Nearly three years after the October 7 Hamas attack, Israel’s national debate has been trapped in an exhausting and polarizing loop: how to address severe military manpower shortages while resolving the long-running dispute over military service for the Haredi community. Despite mounting Supreme Court intervention, economic sanctions, mass draft notices, and fierce political rhetoric, the country remains no closer to a functional or sustainable outcome.
Haredim, often called ultra-orthodox Jews, are a religiously observant Jewish community for whom full-time Torah study—the study of Judaism’s foundational religious texts and traditions—holds exceptional religious and cultural importance. For decades, many Haredi men studying full-time in yeshivas (religious academies) received deferments from Israel’s compulsory military service.
Perhaps the most overlooked reason for the ongoing stalemate is simple. The public and judicial debate has consistently framed the issue as a rigid, zero-sum struggle between legal equality and the continuation of these deferments. In doing so, policymakers, legal authorities, and commentators systematically overlook the primary defining value of Haredi society: the foundational, non-negotiable role of full-time Torah study. As long as state mechanisms fail to understand and respect this core reality, even the most aggressive pressure will produce social friction rather than a durable contribution to national security.
To understand why legal coercion consistently backfires, one must look beyond Israel’s immediate political arena to the global Haredi community. Whether in Jerusalem, Lakewood, London, or New York, the fundamental defining value of the Haredi world—and the key distinction between it and other observant Jewish communities—is the absolute centrality of immersion in Torah study during a young person’s formative years. For Haredi society, intensive study in yeshivas between the ages of 14 and 22 is not an academic pursuit, a vocational stepping stone, or a social convenience. It is the spiritual pulse of Jewish continuity, the moral anchor of the community, and an irreplaceable value.
While dedication to Torah study has defined the Jewish people throughout history, the intensity of the modern yeshiva ecosystem took on a distinct historical dimension following the Holocaust. Faced with the near-total destruction of European Jewry and its great centers of learning, alongside the rapid onset of secularization and modernity, the rebuilt yeshiva world was designed as a vital strategy for identity preservation and spiritual resilience.
This historic revival was built upon a tacitly recognized duality: while one part of the Jewish people established physical sovereignty and military defense, another dedicated itself to rebuilding the decimated spiritual infrastructure of the Jewish world. Both missions were understood to be essential for the survival of the Jewish people.
Over the decades, as a result of this foundational commitment, the State of Israel evolved into one of the world’s foremost centers of Jewish learning, drawing tens of thousands of young men and women from around the world each year to immerse themselves in Torah study and Jewish heritage in Israel.
Crucially, this intensive religious education does not exist in a vacuum; it profoundly reinforces values of altruism, social responsibility, and human empathy. Far from being disengaged from the welfare of the broader public, Haredi society has developed an extraordinary culture of volunteerism and mutual aid, reflected both in individual participation rates and in institutional social innovation.
On an individual level, Haredi adults volunteer at strikingly high rates. According to a comparison of Israeli government data and OECD figures, 34.3% volunteer at least once a month—about twice the OECD average of 17%, and higher than Finland’s 28.6%, the highest rate recorded among OECD countries.
Beyond individual participation, Haredi society has effectively become a “Start-Up Nation” for social innovation, founding dozens of pioneering civil society organizations. These include landmark institutions like Yad Sarah, which revolutionized community medicine and home care across Israel; United Hatzalah, which developed groundbreaking, fast-response medical models now emulated across the Jewish world and globally; Matnat Chaim, which made Israel the world leader in altruistic living kidney donations per capita and recently entered the Guinness World Records; alongside dozens of other specialized charitable networks.
The current friction surrounding military service is therefore not driven by a refusal to contribute, a lack of civic responsibility, or a fear of personal risk. The argument that Haredi men are unwilling to risk their lives for their fellow citizens is flatly disproved by facts. On October 7, while the fighting was still underway, Haredi volunteers from emergency organizations such as United Hatzalah and ZAKA rushed into active combat zones without military protection, risking their lives to rescue the wounded and recover the dead with dignity.
Resistance to military service stems not from a fear of danger, but from a deep-seated resistance to externally imposed cultural assimilation, social engineering, and the dismantling of educational and cultural autonomy. When legal systems pursue a uniform approach without sufficient practical accommodation, they push an entire community into self-defense rather than partnership.
Recognizing this distinction is not an argument against military service. It is a prerequisite for designing policies that can actually succeed.
Instead of relying on rigid legal confrontation that achieves neither equality nor operational readiness, Israel’s leadership must adopt a strategy that respects social reality. Demanding total, immediate compliance from full-time yeshiva students who view their study as a sacred historical obligation merely guarantees perpetual gridlock.
Israel’s security establishment cannot afford the luxury of prioritizing legal arguments over strategic success. A resilient, forward-looking national defense strategy must accommodate the reality of a diverse society.
A durable national compromise must begin not by asking how to weaken the world of full-time Torah study, but by asking how to preserve it while expanding meaningful avenues of national contribution.
Real progress will not come through economic warfare or legal threats. It will come when Israel’s leadership recognizes that protecting full-time Torah study and strengthening national security are not mutually exclusive goals—they are the two foundational pillars upon which the Jewish state was rebuilt. By establishing protected, adapted frameworks for those not engaged in full-time study, while simultaneously guaranteeing the continuity and dignity of the yeshiva world, Israel can build an inclusive security ecosystem capable of meeting the monumental challenges ahead.
