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Draft law and conscription
United Torah Judaism chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf told Makor Rishon on Thursday that haredim would leave Israel if there is "no choice" regarding military conscription, saying, "If there is no choice and they must leave the country, they will leave."
“Yitzhak Goldknopf, chairman of United Torah Judaism, told Makor Rishon on Thursday that the haredim would leave Israel if there is "no choice" regarding military conscription”
Goldknopf linked the draft debate to the High Court of Justice’s deliberations on the draft law and to the government’s plan to strengthen sanctions against ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students who refuse to enlist.
In the same interview, Goldknopf argued that if Israel needs "50,000 soldiers" it should take those avoiding service, saying there are "100,000 avoiding service in Tel Aviv, in the Dan region."
Opposition Leader MK Yair Lapid responded to Goldknopf’s claims, saying he "once again repeats the disgusting lie today about 'the draft dodgers from Tel Aviv.'"
Lapid added that "Since the start of the war, there have been 29 fallen soldiers from Tel Aviv," and invited Goldknopf to join him on Memorial Day for the ceremony of reading the names of the fallen in his neighborhood.
Arrests versus integration
Rabbi Yonatan Reiss, founder of the Hedvata network of Haredi hesder yeshivas, told ynet Sunday that Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks on the Haredi draft crisis do not reflect the position of those actually working to integrate Haredi men into the IDF.
Reiss was responding after Netanyahu said at a press conference Saturday that heads of Haredi hesder yeshivas had warned him that “Torah students are being arrested inside the yeshivas,” and Reiss said no known case has been reported of a draft dodger being arrested inside a yeshiva.
Reiss said the focus on arrests misses the central problem: the lack of suitable frameworks that would allow young Haredi men who want to enlist to do so without abandoning their identity and way of life.
As a Haredi person, Reiss said, "Arrests serve no one, not secular Israelis, not Arabs and certainly not Haredim."
He also said, "Now the government has a final opportunity in the coming weeks," arguing that if it wants to advance a law it must at the same time bring a government decision dealing with Haredi enlistment and reach out to Haredi entrepreneurs.
Hesder track and next steps
Reiss described the Haredi hesder yeshiva track as designed for Haredi men aged 17 to 20 who want to combine Torah study, military service and professional training while maintaining a Haredi way of life.
“Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s remarks on the Haredi draft crisis do not reflect the position of those actually working to integrate Haredi men into the IDF, Rabbi Yonatan Reiss, founder of the Hedvata network of Haredi hesder yeshivas, said Sunday in an interview with ynet”
He said the track includes religious studies alongside academic studies or practical engineering training, followed by two years of military service in dedicated frameworks.
Those frameworks include the Hasmonean Brigade, the Netzah Yehuda Battalion, Haredi companies in the Givati and Paratroopers brigades, and technological units such as 8200, Matzpen and Ofek.
Reiss said that according to the network’s figures, more than 1,000 students are enrolled in the track, and the completion rate for studies, military service and employment integration stands at more than 80%.
He added that the Hedvata network has grown from six students nine years ago to approaching 400, and said a new Haredi hesder yeshiva is expected to open soon in the Jordan Valley.
