The Artists and Athletes Argument
"If they are exempt, charedim should be too!"
My good friend Rabbi Scott Kahn recently interviewed the Rav of my shul, Rav Menachem Copperman, on the topic of charedim and army service. The interview was excellent and I highly recommend listening to it. There was one question to which Rav Copperman gave some excellent answers, but to which I would like to elaborate upon his answer and add to it.
The question was how to respond to a common challenge presented by charedim: If artists and athletes get an exemption from IDF service, shouldn’t the same apply to yeshiva students? Isn’t Torah scholarship at least as important as acting or singing or running?!
Rav Copperman correctly responded that this question is mistaken and misleading in a number of ways. First of all, it’s not as though army service is a conflicting value to Torah; it’s a mitzvah that is part of Torah. And in the kollel he attended, which was a very serious institution, you had to have served in the IDF to join! This is similar to the point that I discussed in my post last week, “Who should be learning instead of serving?” Army service makes you into a better Jew.
(I would personally like to add that Rav Copperman himself served in the IDF, and this did not stop him from spending six years in yeshivah, eight years in kollel, and completing semicha as Rabbi (Yoreh Yoreh) and Dayan (Yadin Yadin), after which he continued to become a shul rabbi, a Dayan on a Beis Din, the head of a semicha program, and a yeshiva rebbe.)
Second, says Rav Copperman, even if there were hypothetically some people for whom army service would prevent them from becoming great Torah leaders, and should have the same exemption as artists and athletes, we are talking about a small number of individuals. And that’s just not what the current debate is about. The charedi rabbinic and political leadership is wholly against charedi enlistment across the board - not just all yeshiva students, including mediocre ones, but all charedim, period, even if they are not learning in yeshivah at all.
I would like to elaborate upon this. There are countless young aspiring singers, musicians, and athletes who want the IDF to recognize them with the official status of “Outstanding Artist” or “Outstanding Athlete.” And the overwhelming majority do not receive it! The IDF maintains incredibly tight annual quotas of just a few dozen spots, precisely in order to protect the integrity of the military draft and prevent mass evasion. In fact, to protect the scarce quotas for classical and performative arts, the IDF completely abolished the “Active Artist” classification for fashion models.
With athletes, a tiny number of spots are reserved, almost exclusively for athletes who are ranked among the top percentiles nationally, or have placed highly in European/World championships, such that they will be competing in Olympic sports or top-tier international structures. With artists, there are likewise strict quotas, awarded to exceptional artists with an extensive portfolio of professional activity. Candidates must also pass rigorous live auditions conducted by a panel of military and external professional judges.
(And the reason why these people receive an exemption is that not that the state values artistic and atheletic excellence. Lots of things are valuable, but don’t get you an army exemption. It’s that it actively helps the country, because such people will be performing and competing internationally, and thereby strengthening Israel politically and economically.)
If the charedi leadership and community would agree to enlist everyone except a few dozen (or even a few hundred, and perhaps even a few thousand) select students who are evaluated according to strict criteria, just like artists and athletes are a limited number of select candidates, there would be no disputes. But that’s not what they are demanding.
Yet there’s an even more basic response to be made. Despite there being a very widespread claim that outstanding artists and athletes are exempt from IDF service, it simply isn’t even true!
The few dozen people each year who pass the strict criteria to qualify as outstanding artists and athletes are not exempt from army service. They still have to enlist and undergo training and serve. The difference is that they are given a shorter training, lower-intensity jobs, and more flexible hours to accomodate their professional schedules. Soldiers in the “Outstanding Artist” tier perform roles that directly leverage their creative skills to serve the military’s internal morale and external public relations.
And if any of these artists and athletes refuse to comply, and avoid service, they go to prison! Just like everyone else who dodges the draft. The common charedi complaint about charedim being persecuted and sent to prison “for learning Torah” is simply farcical.
To every charedi person who claims that learning Torah should be treated the same as artistic or athletic performance, the response should be - yes, absolutely, and the state already offers that! A small number of select Torah students can get a shortened training and a lower-intensity job that caters to their skills, just like outstanding artists and athletes.
It’s called the Military Rabbinate.