Nearly one thousand IDF soldiers have sacrificed their lives for the nation since October 7, 2023. Thousands more have been crippled for life or injured. Tens (and possibly hundreds) of thousands more suffer PTSD.
But it’s not only lives and physical and mental health that have been sacrificed. It’s also jobs.
I know someone who had invested an enormous amount of money to create a ceramic tile business, due to open in the fall of 2023. Then Oct 7 happened, and he was called up. And then he was called up again. And again. Naturally, his business collapsed. It was tragic to see his showroom and warehouse being cleared out, to see millions of shekels of investment lost.
But I had no idea how widespread the problem is.
A horrifying report released yesterday stated that 75% of reservists have suffered financially as a result of their repeated stints of reserve duty for months on end, with 41% losing their jobs altogether.
The government has not taken care of them. But it has given out billions of shekels to charedim, to pay them to not relieve the burden placed upon the reservists and to perpetuate a lifestyle of further draining the economy, which will ultimately simply collapse the country.
(The Likud does this in order to maintain Bibi in power, because it’s unthinkable to have anyone else lead their party, ever. The so-called “Religious Zionism” and “Jewish Strength” parties also enable this harm against the Jewish People, seeing it as a necessary price to pay in order to further their goals of settling additional land, without concern for the manpower that such settlement needs and which simply does not exist without charedim, aside from the existential threat that the charedi community presents.)
Meanwhile, the future demands on soldiers are only continuing to increase due to the manpower shortage. The army has had to increase both the duration of reserve duty and the number of years for which it is applicable. My son, who is leaving yeshivah to begin his combat training after Pesach (and how knows when he’ll be able to return to yeshiva), will be called up for months every year into his forties.
These are the young men that we want to be prepared to die to protect us. But how are they even supposed to live? How are they supposed to complete college studies? How are they supposed to get jobs? How are they supposed to hold down jobs? How are they supposed to build and maintain their marriages and families?
And meanwhile, there are over 70,000 charedim who could share the burden. Reserve duty could be dramatically reduced. But the charedi community simply doesn’t care to help the nation. (And it’s not about Torah; they don’t even care about the dati yeshiva students who have to leave yeshiva while tens of thousands of charedim aren’t even learning.) They just want to take as much money as possible from the people who pay taxes and further weaken the country.
It’s unsustainable. It’s insane. It’s sick. It’s evil. And without radical change, it will destroy our entire existence.
There is a demonstration taking place this Wednesday, primarily by religious and right-wing Jews, to protest this terrible situation. If you are able to join, please do so. If you are not, please spread the word about the demonstration, and please think of any other way that you can help campaign against this terrible injustice and danger. You can start by sharing this post with your charedi friends and relatives - even if it’s uncomfortable and difficult for you to do so. Because it’s much, much less difficult than what everyone is expecting from our sons.
A list of posts on the topic of IDF service is at Torah and Army: The Big Index
As you hint, the impact of this war on the lives of former soldiers and their family will not be over once the war is over. Haredi leadership no doubt think they can maintain their status quo by extemporizing and dragging their feet, as usual. But the issue of grossly unequal contribution is only going to get bigger after the war ends. Why this time? Because veterans and their families, as a rule, demand societal changes in the peace that follows. This time, the size of the haredi population enjoying not just deferments, but a lifestyle upon which this war has had little impact, is far larger than ever before, and those who have sacrificed will not forget how we pleaded for help and support from our brothers, and how they chose to party on instead.
"And it’s not about Torah; they don’t even care about the dati yeshiva students who have to leave yeshiva."
Wrong conclusion. The correct conclusion is they don't value their Torah in the first place. It is mostly about Torah, and the rest is about a "feh" attitude towards the entire enterprise of the state, which is not their problem. As long as they're living in this bubble, this will continue. Someone needs to figure out how to pop the bubble and let the real world in.