More religious women, more ultra-Orthodox, dip in overall enlistment: IDF reveals stats
Modiin, Tel Aviv suburbs lead nation in draft rates; number of female combat soldiers quadruples in 4 years
Judah Ari Gross is The Times of Israel's religions and Diaspora affairs correspondent.
The overall army enlistment rate dropped slightly over the past year, but the total numbers of religious women, female combat soldiers and ultra-Orthodox recruits increased in 2015, according to figures released by the army this week.
Tel Aviv suburbs continue to lead the nation in enlistment, with Modiin again appearing in the top three for male and female draft rates, new statistics released Thursday revealed.
The figures showed the continuation of existing trends — waning enlistment rates, but growth among certain groups — with no dramatic swings or sudden deviations.
Religious women, for instance, continued their upward trend in enlistment. Over the past few years, the number of religious women foregoing an exemption from military service has more than doubled, from 935 in 2010 to 2,159 in 2015, according to the Israel Defense Forces’ Manpower Directorate.
However, the percentage of men enlisting in the army decreased to 71.9 percent in 2016 from 73.7% in 2013 (the last year with reliable figures). The rate among women held relatively steady, dipping from 58.2% in 2013 to 58.1% in 2016.
Among male soldiers, the IDF also noted a nearly two percentage point drop in the interest in combat service over the past year, with 69.8% requesting a combat unit in 2016 as opposed to 71.9% in 2015.
Some of this modest decrease is likely attributable to the rise in popularity of the army’s technological and intelligence units.
In addition to the decrease on the male enlistment, which the army projects will persist into the future, the IDF will also see a fairly substantial drop in its total number of servicemen beginning in 2018, as a result of the recent change to male service time, from 36 to 32 months.
If a proposal to further limit male army service to 30 months is accepted — the issue is currently being discussed in the Knesset — that will cause another downturn in the mid-2020s, according to army forecasts.
However, the army also noted other groups with increases in 2015, some modest, others dramatic.
The number of ultra-Orthodox men enlisting in the IDF increased by nearly 300 to 2,528 in 2015, though it remained below the army’s goal of 2,700.
For the third year in a row, the number of female combat soldiers serving in the IDF continued to skyrocket. After nearly decade in which the number hovered at approximately 500, the figure has quadrupled in the past four years.
In 2012, some 547 women served in combat roles, while in 2015 — after the creation of the Lions of the Jordan Valley and Cheetah Battalions — 2,104 female soldiers held combat positions, according to the IDF.
In terms of female enlistment, the Tel Aviv suburb of Hod Hasharon was Israel’s most successful, with 89.7% of eligible women joining the army. Nes Ziona and Modiin followed with 85.2% and 82.5%, respectively.
For men, Modiin topped the list with an draft rate of 89.1%. Yehud, outside of Tel Aviv, technically had a higher rate — 92.3% — but that was offset by its significantly smaller population, putting it in second place. Meanwhile, Givat Shmuel came in third with an 88.7% enlistment rate.
