A violation of the social contract
Nearly every family has a member in uniform or contributes through civilian initiatives like Sherut Leumi (National Service).
In Israel, where the threat of war is ever-present, the military and civilian services are integral to the fabric of national life.
Nearly every family has a member in uniform or contributes through civilian initiatives like Sherut Leumi (National Service). Yet, amid rising and increasingly high stakes security challenges, a significant segment of the population – the Charedim, Israel’s ultra-Orthodox community – largely refrains from these responsibilities, sparking intense and sometimes violent debate.
In 1948, Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben-Gurion, made a pivotal decision. He granted military and academic exemptions to the Charedi community. Initially, this applied to around 400 yeshivah students, meant to be a temporary measure for a group still reeling from the destruction of the Shoah. Ben-Gurion viewed these scholars as custodians of Jewish identity, vital to the fledgling state’s cultural continuity.
However, over the decades, the temporary arrangement became permanent. By the 1980s, the Charedi political influence had solidified, embedding exemptions into Israeli law. This allowed thousands of young Charedi men to avoid military service each year, a policy that has since become a point of contention. Today, the Charedi population makes up 13 per cent of Israel’s citizenry. By 2050, projections indicate that one-third of Israel’s Jewish population could be Charedi, prompting concerns about the implications for Israel’s economy, infrastructure and social fabric.
The Charedim insist they contribute to Israel through religious and charitable work, asserting that Torah study serves as a form of spiritual defence. Many Charedi leaders argue that their community’s focus on religion is essential for the Jewish state’s soul and continuity. However, as Israel grapples with heightened security threats, this perspective appears increasingly out of step with the nation’s needs. Among secular and non-Charedi religious Israelis, who consistently bear the burden of national defence, frustration is growing.
The Israeli government supports the Charedi community through a complex web of benefits. State-funded religious schools, stipends for Torah scholars and generous welfare provisions ensure that large Charedi families can sustain their way of life.
Charedi educational institutions receive between 55 per cent to 75 per cent of the funding that non-Charedi schools get, a disparity tied to their focus on Torah over subjects like maths and science.
Yeshivot, while subsidised, receive less per capita than secular universities. Additionally, an average married Torah scholar (an avrech) earns a monthly stipend of 5400 shekels (about $A2687). With a birth rate of 6.6 children per woman, child allowances and subsidised housing are integral to supporting Charedi families.
Yet, despite these supports, 44 per cent of the Charedi population lives below the poverty line, partly due to their low workforce participation – currently at 52 per cent for Charedi men, compared to 87 per cent among other Jewish men. Critics argue that the Charedim benefit disproportionately from a modern state they are unwilling to defend. No other group in Israeli society enjoys such privileges without substantial reciprocity. Their stance is viewed by many as having the best of both worlds: benefiting from Israel’s economic infrastructure and military security while shirking the duties that sustain them.
As the nation faces growing threats, this lack of participation has become harder to justify. Attempts to draft Charedim into the IDF have been met with fierce resistance, including protests and, at times, violent clashes. In many Charedi neighbourhoods, posters denounce the IDF as an enemy to Jewish values, and Charedi politicians in the Knesset remain adamantly opposed to conscription, framing it as a threat to their religious way of life.
For the families who have lost loved ones in defence of Israel – including protecting Charedi neighbourhoods – the ultra-Orthodox community’s refusal to serve feels not just like evasion but betrayal. It is seen as a violation of the social contract – a one-sided arrangement where one group contributes while another reaps the benefits. With the Charedi population set to constitute a significant segment of Israel’s demographics, this unbalanced relationship risks becoming unsustainable and destabilising the state.
Israel, a nation that has prided itself on diversity, now grapples with the limits of pluralism. There is a breaking point, especially when the survival of the state hangs in the balance. The notion that some citizens can opt out of collective responsibilities because of religious convictions may have seemed reasonable when the Charedi community was small. Yet, in today’s Israel, it is perceived as an exploitation.
The pressure to resolve this tension is intensifying. The widening gap between the Charedim and the rest of Israeli society signals that confrontation on this issue is inevitable. In a country where all are called to serve, the refusal by the Charedim seems less a matter of religious freedom and more an abdication of civic duty.
To secure Israel’s future, it is essential that the Charedi community acknowledges its debt to the society that sustains it. This involves accepting responsibilities that every other Israeli must shoulder. If the Charedim cannot – or will not – step forward, the rift between them and the broader Israeli population will deepen. Such a division threatens not just the cohesion of Israeli society but, ultimately, the very survival of a nation built on the shared sacrifices of its people.
Adam Slonim is the director of the Middle East Policy Forum.
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