Haredim

Deri and Lapid clash over IDF draft law, sanctions on ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students

Aryeh Deri responded to the Attorney-General's discussion on the High Court of Justice consideration over the draft law and the plan to toughen sanctions against yeshiva students who don't enlist.

A view of the Shas party offices in Jerusalem, June 4, 2025
Likud MK Yuli Edelstein attends a a plenum session in the Knesset, in Jerusalem, June 4, 2025

Haredi rabbi calls Likud MK Yuli Edelstein 'traitor' over draft law

 ‘THE HAREDI leadership argues that it is forbidden to draft yeshiva students whose Torah is their profession and that they defend the State of Israel through their studies.’

IDF to summon over 50,000 ultra-Orthodox Jews in massive push for haredi draft

People take shelter in an underground parking lot in Tel Aviv, during ongoing missile attacks from Iran

Ethiopian families, women locked out of public shelter declared ‘men only’ by extremists - report


We say we want haredim to join the IDF, but do we mean it? - opinion

The task is not only how to encourage ultra-Orthodox Jews to embrace the IDF, but also how to encourage the IDF to embrace ultra-Orthodox Jews.

 AN ILLUSTRATION OF a haredi man and an IDF soldier standing side by side, united, as is the army standing behind them, under a colorful blue and white Israeli flag

Opposition's Knesset dispersal bill fails after Edelstein, haredim reach draft bill agreement

When the opposition called for the vote, Deputy Minister Yaakov Tesler and MK Moshe Roth of Agudat Yisrael voted in favor of dissolving the Knesset.

 Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen outside his office at the Knesset, Israel's parliament in Jerusalem on June 11, 2025.

Knesset dispersal postponed after agreement between Edelstein, haredi leaders

This decision came after MK Moshe Gafni reported on the results of the negotiations between Netanyahu and Edelstein to Rabbi Hirsch.

 Committee Chairman Yuli Edelstein leads a Defense and Foreign Affairs Committee meeting at the Knesset, the Israeli parliament in Jerusalem on May 8, 2025.

Over 50,000 IDF draft orders to ultra-Orthodox Jews scheduled for July

The announcement means that the IDF will be summoning the entire "pool" of eligible haredi men, in addition to the 24,000 haredim who already received initial draft orders since July 2024.

 A haredi (ultra-Orthodox) Jewish man protest against IDF conscription, near Bnei Brak, June 5, 2025

Netanyahu using Iran tension, threats to try and stop Knesset dispersion vote

The vote to dissolve the Knesset is expected to happen around 10 p.m. after opposition party heads unanimously agreed to vote on the issue.

(L-R): Iranian supreme leader Ali Khamenei, Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu seen over the backdrop of an explosion in Iran (illustrative)

Opposition leaders announce they will go through with Knesset dispersal vote

Despite public announcements that they would support the dispersal bill, haredi politicians were slightly more hesitant on Tuesday night as to whether they would follow through on their threat.

 (L-R) Opposition party heads Yair Golan, Avigdor Liberman, Benny Gantz, and Yair Lapid at the Knesset after the firing of former defense minister Yoav Gallant, November 6, 2024.

Over 50,000 draft orders to be sent to yeshiva students this July, A-G announces

The government has sent out draft orders to 24,000 out of the approximately 80,000 eligible haredi men.

Ultra-Orthodox Jews protest Israeli military draft orders, in Bnei Brak, November 17, 2024

No more excuses: It's time for haredi Jews to serve in the IDF - editorial

Zionism is not a secular ideology to be shunned; it is the modern manifestation of a 2,000-year-old hope. What could be more Torah-true than helping defend Jewish life in the land of our ancestors?

 Haredi men dressed in traditional ultra-Orthodox garb stand behind a group of religious IDF soldiers

Leading rabbi to instruct ultra-Orthodox faction to exit Netanyahu's coalition

Haredi leader hints at coalition exit over IDF draft bill delays, potentially collapsing the government.

 Rabbi Moshe Hillel Hirsch, pictured in 2014.

Netanyahu's coalition removes all legislation again amid haredi boycott

The boycott is over the government’s delay in advancing a law that will likely exempt a majority of military-age haredi men from IDF service.

 Seats are overwhelmingly empty during a meeting of the Knesset plenum earlier this year.

A year of empty promises: Edelstein talks, but no draft law yet on haredi enlistment - opinion

MK Yuli Edelstein has spent a year holding talks on ultra-Orthodox enlistment without delivering a draft law, exposing a gap between his rhetoric and real progress.

A group of ultra-Orthodox Jews blocked traffic and the light rail  in Jerusalem demonstrating against a Haredi draft into the IDF. February 26, 2024.