Travel Reference
In-Depth Information
bat? Is an archaeological dig disturbing an ancient Jewish graveyard? Should some gender-
segregated buses run to and through their neighborhoods?
The single most contentious issue has been military service, since Haredi behavior in
this matter directly affects the lives of other Israelis. Haredi refusal to serve the mandatory
three years (for men), now reduced to twenty-eight months, or the mandatory two years (for
women), now reduced to eighteen months, directly increases the burden on everyone else.
After all, when David Ben-Gurion gave an exemption for those learning in yeshivot, only 400
Haredi men were affected. Today, this regulation provides more than 30,000 such exemptions.
In theory, these can be obtained only by full-time students who are not earning money, but it
is not diffi cult for individuals to ask schools to provide them with false certifi cation, which also
makes them qualifi ed for special stipends.
At the same time, this regulation is in some ways counterproductive for Haredim, because
it forces the men not to work in order to keep their exemption. The rationale often used
by Haredim is that by praying and maintaining the community of scholars, the students are
preserving Israel by pleasing the divine being. Another reason given is their genuine fear that
military service would corrupt those enlisted, drawing them away from their religious lifestyle.
Army standards of religious observance and kashrut are set for Datim, at a level that does not
satisfy Haredi demands.
Numerous commissions have examined ways to reform conscription, and many proposals
have been made. In 1999, a special IDF unit, Netzah Yehuda, was created to conform to the
demands of a Haredi lifestyle; between 1999 and 2007, about 2,000 men participated. In 2002,
the Knesset passed the Tal Law to change the status quo. The law demands that Haredi men
decide at age twenty-three whether to stay in the yeshiva — in which case they would receive a
formal exemption and would be obliged to continue learning for a long period of time — or to
perform a truncated military or national service. This law was never implemented.
Studies show that the younger generation of Haredim are less opposed to military service
than their elders, although there is still social pressure against enlisting. Haredim will probably
not enter the IDF en masse as long as their rabbis do not approve, and the rabbis' attitude, and
their followers' respect for their rabbis' opinion, is unlikely to change. The issue became less
pressing when immigration from the former Soviet Union augmented the draft pool. The IDF
could be pickier about whom it accepted, and its need for highly trained technical personnel
also reduced its interest in drafting soldiers who could not make this contribution.
Over the years, a number of small parties have advocated opposing the religious parties and
increasing the secular space in society. Most prominent among them was the former Shinui
Party, headed by the late Tommy Lapid, and the Yisrael Beiteinu, led by Avigdor Lieberman,
which, not by coincidence, has Russian immigrants as its main constituents. Neither has made
much difference in the status quo.
Datim (Modern Orthodox)
When European Jews faced the onset of modernity in the nineteenth century, a large group
remained religiously observant but took up the challenge of combining a largely traditional
practice of Judaism with secular education, clothing, and ideas. This movement coalesced
