men. Just 338 have shown up for duty.

Israel is now confronting one of its messiest and most fundamental dilemmas: Its fastest growing sect won’t serve in the military.

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