4 | DECEMBER 28 • 2023 J
N

opinion

In War, a Secular-Haredi Understanding?
S

hall your brothers go to 
war, and you remain 
here? 
Those were the words that 
the prophet Moses used to 
chastise ancient 
Hebrews who 
preferred to 
avoid conflict 
and settle 
outside the 
Promised Land. 
And that is 
the question 
that more and more Haredi 
(sometimes called ultra-
Orthodox) Jews in Israel are 
asking themselves.
When secular Israelis 
complain about their fraught 
relationship with Haredim, the 
refusal of the latter to serve 
in the army is usually the 
complaint that tops the list. 
But since the Oct. 7 Hamas 
terrorist attack, over 2,000 
Haredi men have volunteered 
to serve in the IDF, according 
to Rear Adm. Danial Hagari. 
The first cohort has already 
finished basic training and is 
now in the field.
But their service resonates 
far from it and helps bridge 
the chasm between them and 
secular society — which, I 
hope, will respond in turn.
There is a precedent, 
however short-lived, for 
today’s Haredi volunteers. As 
described by Yitzchak Kromby 
in Israel’s Future with an ultra-
Orthodox Majority, in 1948, 
when forces from seven Arab 
armies invaded to destroy the 
nascent Jewish state, Haredi 
rabbis issued a horu’as sha’ah 
— literally “a ruling for the 
hour” — calling on all able-

bodied Haredi men to pick up 
rifles and join the fight.
But after the war, Rabbi 
Avraham Karelitz, the leader 
of the Haredi community, 
persuaded Prime Minister 
David Ben-Gurion to give draft 
exemptions to Haredi men “for 
whom learning Torah is their 
profession.” In 1952, when 
the exemption was enacted, it 
covered only 400 18-year-old 
men. Ben-Gurion justified the 
exemptions, pointing to other 
countries with similar laws 
and reasoned that they would 
deprive the army of only a 
small number of men.
But the Haredim planned 
for a future in which they 
would represent a far greater 
proportion of Israelis — 
and indeed, today the draft 
exemption covers 63,000 
Haredim aged 18-26.
When the Ponovitch 
yeshivah was founded in Israel 
in the 1940s, for example, it 
had only 70 students, but it 
was built for over 700. This 
was a bold decision. The 
Holocaust fell heaviest on 
the Haredi communities of 
Europe. But their optimism 
proved justified. Today the 
Ponovitch yeshivah has over 
3,000 students.
This exponential growth 
has taken Haredim from 
4% of Israel’s population 
in 1980 to over 13% today. 
Not surprisingly, this sharp 
rise has raised alarm that 
the Haredim might try to 
impose their values on Israel’s 
freewheeling secular culture. 
The fear is misplaced. In truth, 
the Haredim have long been 
models of tolerance.

Haredim are not shy about 
saying that gay relationships 
are inconsistent with their 
values. But in the history of 
Israel, no Haredi political 
party has ever proposed 
legislation curtailing Israel’s 
gay community.
Israel elected its first openly 
gay man to the Knesset way 
back in 1973. Perhaps the 
most remarkable thing is how 
unremarkable it was. The 
person elected is not even a 
footnote in Israeli history (his 
name is Akiva Nof, in case 
you were wondering). And the 
Haredi Jews joined a coalition 
that included him.
The speaker of the Knesset 
today is an openly gay man 
named Amir Ohana. The 
Haredim sit with him in 
a coalition government as 
well. As Rabbi Elazar Shach, 
another leader of the Haredi 
community, once said, “We are 
not attempting to force anyone 
to do anything. We merely hope 
that God will give them the 
clarity to follow in his ways.”

THE ‘OLD’ AND THE ‘NEW’
Would that Israel’s secular 
community have treated the 
Haredim in the same manner? 
Starting in the 19th centu-
ry, the founders of Zionism 
attempted to create a “New 
Jew” that was “liberated” from 
ancient traditions. In Theodor 
Herzl’s influential novel The 
Old New Land, the heavy 
of the story is an Orthodox 
Jewish rabbi who attempts to 
prevent European enlighten-
ment from benefiting Arabs 
and Jews (who live happily 
ever after).

But in recent years, the 
army has grown more 
accommodating to the 
Haredi lifestyle, creating 
units that segregate men and 
women. Some feminists are 
understandably unhappy with 
the precedent. But the Haredi 
population has responded. 
One 2019 study, cited by 
Kromby, found that 17% of 
eligible Haredi men entered 
the army or some other form 
of national service.
The key to success is not 
going to be how many Haredi 
men come home with medals 
pinned to their chests, but 
how many come home with 
yarmulkes still on their heads. 
In the past, army officers made 
no secret of their hope and 
expectation that Haredi men 
who joined would abandon 
their traditional lifestyle. Today 
they recognize that the key to 
attracting other Haredim is 
the same thing that allows any 
pluralistic society to thrive. It is 
called tolerance.
The current crisis is going 
to change Israeli society in 
ways that we still do not know. 
But one silver lining in the 
horrific tragedy is that Israelis 
both secular and religious are 
coming together. Few believe 
that this will be the war to 
end all wars. But with a little 
goodwill on all sides, it can 
be the first war since 1948 in 
which the Haredim join their 
brothers in battle. 

Uri Kaufman is the author of the 

newly released book Eighteen Days 

in October: The Yom Kippur War and 

the Making of the Modern Middle 

East (St. Martin’s Press). This essay 

originally appeared in Forward.com.

Uri Kaufman

Forward.com

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