Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Many Haredi Enroll in Israel Service

The uncertainty surrounding the aftermath of the Tal Law’s August 1 expiry has driven a record number of ultra-Orthodox men to volunteer for the national service program in the past few days.

Some 200 men packed Jerusalem’s Yad Sarah conference hall Thursday, constituting the largest contingent ever to join the program, launched in 2008 as an alternative to yeshiva students’ military service.

The men, coming from the Lithuanian, Sephardi and especially Hasidic factions of the Haredi community, will be joining the 1,860 Haredi men currently in the national service.

“Everyone here realizes that once the Tal Law expires, the terms might worsen for the volunteers,” said Yisrael Meir Ravitz of the National Civilian Service administration for Haredim.

For more, go to Haaretz.com

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.