Q&A: Haredi Conscription
Haredi Conscription
Question
Hello,
This week I discussed with a friend the issue of drafting the Haredim, both legally and politically. We thought that whether the legislature decides, or the High Court decides, that the Haredim must be drafted, in practice it still won’t happen. They will listen to the rabbis, who will tell them not to enlist even at the price of prison. How are you going to put hundreds of thousands of people in prison? On the practical level, what can be done about this? In general, if a public does not accept the authority of the law or the courts, there is not much you can do about it. Imagine a law were passed forbidding men and women from wearing head coverings in public, with prison as the penalty alongside it—2 million people would oppose it; it simply would not be enforceable. My main question is about the Haredim. What can actually be done in practice? If the attitude is “we will die and not enlist” or “be killed rather than transgress,” then what is the solution?
Answer
Economic sanctions.
Discussion on Answer
Do you think economic sanctions will make the Haredim want to enlist?
Absolutely.
There are misleading figures in the question. There are not two million Haredim, certainly not of draft age, and certainly not people who would resist if the sanctions were taken seriously.
It’s just a misconception. In my opinion, you absolutely could open a prison for yeshiva students; it’s not such a huge mess. Keeping a prisoner is no more expensive than keeping a soldier; in prison they could give them jobs in exchange for money for the canteen.
Very quickly the situation would change, in my opinion. People just throw around talk of millions of Haredim. If they did it wisely and in accordance with the letter of the law, and not with cruelty and confrontation, the situation is not as complicated as it looks. I thought of it this way: family men or young men aged 24 and up would receive an exemption retroactively—not that this would become the law, because then the Haredim would all fictitiously marry at 18 en masse. A limited number of young men who pass certain exams would get an “outstanding scholar” deferment, conditional on their studies. After this sorting process, only a small number of young men would remain to imprison, and once the public understood this was serious, and after the protests were handled according to their nature, I think we would start seeing enlistment. The Haredim created this misconception that there is no way to draft them. No one is going to prison for three years just to avoid the army; that is complete nonsense. And those who do go will be sewing uniforms in prison.
Of course, that will never happen.
I spoke with young men who received arrest warrants. No one is afraid of going to prison; they know they will be there for a month. An experience, a story for the kids.
You can say it is wrong to do this by force, but enough with saying it cannot be done.
Sorry I didn’t put everything into one comment.
Only a national emergency government will solve this problem. Right now we are in the middle of an outright betrayal by a criminal government on an epic scale; there are apparent signs of cooperation with the enemy and partnership with a delusional and treasonous religious establishment. Nothing new among the Jews.
– Eliminate the religious establishment of all sects—economically, infrastructurally, and physically.
– Deport rabbis who have engaged and are engaging in spreading lies and incitement, and especially self-deception, if they did not serve full military service including reserves, have no needed profession, and have no contract with a supporting community funded from earned wages.
– Revoke rights, including the right to vote, in the face of duties not fulfilled or clearly not going to be fulfilled within a minimal time frame.
– Postpone voting rights until after military service. If necessary, revoke citizenship and residency.
– Shut off all financial flow from every channel to anyone who did not study the core curriculum, did not serve in the army, and did not work to support his family. In any case, each matter should be judged individually and not through the religious establishment or a religious organization.
– Impose heavy taxes on religion and worship in the public sphere.
– Close all yeshivot and religious educational institutions and require equal state education. Study of the Torah of truth after work hours, or for a minimal number in a yeshiva-university framework and according to needs—not according to the whims of an individual or his rabbi.
– Tax money transfers and donations from abroad.
– Double VAT and municipal tax on a personal basis for Haredim.
– Heavily fine building violations in Haredi cities.
– Shut down all the air companies established by Haredim.
– A third-child law.
A.K.,
Your approach is illegal, immoral, and cannot achieve anything.
Moshe,
I hope you are lying to yourself and not just to us. You will enlist very nicely if someone really tries to make you enlist. The most I can imagine is that you would leave for abroad.
Besides, what is the logic of “we will die and not enlist”? Are they forcing you to sleep with another man’s wife?
In general, if every annual cohort of 60,000 young men from hesder, Haredi, and yeshiva backgrounds gathered in Teddy Stadium—amen, may it be so—and all the leading rabbis of the generation came to speak about the sanctification of God’s name by those who enlist, “a strengthening rally for the holy enlistees” (also “holy”), and the Haredi politicians fought over the character of the Haredi units the way they fight over the character of Elad, instead of fighting to keep the army a secular place,
then the army would be strictly Haredi. It’s not much of a trick to send two young men a year into a huge system and then play the victim that it does not adapt itself to them.
“We will die and not enlist”… do you seriously not notice that the content of the brainwashing they did to you has no connection to Judaism, Jewish law, or basic logic?
“We will die and not pay municipal tax,” because from the state it is a commandment to steal.
The Haredim did not enlist and nothing you do will help; Torah learners will proudly continue the legacy of the yeshivot from our master Rabbi Chaim of Volozhin. We were here before the state and we will be here after the state.