From the Liveblog of
Tuesday, April 22, 2025
Ultra-Orthodox Jews make up nearly a quarter of 2025 draft cohort, statistics bureau finds
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"
Ultra-Orthodox Jews currently constitute nearly a quarter of the annual draft cohort of 18-year-old Jewish males in Israel as of 2025, according to figures from the Central Bureau of Statistics set to be presented to the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee tomorrow.
The presentation shows that 24.4 percent, or 14,035, out of 57,424 18-year-olds who will be eligible to draft this year are ultra-Orthodox — a figure which is expected to rise to 27.2% by 2030.
A bill dealing with the issue of Haredi enlistment is currently stuck in the committee, whose chairman, Likud MK Yuli Edelstein, has stated that he will “only produce a real conscription law that will significantly increase the IDF’s conscription base.”
The army has stated that it is facing a manpower shortage and currently needs some 12,000 new soldiers — 7,000 of whom would be combat troops.
Currently, approximately 70,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted. According to the IDF’s Personnel Directorate, only 2% of the 10,000 ultra-Orthodox men sent conscription orders from July 2024 to March 2025 have actually joined the armed forces.
In total, 1,721 Haredim have joined the army since the beginning of the current recruitment cycle last year.
The Times of Israel Community.