‘Nothing Jewish about them’: Liberman slams Haredi leaders over low employment rate, IDF exemption

By Ariela Karmel

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11 May 2026, 2:20 pm

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Ariela Karmel is a political correspondent at The Times of Israel. She previously reported for Calcalist and Haaretz. She holds an MA in Middle Eastern and African History from Tel Aviv University and a BA in Political Science from the University of British Columbia.

Avigdor Liberman speaks at a conference hosted by the Shalom Hartman Institute. (Courtesy of the Shalom Hartman Institute)

Yisrael Beytenu party chairman Avigdor Liberman accuses Israel’s Haredi leadership of being “anti-Jewish” over its refusal to integrate more ultra-Orthodox men into the workforce and its ongoing efforts to exempt the community’s youth from military service.

“The ultra-Orthodox establishment today is first and foremost anti-Jewish. There is nothing Jewish about them. None of them truly cares about the world of Torah study or the yeshiva world, only about power, money, and status. There is nothing Jewish about demanding that a yeshiva student not work,” Liberman says, speaking at the Shalom Hartman Institute’s Center for Judaism and State in Jerusalem.

Haredi participation in higher education and the workforce, particularly among ultra-Orthodox men, remains significantly lower than among the broader Jewish population, while there has been a 55% increase in state financial support for Haredi yeshivas since the current coalition took office in 2022.

The leader of the hawkish secular opposition party, who has long been a harsh critic of Haredi leaders, adds that “there is no conflict between Judaism and the state. There is an attempt to take over Judaism by anti-Zionist elements.”

Liberman has opposed both government subsidies for yeshivas and efforts to legislate military exemptions for yeshiva students for many years. Around 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18-24 are believed eligible for military service but have not enlisted, while the IDF says it urgently needs 12,000 additional soldiers amid ongoing strain from the multifront war.