MK Elazar Stern: Imprisoning the ultra-Orthodox in yeshivas is ‘against Judaism’
‘Everyone should be a soldier,’ former IDF manpower chief tells Times of Israel, calls to provide limited number of service exemptions for top Talmudic scholars
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"
Israel’s ultra-Orthodox are largely uninterested in compromising on the issue of enlistment, and only economic pressure would enable the military to conscript the tens of thousands of previously exempt yeshiva students now eligible for service, Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern declared on Wednesday.
Speaking with The Times of Israel in his Knesset office, the former IDF manpower chief dismissed Defense Minister Israel Katz’s plan to gradually increase the number of Haredim drafted into the military until it hits 50 percent of the annual eligible Haredi draft cohort in 2032 — arguing that maintaining a large population of full-time Talmud students is actually “against Judaism.”
Stern is intimately familiar with the issue, both as a former head of the IDF’s Personnel Directorate and as a member of the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, which is currently debating a controversial enlistment bill whose passage is a key demand of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s ultra-Orthodox allies.
Critics have claimed that the bill would largely reinstate the ultra-Orthodox exemptions invalidated by the High Court of Justice last summer — and its advancement has long been held up by committee chairman Yuli Edelstein (Likud), who has said that he “would only produce a real conscription law that will significantly increase the IDF’s conscription base.”
The army recently told the committee that, assuming it is provided with the necessary resources, it will be able to absorb Haredim “without any restrictions” starting in 2026. However, both Defense Minister Katz and Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs have argued that ultra-Orthodox enlistment is impossible without reaching a “consensus” with Haredi leaders — many of whom have already ruled out a compromise on the issue.
“The truth is, they are not ready to cooperate with us,” Stern argued, noting that when members of the committee visited the training camp of the recently established ultra-Orthodox Hasmonean Brigade, Shas MK Yinon Azoulay was the only Haredi lawmaker to show up.
“No one came to really check if the conditions that the IDF built for them were enough because they don’t have any interest in being identified with this question,” he said.
Despite Katz’s statements in favor of preserving the “Torah world” — the network of full-time yeshivas that form the backbone of ultra-Orthodox society — it will be impossible to get the community’s leadership on board “so why do we have to waste our time?” Stern asked.
“They want us to keep the yeshivas as a prison, and we are the guards around it,” he continued, insisting that the bill currently being debated was unnecessary because the existing law, if supplemented by additional sanctions, should be enough to effect a significant change over time.
“I believe that the only way is to not give them the money. There’s no chance to arrest so many. We don’t have enough prisons for all of them, not even for half of them,” he said.
Asked what kinds of sanctions would work, Stern replied that “all the money” aside from child allowances going to the Haredim should be cut, including daycare and any funds going to subsidize yeshivas.
This also includes high schools, he added, stating that such institutions “encourage or educate their people not to take part in the state” and should thus be ineligible for government funding.
Stern said that while as “a proud religious Zionist” he believes that “everyone should be a soldier,” if he were allowed to unilaterally craft the state’s recruitment policy he would implement a quota system in which a designated number of Haredim are allowed to learn full-time, while the rest are required to serve.
Stern proposed forcing the yeshivas to “give me the names of 2,000 Talmudic prodigies every year” who would be granted exemptions and expanded benefits while everybody else enlisted in the army.
Within two years, thousands would enlist, he claimed, declaring that this would create a snowball effect, making enlistment more acceptable and creating knock-on effects across Haredi society, which doesn’t understand the wartime experience of other Israelis.
“They can give the excuse of Torah study” but “they are afraid” that the army will change their children. They say that they “want them to come back Haredi. First of all, we [just] want our kids to come back,” he said.
But as more and more enlist, “they will see more uniformed different guys in their community. The standard of living will be higher. It will be very difficult for them to go back. Maybe one day, they will have their own physicians” like in the ultra-Orthodox communities of the Diaspora, he said.
The only difference between Haredim in Israel and abroad is that they sought to avoid the army, he said. “It pushed them not to work, not to study, not to have a core curriculum.”
