Extremist Haredi rabbi: Army service leads to secularization, is ‘worse than death’
‘It’s better to be pigs than in a place with secular people,’ says Jerusalem Faction leader Rabbi Zvi Friedman: ‘There is no solution’
Sam Sokol is the Times of Israel's political correspondent. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Serving in the IDF causes people to lose their religion, a fate worse than death, the leader of an extremist Haredi group recently told heads of the Brothers in Arms protest movement — which represents thousands of reservists.
Speaking last week at an unprecedented meeting between the two ideologically opposed groups in Bnei Brak, Rabbi Zvi Friedman of the Jerusalem Faction asserted “experience shows” that ultra-Orthodox Jews who enlist “leave religion, and that is worse than death,” according to Hebrew media reports on the conversation.
The Jerusalem Faction, an extremist ultra-Orthodox group numbering some 60,000 members, is considered among the most conservative of Haredi factions and regularly demonstrates raucously against enlistment of yeshiva students.
Despite increasing pressure to end the long-standing ultra-Orthodox exemption from military service in light of the security situation and the army’s manpower shortage, Friedman insisted that there was no room for compromise and that there was “no solution.”
“You will be surprised by this, but I have five daughters and three sons and about 30 grandchildren and great-grandchildren,” he stated. “And if they asked me what would I prefer — that the Arabs kill them or that they be secular, I prefer the first option. It is a thing worse than death.”
“There is no solution” to the matter, he added, saying increased catering to Haredi needs in the military would not help. “Being in such a secular army is more serious for us than Shabbat and kashrut and all those things. It’s better to eat pigs than to be in a place with secular people.”
Friedman added that he would have preferred the continuation of the British Mandate rather than the establishment of a Jewish state.
While ultra-Orthodox Israelis are largely exempted from enlistment if they study in yeshiva, they are required to report to enlistment offices in order to sign a deferral of service, which Jerusalem Faction rabbinic leaders order their students not to do.
As a result, members of the movement have been repeatedly arrested after refusing to even sign letters requesting service deferrals, making them draft dodgers in the eyes of Israeli authorities — and sparking protests when they are then arrested.
Earlier this month, Jerusalem Faction demonstrators blocked a major north-south highway near Bnei Brak and the light rail in Petah Tikva in protest of growing calls for an end to blanket draft exemptions for Haredim.
Some held signs reading, “We tell the High Court — we’ll go to jail over the army” and “We will die and not enlist,” while others called police officers “Nazis” during the demonstration.
Earlier this week, Jerusalem Faction protesters chanting that they would rather die than enlist blocked the light rail in Jerusalem, before moving on to obstruct the entrance to Jerusalem near the city’s Chords Bridge.
״אם ללכת לצבא, אתם והכלבים שווים״
מחאת הפלג הירושלמי בצומת שרי ישראל – יפו בירושלים נגד הגיוס תחת גשם שוטף. שלושה עצורים עד כה pic.twitter.com/u3olN5CJjI— Haim Goldich | חיים גולדיטש (@HGoldich) March 18, 2024
“If you go to the army, you and dogs are equal,” they chanted, riffing off enlistment advocates’ calls for “equality of the burden” between Haredi and secular Israelis.
Following that protest, a 47-year-old suspect, identified by public broadcaster Kan as Shai Levy, was arrested after driving into the crowd and striking a demonstrator with his car. The victim sustained minor injuries.
תיעוד דרמטי מירושלים: נהג דרס מפגין שניסה לחסום אותו בהפגנת הפלג הירושלמי בנושא חוק הגיוס
https://t.co/9bPvNU1TtV pic.twitter.com/0r2RWGyvor
— החדשות – N12 (@N12News) March 18, 2024
Successive Netanyahu governments have struggled to come to a consensus on legislation dealing with the issue since a 2017 High Court decision determined blanket military service exemptions for ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students to be discriminatory and unconstitutional, and ordered the state to find a solution to the issue.
A law that authorizes the Haredi exemption expired in June 2023, and a temporary regulation to extend it is set to expire at the end of March, after which the military will not be authorized to exempt Haredi young men from the draft and will need to start enlisting them.
Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu now faces intense pressure to find a solution that will appease his Haredi coalition partners while being acceptable to the court.
According to the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, some 66,000 young men from the Haredi community received an exemption from military service over the past year, reportedly an all-time record at a time when the army is facing a significant manpower shortage.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Herzi Halevi has called drafting Haredim “the need of the hour.”
Despite this, Netanyahu reportedly hopes to postpone the enlistment of members of the Haredi community until the beginning of July, while the coalition works to formulate a new conscription law.
Times of Israel staff contributed to this report.
