Survey reveals surge in Israeli support for Orthodox military conscription

The war against Hamas, approaching its 15th month, has stretched the army’s manpower needs, sharpening the national debate.

By Pesach Benson, TPS

The Israeli public is shifting decisively in favor of integrating Orthodox Jews into military service, according to a survey presented by the Israel Democracy Institute at its conference on Tuesday.

The survey, which sampled 756 Israelis aged 18 and older during November found growing dissatisfaction with current exemptions for the Haredi community and heightened support for conscription.

The poll revealed that only 9% of Israelis now support the current arrangement exempting Haredim from military service, a steep decline from 22% ten months earlier.

In contrast, support for comprehensive or partial conscription of ultra-Orthodox individuals has surged to 84.5%, up from 67% in January.

Half of the respondents favor drafting all young Haredim with rare exemptions, while 34.5% back an allotment system coupled with economic penalties for non-compliance.

“The data clearly shows a sea change in public opinion,” said Shlomit Ravitzky Tur-Paz, director of IDI’s Jacobs Center for Shared Society. “The growing support for conscription reflects broader societal demands for equity and shared responsibility.”

Support for Haredi conscription has also grown markedly among the National Religious population.

In November, 72.5% endorsed some form of Haredi enlistment, doubling from 36.5% in January.

Simultaneously, support for the existing exemptions within this group plummeted from 44% to 18%.

Opinions within the Religious Zionist camp are split: 39.5% favor an allotment system, while 33% advocate for drafting all Haredi individuals except for a select few exceptional yeshiva students.

“We are witnessing a pivotal moment,” said former President Reuven Rivlin. “October 7th proved to us all, whether we like it or not, that we can live as ‘tribes’ only if we have a state that supports all of us. A state that can protect us in terms of security and provide us with all those things a proper society provides.”

The Haredi community largely opposes conscription, with 61% supporting the status quo. Only 20% of ultra-Orthodox respondents favor any form of enlistment, while 19% remain undecided. “We are always discussing tolerating Haredim,” said MK Yitzhak Pindrus of the United Torah Judaism party. “Perhaps it’s the Haredim who are tolerating those who are different from their community?”

The war against Hamas, approaching its 15th month, has stretched the army’s manpower needs, sharpening the national debate.

Among non-Haredi Jewish Israelis, 81% now support revisiting conscription policies for Haredim, up from 65% in January. This sentiment spans various levels of religiosity, with secular support reaching 90%, traditional non-religious at 80%, traditional religious at 66%, and religious individuals rising significantly from 41% to 64.5%.

However, the Haredi community largely resists this shift. A majority (57%) argue that the heightened security demands should not influence their conscription policy, while 21.5% believe otherwise.

Perceptions of the Haredi community’s contribution to the war effort have deteriorated, the survey found. In January, 46% of non-Haredi Jewish Israelis believed Haredim contributed meaningfully; by November, this dropped to 35%. Secular Israelis, in particular, express skepticism, with only 25% acknowledging significant Haredi contributions, down from 32%.

“The gaps are often very large, and the solutions seem far from reach,” said Ravitzky Tur-Paz. “But we must take the first steps, which include speaking openly and honestly, looking each other in the eye, and progressing together towards a solution.”

Prominent figures at the conference stressed the importance of fostering unity across Israeli society.

“October 7th proved to us all, whether we like it or not, that we can live as ‘tribes’ only if we have a state that supports all of us. A state that can protect us in terms of security and provide us with all those things a proper society provides. We must see ourselves as part of the cogent state, even while we live alongside one another as communities,” said former Israeli president Reuven Rivlin.

The Israel Defense Forces began making plans to draft yeshiva students after Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled in June that exemptions for the Haredi community were illegal. The issue has not been resolved and is contributing to a coalition crisis that forced Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu to leave the hospital over the advice of his doctors to cast his vote on government legislation on Tuesday.

Military service is compulsory for all Israeli citizens. However, Israel’s first Prime Minister, David Ben-Gurion, and the country’s leading rabbis agreed to a status quo that deferred military service for Haredi men studying in yeshivot, or religious institutions. At the time, no more than several hundred men were studying in yeshivot.

However, the Orthodox community has grown significantly since Israel’s founding. In January 2023, the Central Bureau of Statistics reported that Haredim are Israel’s fastest-growing community and projected it would constitute 16% of the population by the end of the decade. According to the Israel Democracy Institute, the number of yeshiva students exceeded 138,000 in 2021.