Do Not Blame the Child, Blame the Leadership

This week began in a disturbing way in Israel. After the arrest of a Haredi draft dodger, hundreds of ultra-Orthodox protesters gathered outside the Beit Shemesh police station, where some broke into the compound, clashed with police, blocked roads and set fire to nearby vegetation.

The unrest then spread to Jerusalem, where demonstrators blocked major roads and caused severe traffic disruptions.

Days later, the situation crossed an even more dangerous line when ultra-Orthodox rioters attacked the home of Supreme Court Deputy President Noam Sohlberg, damaging his property and car.

The anger is real. Many Israelis serve, send their children to combat units and carry the burden of reserve duty while others avoid service. When draft dodging is followed by violent riots, blocked roads, attacks on police and vandalism against a Supreme Court justice’s home, the public anger explodes. But the problem is not every Haredi Jew. The real problem is the leadership that teaches people that defending the Jewish state is someone else’s burden.

There is a well-known Jewish phrase: “Make for yourself a rabbi.” In the ultra-Orthodox world, this is not just a religious saying. It is a way of life. People ask their rabbis what to study, how to educate their children, who to vote for and, in many cases, how to relate to the state and the army.

That is why the responsibility begins with the rabbis, politicians and community leaders who shape the culture and set the rules. They tell an entire public that it can live inside the Jewish state, enjoy its rights, budgets, security and protection, but not carry the basic responsibility of defending it.

If Haredi leaders from Shas and United Torah Judaism, together with the councils of Torah sages, set a clear and honest standard, only those who truly study Torah from morning to night receive an exemption, while everyone else enlists, the reality would look very different. Many Israelis who serve see the current system as lawlessness and abuse: people registering as yeshiva students not because they truly study all day, but because it allows them to avoid service. The blame belongs mainly to the leaders who have the power to change this system but refuse to do so.

This problem did not start yesterday. In 1948, David Ben-Gurion agreed to exempt about 400 yeshiva students from military service. At the time, it was a limited arrangement for a small group, created in the shadow of the Holocaust and the destruction of the Torah world. But what began with 400 students became a national crisis. By 2024, about 63,000 Haredi yeshiva students had become subject to the draft after the previous legal framework expired, and in 2025 the IDF said it would issue roughly 54,000 call-up notices to ultra-Orthodox seminary students. What began as a small exception has become a mass system.

The numbers show the problem clearly. That is why a real draft law must happen.

No more tricks. No more empty promises. No more fake targets. No more laws designed to protect politicians instead of protecting soldiers. The law must be simple: those who truly study Torah full-time, under a real and limited framework, can receive a special status. But those who are not truly learning, those who are working under the table or those who are simply using the system to avoid service must enlist or perform meaningful national service.

The greatest danger is that Haredi leadership is deepening the conflict inside Israeli society. When Israelis see draft refusal, violent riots and blocked roads, many begin to blame all Haredim, while serving citizens feel exploited. This is how a small group of leaders tears the Jewish people apart from within.

During the judicial reform crisis, calls for refusal from serving citizens were treated as a national emergency. The same standard must apply here. When rabbis, party leaders or politicians tell an entire public not to enlist, not to report to draft offices or to ignore military orders, that is also a call for refusal.

The answer is not hatred of ordinary Haredim. The answer is a clear law against organized calls for refusal. Any leader who encourages people to ignore the law should be investigated, brought to court and punished if convicted.

If Haredi leaders told every young man who is not truly studying Torah all day to enlist, many would. That proves the problem is not the ordinary Haredi boy. The problem is the leadership.

Israelis must stay united. Do not blame the small person who follows the system he was raised in. Blame the leaders who built that system and place their politics above the state.

Maoz Druskin writes about Israel, democracy and the challenges of national identity in modern societies.