From the Liveblog of
Thursday, May 2, 2024
IDF personnel chief met with senior ultra-Orthodox leader last month to discuss Haredi conscription
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. 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"
The chief of the IDF Personnel Directorate met with one of the senior leaders of the so-called Lithuanian stream of ultra-Orthodox Jewry ahead of the Passover holiday last month as part of an effort to formulate a plan to conscript members of the Haredi community.
According to Channel 13, Maj. Gen. Yaniv Asor’s meeting with Rabbi Moshe Hirsch came as part of a series of meetings with ultra-Orthodox leaders held as part of the army’s push to develop an enlistment plan in the wake of a recent High Court ruling that the government must stop providing funds to ultra-Orthodox yeshivas for students eligible for Israel Defense Forces enlistment — as the legal framework for deferring their military service had expired.
A government submission to the high court on Wednesday stated that the defense establishment has begun work “to promote the integration of members of the ultra-Orthodox public.”
Hirsch, the dean of Bnei Brak’s Slabodka yeshiva and a member of Degel Hatorah’s Council of Torah Sages, is a vocal opponent of the enlistment of full-time yeshiva students, which he claims is motivated by a hatred of religion.
Asor stressed the army’s manpower shortage in light of the ongoing war in Gaza while Hirsch explained the specific cultural and religious needs of Haredi servicemen, leading to a discussion of service track options and enlistment quotas, Channel 13 reports. However, according to the ultra-Orthodox news site Behadrei Haredim, Hirsch stressed that he opposed drafting any full-time yeshiva students, who he insisted must be allowed to continue their studies.
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