Jerusalem – Israeli army goes for compromise to counter rabbis who order yeshiva students to maintain no contact with IDF
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Defense Minister Moshe Ya’alon said that the Israeli army was willing to create a “women-free and secular-free” environment for yeshiva students arriving to recruitment centers to receive their service exemption.
Ultra-Orthodox Jews in Israel (known as “haredim”) have been exempt from service since the founding of the state, but their draft exemption has long remained a controversial issue in Israel.
A faction of Jerusalem rabbis, led by Rabbi Shmuel Auerbach, demanded that the recruitment centers will “adjusted to the needs” of yeshiva students, who are used to an environment segregated from women and secularism of all sorts.
The “(ultra-Orthodox) candidates’ arrival has been adjusted to their needs on a long series of issues, in order to allow us to implement the processes of (Israeli army) enlistment, service postponement and granting an exemption,” Ya’alon was quoted by Israeli website Ynet as saying.
Ya’alon also expressed he is willing to make “further compromises” to calm down the situation, as tensions between the ultra-Orthodox public and the Israeli establishment have been high, including massive demonstrations, chiefly in Jerusalem.
Some of the sector’s leaders, Ynet reported, have ordered yeshiva students to make no contact with the army, not reporting to recruitment centers even just to receive exemption.
In March, the Israeli parliament voted through a law which will compel ultra-Orthodox Jews to either serve in the military or perform national civilian service.
The new legislation stipulates that ultra-Orthodox men must either join the army or perform civilian service, in a law which will go into force in 2017.
The law also includes a clause stipulating sanctions against draft dodgers — including imprisonment — in a move which has enraged the ultra-Orthodox leadership who said it would be tantamount to jailing people for practicing their faith.
Military service is compulsory in Israel, with men serving three years and women two.
Spoiled brats.
This is crazy….they should be treated like any other draft evaders…its bad enough they are shifting the risk of military service to others. Why do they waste money to give them a heter for their selfish and self-centered behavior.
If you actually think that Hashem is going to support a nation of blind men trying to blind the rest of our futures with an incoherent approach to Human Need, give yourself a broken Star of David. This is a fractured society and it is being lead by men who fear Time more than they fear Hashem. This is criminal and maybe it is just a fad, but maybe the real True Orthodox are the men and women who serve in the IDF and make the world safer. They might not look like the ultra chassid, but their soul might be flying higher in the heavens than men who want to remove Tireless Trust from Torah.
This is another rapture of hate from those who use their religious muscle to prove that they have G-ds inside inside when it comes to supporting the home and future.
I feel otherwise.
Run to your recruiter if you are summoned and pay yourself a Kiddush Hashem.
Yeh why not
As long as the medical examiner is not female this is great news.
The more they are given the more the Charedi “leaders” will demand. Ya’alon should be doing the exact opposite and seat the potential new recruits opposite the most attractive female soldiers. That would be a way to increase voluntary registration. It is the “Gedolei HaDor” who are totally out of contact with the real world. Shame Ya’alon is pandering to them.
The shtetls went uo in smoke 60 years ago because no one defended them. You want that to happen again to Israel? Mumbling prayers to HaShem is not enough. It takes IDF jets as well.
They take their marching orders from Harav Shmuel Auerbach, shlita, who gets his orders from the Torah, so any of you who disagree are kofrim who have no idea what Kiddush Hashem and chillul Hashem even mean. Your pea-sized brains can’t begin to come to Rav Auerbach’s.
Gen. Moshe Ya’alon is a good and righteous man.
He not only served his country with distinction, but appears to have genuine respect for Israelis of all stripes especially the orthodox/Chareidim.
He believes that Chareidim are an essential part of Israeli society and culture…and as such should share and participate in the protection of Israel’s citizens. It is admirable that he is working hard to accommodate the religious needs of orthodox/Chareidi soldiers.
Now if only the political Chareidi leadership would be as honest and display good will. After all much of the supposed reasons Chareidim didn’t serve was due to integrated, secular units…if those issues are addressed, what remains as the excuse?
No women or secular Jews, now? The demands keep getting more and more extreme. It’s time for a three state solution.
Does anyone here see a connection between the riots of Hareidim and the riots by the Palestinians? I sometimes wonder if they get it. You riot to protest Tzahal, so Hashem sends you people to riot against you. I think that Tzahal does everything it can to make the frum soldier comfortable. This article is an example of another accomodation.
But if serving in Tzahal is not respected in the Hareidi community, it is hard to imagine that the Hareidi soldier will be able to step forward and risk his life.
Does the Hareidi world understand the sacrifice of the amazing soldiers of Tzahal? Do they understand the sacrifice of their wives, parents and children?
I think they should include “modern orthodox free” as well. I am a working yeshivish person and would dislike to have to be with “modern orthodox” kofrim, those who constantly bash the Hareidi world. I work in a profession like most people, but am dead jealous of those who sacrifice themselves to be fully devoted to Torah.