As Haredi politicians threaten to leave Israel’s governing coalition if no progress is made to advance an army enlistment law that exempts their community’s young men from military service, the IDF’s new all-Haredi Hasmonean Brigade continues to draft soldiers and is rumored to soon be starting an elite reconnaissance unit.
It has also come to light that a benefit offered to Hasmonean Brigade reservists allows paid days of reserve duty for their wives, a benefit unique to the new brigade. The measure is an attempt to offer financial aid by treating the wives as fellow service members in reserve duty, although they serve at home.
The Hasmonean infantry unit was established after the Supreme Court, sitting as the High Court of Justice, ruled on June 24, 2024, that “there is no legal framework that allows for a distinction between yeshivah students and others designated for military service.” This effectively abolished the previous exemption claimed by Haredi men based on religious observance, which had expired the previous year.
Directly following the ruling, and as of March of this year, the government issued draft notices to more than 10,000 Haredim. The call was answered by only a few hundred. Further plans were drawn up to send notices to an additional 14,000; most are sure to ignore the appeal.
When asked whether the IDF expected to reach its target goal of 4,800 additional Haredi troops this year, Lt. Col. Avigdor Dickstein, entrusted with encouraging Haredi enlistment, responded, “No.”
Despite stiff political and social opposition from within Haredi society, the Hasmonean Brigade, the first all-Haredi combat unit, was opened in January 2025 and drafted approximately 50 recruits and 100 reservists, with long-term plans to draft up to 4,000.
In an initial attempt to mitigate the pushback from the Haredi community, the government began by issuing draft notices to young Haredi men who had already failed to meet the requirements of the previous Torato Umanoto (“Torah is his profession”) exemption, such as exclusively studying Torah.
The army began by drafting only those who had held jobs illegally on the side of their studies, implying they were not fully occupied by their studies under the law. Those who failed to report for duty would have their yeshivah stipend frozen and be declared official draft dodgers, and liable to prosecution.
This attempt proved fruitless as pushback from the Haredi community continued and the students still refused to register for the draft. Months later, the unofficial practice was struck down, as it reinforced unequal treatment of Haredim by continuing to provide special privileges to full-time yeshivah students at the expense of the general population.
The brigade is structured to accommodate the devout lifestyle of the Haredim, by allowing the retention of payot sidelocks, designating hours of mandatory prayer and study, and banning smartphones on base, conditions that each recruit must legally commit to upon drafting.
Rabbi Yehuda Povarsky, senior IDF civilian employee and head of policy at the brigade, said, “We received a blessing from most of the [Haredi] rabbis when we submitted the platform of the Hasmonean Brigade. … The rabbis think that for those who do not study, the brigade is a blessed thing.”
The soldiers drafted into the brigade speak with pride of their enlistment. One recruit observed, “Balancing my spiritual life, religion and faith with military service is not a problem—I’m a hundred percent Haredi and a proud soldier for the IDF.”
‘The army has other interests’
As the recruits continue their military training, pushback within the Haredi community remains fierce, despite the approval spoken of by Povarsky. A few weeks ago, Haredim grouped en masse around two draft offices and harassed Haredim showing up to sign onto the Hasmonean Brigade. The protesters got into scuffles with the Military Police and formed road-blocks with their bodies in an attempt to stop those wishing to enter the buildings.
The IDF reported that this latest draft brought in roughly 70 recruits and signed on an additional 150 reservists.
Professor Shai Stern, head of the Jerusalem-based Institute for Strategy and Haredi Policy, in an interview with JNS, explained the rationale of Haredi society, and its refusal to draft even in light of special brigades being formed to accommodate the ultra-Orthodox lifestyle.
“The army is not one person. It has other interests. … Every time the army made a commitment to the Haredim in the past, it broke those promises,” not through malice, but due to “unexpected events.”
This to say, that while the IDF is offering to reshape army life to suit the needs of the Haredim, this is no guarantee that situations on the ground might not arise that force the army to break some of these promises, according to Stern.
Some 10,000 Haredim were recently issued draft notices; the Hasmonean Brigade was formed out of the 2% who answered the summons, with minimal consequences for the ones that did not report for duty.
Stern went on to detail that even for Haredim considering drafting to the army, the social sanctions placed on them by their community are more than enough to dissuade them, sanctions such as ostracizing their families and the inability of the soldier and his siblings to get married.
“Even if they want to go to the army, and even if they are suffering economic stress because of the sanctions, they can’t go to the army at this time if there is no legal preservation of the Torah world. If they want to stay in Haredi society, the communal sanctions that they will suffer will be much greater and much more painful than those that will be suffered by the state,” Stern said.
He suggests that what the Haredi society needs to encourage its young men to serve is a legal ruling that will through necessity shift the sector’s thinking. If a law is passed that defines the percentage of ultra-Orthodox men who must enlist each year, it will “allow moderate Haredim who understand the security needs of Israel and want to take part, but who cannot because they feel it will harm the stance of the community,” Stern explained.
According to Stern, the service of those that go to the army will then be seen as an honorable means by which they allow those that remain to continue in their Torah study.
Stern’s perspective comes in the wake of polls released in December reporting that 79% of Haredim oppose conscription even if it is exclusively limited to units designed specifically for them.
While Haredim currently lack faith in the promises made by the army, the Hasmonean Brigade serves as an example for them of a possible means by which they can serve and still preserve their lifestyle, Stern said.