IDF sending 14,000 more draft orders to Haredi men, but won’t meet enlistment goal
New orders to be sent out in 3 waves over coming months; of 10,000 previous orders, only 177 have enlisted; IDF unlikely to meet target of 4,800 ultra-Orthodox soldiers per year
Emanuel (Mannie) Fabian is The Times of Israel's military correspondent
Speaking to the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Monday, a senior Israel Defense Forces officer in charge of encouraging ultra-Orthodox enlistment said that the IDF would soon be sending out 14,000 more draft orders to members of the Haredi community.
Asked if the IDF would reach its goal of 4,800 Haredi recruits over a year with the next wave of draft orders, Lt. Col. Avigdor Dickstein said “no.”
Dickstein told the committee that on March 13, a first wave of 5,000 draft orders will be sent out; on April 6 there will be another wave of 4,000; and on May 4 there will be a third wave of 5,000.
Of the total, 9,100 would be randomly sent to Haredim who are eligible for military service, while the other 4,900 will be sent to those the IDF assumes will actually show up at the induction center. They include those who are working, are students of higher education, or hold driver’s licenses — indicators that they are not in full-time yeshiva learning.
This past year, some 70,000 Haredi males were listed as eligible for military service.
The orders, which constitute the first stage in the screening and evaluation process that the army carries out for recruits ahead of enlistment in the military in the coming year, come after a landmark High Court ruling in June 2024 that said there was no longer any legal framework allowing the state to refrain from drafting Haredi yeshiva students into military service.
Between July 2024 and this month, the IDF sent out 10,000 initial draft orders to members of the Haredi community in several waves. So far, only 177 of them have so far enlisted in the military. Some are still in the process of enlisting.
On Thursday, Dickstein told the committee that 2,231 second draft orders were sent to those who did not show up at induction centers after receiving a first order.
Over 1,000 “arrest warrants” were issued against those who ignored the second draft order. The IDF Military Police does not plan to actually carry out arrests, but instead wait until they are declared “draft evaders” and leave it to law enforcement.
After receiving an arrest warrant, those recruits will receive an immediate call-up order, and if they ignore it, will be declared as draft evaders. The consequences of being declared a draft evader include receiving a “no exit order” — being barred from leaving the country — and during any encounter with the police, the draft dodger can be arrested.
So far, 265 Haredim out of the 10,000 have been declared draft evaders, Dickstein said.
The military has said that it currently requires some 12,000 new soldiers — 75% of whom will be combat troops — but can only accommodate the enlistment of an additional 3,000 ultra-Orthodox soldiers this year, due to their need for special conditions. This would be in addition to some 1,800 Haredi soldiers who are already drafted annually.
The military had hoped with the next set of orders to reach its goal of 4,800 ultra-Orthodox soldiers for the year ending June 2025, but many in the army are skeptical about that.
The IDF has been opening new units, as well as considering building a separate induction center, for Haredi troops.
In January, the first 50 ultra-Orthodox soldiers were drafted for regular service in the IDF’s new Haredi brigade, known as the Hasmonean Brigade. Meanwhile, another 100 older Haredi men were being drafted into the brigade’s first reserve company.
Existing IDF units for Haredi soldiers include the Netzah Yehuda Battalion in the Kfir Brigade, the Tomer Company in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion, the Hetz Company in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion, and the Nevatim Airbase’s ground defense unit, as well as numerous other noncombat roles.
In December, the IDF established a first-ever Israeli Air Force technicians unit for young men of the ultra-Orthodox community, allowing them to maintain their religious lifestyle while serving in the army.
The dispute about the ultra-Orthodox community serving in the military is one of the most contentious in Israel, with decades of governmental and judicial attempts to settle the issue having failed to achieve a resolution.
The Haredi religious and political leadership fiercely resists any effort to draft young men, who have in the past been granted exemptions from serving. The issue has come to a head in light of recent High Court rulings demanding an end to blanket exemptions, and public pressure has risen due to the manpower shortages caused by the long ongoing war.
Many ultra-Orthodox Jews believe that military service is incompatible with their way of life, and fear that those who enlist will be secularized.
Israelis who do serve, however, say the decades-long arrangement of mass exemptions unfairly burdens them, a sentiment that has intensified since the October 7, 2023, Hamas onslaught and the ensuing war, in which 844 soldiers have been killed and some 300,000 citizens called up to reserve duty.
