As Israel’s draft crisis continues to dominate headlines, approximately 120 chareidi recruits are expected to enter the IDF this week, choosing a path that remains highly controversial within much of the chareidi world.
Their enlistment comes amid escalating protests, arrests of yeshiva bochurim, and growing political battles over the future of military service for bnei yeshiva.
Among the new recruits is 27-year-old Bentzi Yusovitch, a graduate of prominent yeshivos including Mir Brachfeld and Kol Torah, who says the events of October 7 changed his outlook.
“On October 7, I was in yeshiva,” Yusovitch told Israel Hayom. “I didn’t even know what was happening until much later in the day. Once I saw the videos and understood the scale of the tragedy, I felt I had to do something.”
At the time, he was learning full-time and spending long hours in the beis medrash each day. But after Simchas Torah, he began volunteering, transporting supplies to soldiers and communities affected by the attack.
“Already on October 8, I was driving near areas where there was still fighting,” he recalled. “For an entire week, I drove thousands of kilometers delivering equipment to soldiers.”
Yusovitch says his later work in Israel’s film industry also exposed him to a broader cross-section of Israeli society and challenged many assumptions he had grown up hearing about secular Israelis.
“When you work side by side with people for 10 or 12 hours a day, you realize they’re good people who care deeply about the country,” he said.
Eventually, he concluded that military service was the right path for him.
“I asked myself, what’s my excuse? Why didn’t I enlist? I’m not sitting in yeshiva anymore,” he said.
The decision, he acknowledged, carries social consequences within the chareidi community, including potential challenges in shidduchim. Still, he remains optimistic.
“I’ve been in shidduchim for five years,” he joked. “Maybe now doors will open.”
Another new recruit, identified only as “A,” is joining an intelligence unit after growing up in the mainstream Belzer chassidic community.
“After October 7, you want to be part of the people making history and defending the country,” he said.
His sister, a 31-year-old mother who recently joined the Home Front Command through a special framework for chareidi women, described a similar feeling.
“There was something inside me that wouldn’t leave me alone,” she said. “I wanted to contribute and feel part of what was happening.”
Before enlisting, she volunteered with wounded soldiers in hospitals but eventually felt compelled to do more.
She also pushed back against claims that the military is unable to accommodate chareidi recruits.
“Everything is organized,” she said. “There’s glatt kosher food, and there are rabbanim available for questions. The framework is working.”
The enlistment of these recruits comes as debate over military service continues to divide Israeli society, with some viewing their decisions as an act of national responsibility and others seeing them as a departure from the traditional chareidi approach that prioritizes full-time Torah learning.
(YWN World Headquarters – NYC)
