ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 498

Laly Derai in an undated photo. (Courtesy)
Laly Derai in an undated photo. (Courtesy)
Interview'It's not about sharing the burden, but sharing the privilege'

The mother of a fallen IDF soldier continues his crusade for universal IDF enlistment

Ahead of a crucial Tuesday Knesset meeting, Laly Derai is advocating for an end to military exemptions for the Haredi community after son Saadia Derai was killed in action in Gaza

Laly Derai in an undated photo. (Courtesy)

In a eulogy delivered at the June funeral of her son, Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Saadia Derai, who was killed in combat in the Gaza Strip, Laly Derai chose to highlight the issue of increasing rates of military service among Israel’s Haredi community and the importance of enlistment.

“This isn’t about sharing the burden — it’s about sharing the privilege,” the grieving mother declared in a soundbite that later went viral.

Recent weeks have seen Derai embark on a media blitz, appearing on dozens of Israeli news channels and outlets to discuss ultra-Orthodox conscription. She will also speak at a planned debate on the matter at the Knesset Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee on Tuesday.

“I can’t count how many conversations I had with Saadia on this subject. It was in his blood. He couldn’t bear seeing people hiding behind the Torah to avoid the most fundamental Jewish act in the world,” she told The Times of Israel this week.

A 1948 decision by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, not to draft Haredi yeshiva students into the nascent Jewish state’s military has influenced policy in subsequent decades.

Today, over 66,000 Haredi men aged 18 to 24 have secured exemptions from military service, claiming they devote most of their waking hours to Torah study. But public outcry against blanket exemptions for Haredi soldiers has grown since war erupted after Hamas’s October 7, 2023, massacre, in which some 1,200 people in southern Israel were slaughtered and 251 kidnapped to the Gaza Strip, launching the ongoing war.

A landmark decision this past summer rocked the Haredi world when the High Court of Justice issued a unanimous ruling saying there is no longer a legal framework to allow for exceptions for yeshiva students and that the IDF must begin drafting Haredi men of military age.

The High Court of Justice on Friday demanded clarification from the government on the measures that will be implemented to ensure conscription among the Haredi population, two days after it heard a petition arguing that the IDF had not issued draft orders to all eligible Haredi men.

Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Saadia Derai reads the Talmud while on duty in an undated photo. (Courtesy)

Derai has called for a march from the Mount Herzl Military Cemetery to the Knesset, timed to coincide with Tuesday’s session of the Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee.

In an interview with The Times of Israel, Derai explained how the loss of her son, a rabbinical student who was studying at Jaffa’s Shirat Moshe hesder yeshiva — an institution that combines military service with Torah study — deepened her commitment to advocating for military enlistment.

[Editor’s note: Saadia Derai was a special needs aide for this reporter’s son. Personal reflections about his death can be read here.]

“I feel like I am continuing my son’s path. This is my way of staying connected to him, to his Torah, and to who he was. This issue burned within Saadia, and it burned within me long before he fell in battle. I’m advancing it now because I have a voice, and I’m using it unapologetically,” she declared.

Saadia, 27,  served as a combat soldier in the Alexandroni Brigade’s Battalion 9203. He was called up to the northern border for reserve duty on October 7, 2023, and served for five straight months on the northern border before briefly returning home to Jaffa to his wife Racheli and their two children, 3-year-old Hallel and 1-year-old Yinon Shaul. He was then redeployed to Gaza, where, on June 20, 2024, he was killed in a mortar attack in Zeitoun, close to the Netzarim Corridor. A day after the weeklong ritual mourning period concluded, Racheli discovered she was pregnant with their third child.

Saadia Derai with daughter Hallel and then-newborn son Yinon Shaul. (Courtesy)

At the time of Saadia’s death, his platoon’s commanding officer, Capt. (res.) Idan Siboni, was not with him on the battlefield, but was in Herzliya heading a panel discussion on military enlistment alongside a group of ultra-Orthodox representatives. Saadia had helped Siboni with his presentation the day before, and the two came up with a credo outlining their views on the importance of military enlistment.

Among the panel members were a number of IDF generals, along with ultra-Orthodox MK Yitzhak Pindrus of the United Torah Judaism party. A group of hecklers from the audience did not allow Pindrus to speak.

“It was this absurd situation, people from the secular camp — the camp I belong to — are yelling at me, asking why I gave Pindrus a platform to speak, while on the other hand, Pindrus is basically saying he has zero intention to risk his own life to serve,” Siboni said.

“I suddenly felt very, very alone and all I wanted to do was return to the field to be with my men — who are both secular and religious, but who are completely united,” Siboni said.

Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Saadia Derai, right, with his platoon commander Capt. (res.) Idan Siboni in an undated photo. (Courtesy)

Later that day, Siboni would discover that two of his men — Saadia, who is religious, and Omer Smadga, who is secular — had been killed in his absence, and nine others had been wounded.

During a joint interview on Israel’s Channel 12 last week, Siboni issued an on-air apology to Laly Derai.

“I’m sorry I never managed to bring your son home,” he told her.

The two were being interviewed about a crowdfunding campaign that Siboni and other soldiers from the Alexandroni Brigade launched to raise money to purchase a home for Saadia’s widow. The platoon had already taken on the responsibility of supporting Racheli — who is due to give birth in a month and a half — by helping with groceries and joining her on milestone occasions such as birthdays.

For nearly six months, Racheli kept her pregnancy a secret, with Siboni being one of the first people she confided in.

“Saadia is gone. But we all felt it was our duty to make sure Racheli, Hallel, Yinon and their unborn baby, are taken care of — not just now, but down the road,” Siboni said.

Saadia’s mother praised Siboni and the rest of the platoon.

“I am comforted that Saadia spent his last moments with these holy men, who are now doing everything for his family. Saadia also showed them that it is absolutely possible to be both a Torah scholar and fight for Israel,” she said.

She dismissed the notion — espoused by many within the Haredi population — that Torah study and prayers alone protect Israel, citing biblical examples such as Abraham, King David and Deborah the prophetess who combined faith with direct efforts in battle.

“When Goliath defied Israel and God, David didn’t go to the synagogue to pray for Goliath’s fall; he faced him with stones and fought him,” she said.

Saadia Derai with mother Laly. (Courtesy)

A corrosive shame

Reflecting on her discussions with government officials, Derai noted that some admitted to feeling ashamed about the enlistment crisis but claimed that political pressure forced their hand, compelling them to act against their beliefs. Others advocate for dialogue rather than coercion, but Derai criticized this approach, saying, “We’ve been talking for 75 years and it hasn’t worked.”

The religious Zionist community would no longer tolerate inaction, she asserted: “We send our children to the battlefield, and we won’t allow this to continue.”

Derai criticized the defense apparatus’ current approach to the war, arguing that it lacked actions that would lead to a decisive victory and failed to reflect the gravity of the situation.

“I feel like we’re waging this war with a mindset stuck in October 6,” she said. She railed against the “half-baked plans” for future raids into Gaza, noting that soldiers are still dying in areas — particularly in the northern part of the Strip — that were supposedly cleared of terrorists.

Derai also called out the lack of integration of other sectors of society into the broader war effort, whether through military, national, or civil service.

“I’m talking not just about the ultra-Orthodox community but also the Arab community — not necessarily in the military but in national or civil service. It seems to me that people haven’t yet grasped the magnitude of this event — that we are in an existential war, a war for our survival,” she said.

Saadia Derai with wife Racheli and their children Hallel and Yinon Shaul. (Courtesy)

The enlistment of Haredim in the IDF was “no longer a nice-to-have option,” she said, but a fundamental requirement for the state’s survival.

Derai outlined a draft framework to address the crisis through what she called a Basic Law on service that would include four tracks: military service, prioritized through a centralized directorate to meet IDF needs; national service, expanded beyond its current framework, which is largely limited to religious Zionist post-high school girls, to include roles in healthcare, rescue, and economic agencies; support for exceptional talent in fields like science, arts, and sports; and Torah study, with quotas and state funding for dedicated scholars.

“These scholars would be fully funded by the state because I believe that Torah study is a Zionist value,” she explained, with the caveat that the program must be closely supervised to ensure participants “truly dedicate their days to studying Torah.”

Each track would contribute to the state, with participation tied to access to economic benefits and public sector opportunities. Those outside these tracks would forfeit privileges such as subsidized housing and affirmative action in public sector employment, ensuring equal responsibility across all sectors of society.

Her service law proposal also includes a call for the IDF to focus solely on security rather than “continuing to act as a melting pot,” Derai said, referring to the military’s function in fostering cultural integration by bringing together recruits from diverse sectors of society.

Sgt. 1st Class (res.) Saadia Derai, far right, with his platoon in an undated photo. (Courtesy)

“The army doesn’t need to educate soldiers. It can provide heritage lessons, but it doesn’t need to homogenize everyone. It has enough work in security,” she said.

To encourage enlistment of the ultra-Orthodox, she advocated for creating optimal conditions that respect their lifestyle, and called for the immediate increase in funding for ultra-Orthodox hesder yeshivas and preparatory academies regardless of legislative changes in the future.

“The military needs to give ultra-Orthodox recruits optimal conditions so they can remain ultra-Orthodox,” she said.

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