Haredi rabbi says government policy failures fuel ultra-Orthodox IDF enlistment crisis

A Haredi rabbi who has spent nearly a decade developing military service programs for Haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men says Israel’s enlistment crisis is the result of successive governments strengthening anti-draft religious leaders rather than investing in initiatives that promote military service.

Rabbi Yonatan Reiss, founder of the ultra-Orthodox pro-military network, Chedvata, which combines Torah study with military service, said the government's approach has sidelined organizations like his, which seek to integrate Haredi men into the Israeli military while preserving their religious way of life.

“I assume the prime minister received his message from Goldknopf,” Reiss told the Ynet News on Sunday, referring to United Torah Judaism (UTJ) party chairman Yitzhak Goldknopf, who opposes Haredi military service.

“We delivered a completely different message, the same message we have been voicing for three years. Unfortunately, not only did they not listen to us, but every time we tried to advance a move, the cabinet secretary stopped it again,” Reiss added.

His criticism comes as the Israeli government has frozen the arrest of Haredi draft dodgers, arguing that enforcement undermines efforts to encourage voluntary enlistment.

Earlier this month, Israeli police detained dozens of ultra-Orthodox rioters after they attacked the home of Deputy President of the Supreme Court Noam Sohlberg outside Jerusalem.

The debate over Haredi military service has become one of Israel's most contentious domestic political issues since Hamas' Oct. 7, 2023, attack exposed the military's need for additional manpower during a prolonged multi-front conflict.

Although a small and growing minority of ultra-Orthodox Jews now serve in the IDF, most continue to receive exemptions for religious, political and ideological reasons.

While Reiss also opposes arrests, he argues that the solution is to create military frameworks that allow ultra-Orthodox Jews to maintain their religious lifestyle while serving.

“As a Haredi person, I believe a Jewish state must make room for the world of Torah,” the rabbi said. “Arrests serve no one, not secular Israelis, not Arabs and certainly not Haredim. Soldiers on the battlefield will not come out of arrests, even if in the end you manage to break one or two people."

Reiss believes the government missed a major opportunity after Oct. 7, and during the subsequent war with Iran and its terror proxies, to make Haredi enlistment a national priority.

“If the Israeli government had dealt with Haredi enlistment since then through a serious government decision, as it has done in the past in other areas, and had called on entrepreneurs to establish frameworks, not rabbis but entrepreneurs, we would already be seeing imaginary numbers,” he assessed.

“There are many Haredim who want to integrate. They simply do not have the bridge,” Reiss argued.

Recent military data suggest some progress. The IDF reported that ultra-Orthodox enlistment increased by 24% during April and May 2026, although the total number of recruits remains relatively small.

Reiss said his organization recently sent an urgent letter to Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu. “We told him: Stop dealing with arrests. It does not help. Start dealing with Haredi enlistment,” he recalled.

He also blamed Cabinet Secretary Yossi Fuchs for obstructing government initiatives aimed at expanding Haredi military service.

“Over the past two years, he has stopped government decisions more than twice that Yuli Edelstein and others wanted to promote, following pressure from the Haredi leadership,” Reiss argued.

Netanyahu's coalition remains politically dependent on the continued support of ultra-Orthodox parties, many of whose leaders oppose broad Haredi military enlistment.

Despite his criticism, Reiss believes there is still time for the government to change course.

“Now the government has a final opportunity in the coming weeks,” he assessed. “If it wants to advance a law, it must at the same time bring a government decision dealing with Haredi enlistment and reach out to Haredi entrepreneurs. He said that if the government invites proposals and provides support, more organizations would step in, explaining that these programs currently operate with very limited resources.

Reiss also expressed cautious optimism based on the growth of his own organization.

“We started nine years ago with only six students, and today we are approaching 400,” he said while revealing plans to open a new Haredi yeshiva that will further expand military enlistment opportunities.

“It will operate like a regular yeshiva, with a full study hall, while at the same time the students will hold a line in the Jordan Valley, perform guard duty and serve as an emergency response squad, according to the needs of the army,” Reiss explained.

Looking ahead, Reiss argued that education, not coercion, is the long-term solution and stressed that the ultra-Orthodox community is far from monolithic.

“There are many Haredi boys who do not find themselves in yeshivas, alongside masses of genuine Torah students,” he explained. “Everyone knows there are also those who are there without really fitting in. But thinking that someone who is not studying will simply enlist in the army is like thinking that a teenager from Ramat Aviv who failed his matriculation exams will go study in a Haredi yeshiva. It simply does not work that way.”

He argued that the state must create pathways that allow Haredi men to integrate into both military service and wider Israeli society without abandoning their religious identity.

“If the state does not build him a real educational bridge from the Haredi world into integration in the state, through connection and not assimilation, nothing will change,” he said.

Reiss concluded by saying his organization offers a practical model for expanding Haredi enlistment. “They create the right educational process and provide an alternative for boys who do not fit into the regular yeshiva track,” he said.

“If the state adopts this model, this issue can be solved once and for all.”