For 78 years, Israel has fought internally over the Haredi draft. It is time for a new and radical approach.
Here is my 6-point plan:
1) End mandatory conscription for the Haredi community. This is the foundation. No arrests. No "draft dodger" status. Service becomes a privilege and a calling, not a sentence. This will likely face legal hurdles due to equality, but it can be passed by framing it as a transitional period and a test for ending mandatory conscription for all.
2) Continue to build and sharpen Halachically compliant military units — both combat and support units, such as the Hashmonaim Brigade and the Level A technicians 106th Squadron, for those who choose to serve. One particular point of emphasis: no underlying attempt to push secular Zionist indoctrination. The majority of Haredim don't believe in the validity of a Jewish State before Mashiach, and we need to respect and accept that. Instead, the focus becomes about pikuach nefesh, saving lives.
3) Open the labor market, fully, to every Haredi man, immediately. Freedom to participate in the economy from age 18 with zero restrictions. This would also lead those who aren't serious about learning Torah to go work and contribute to the economy, rather than waste tax dollars by forcing them to stay in Yeshiva because they have nowhere else to go.
4) End any welfare subsidies that Haredim disproportionately benefit from due to Haredi men not working. Welfare supports those who cannot work, not those who choose not to.
5) End subsidies for full-time and part-time Torah study. As hard as this one may hit, there is no American equivalent of government kollel stipends for adult learners, and yet, Torah is flourishing in America, sustained by generous giving from those who work. So too in Israel: Torah scholars will be funded by the working people who treasure them.
6) Fully defund institutions that incite against the State of Israel, and require a core curriculum where public funds are involved. No taxpayer money for schools that incite hatred towards the IDF, the people's army, and the State of Israel in general. The majority of Haredim don't agree with the foundation of the State of Israel before Mashiach, but they also need to accept that many Torah authorities do. It's ok to disagree without inciting hatred. Now is a time for peace between brothers.
A core curriculum will lead to increased economic activity from the sector over time, which will inevitably help the Torah learning they desire flourish.
The result:
- The hostility ends.
- The economy gains its fastest-growing demographic.
- Torah study will flourish, as it has in New York and New Jersey. Without animosity from the Israeli public.
- Many Haredim will discover that military service builds skills that translate into employment, and will choose it freely.
- The Haredi rabbinic leadership eases the taboo against military and national service, leading to a rapid increase in IDF manpower. The framing shifts entirely to pikuach nefesh. The existential threat to the Torah world that has long animated Haredi opposition simply dissolves. There is no required draft, the community funds its own learning, and a safe space exists within the army free from secular Zionist indoctrination. With the core grievances gone, what remains is what should have been there all along: the mitzvah of defending Jewish lives.
- Significant law enforcement resources, currently deployed managing Haredi unrest, are freed up for the West Bank and elsewhere.
- Cooperation between the Haredi community and law enforcement is rebuilt.
- The government overhead of managing endless exemption frameworks disappears.
- Over time, voluntary enlistment rises, not because we forced them, but because we trusted them.
And is it fair that the Haredim get an exception to the mandatory draft that no other Jew has?
Look, the forced draft isn't working. For 78 years, they haven't been joining anyway. This at least boosts the economy, reinvigorates the feeling of unity between the Haredim and the rest of the Jews in Israel, and, with welfare cuts to the Haredi sector and simultaneous increased tax revenue from it, that means more benefits for the reservists.
Theodor Herzl, in Der Judenstaat, as part of his vision for a Jewish state, wrote openly:
"The Jewish State is conceived as a neutral one. It will therefore require only an army of volunteers, equipped, of course, with every requisite of modern warfare, to preserve order internally and externally."
An army of volunteers. This was the vision at the beginning. And so we shall have it at last, with the Haredim opening the path.
A peaceful and pragmatic solution.
Take the win.