The inhabitants of Bnei Brak, a city considered the capital of the ultra-Orthodox of Israel, are clear that they do not plan to wear the military uniform despite the war earthquake that is shaking their country. They are going to continue with their black pants, their white long-sleeved shirt, the white fringes (tzitzit) hanging from the waist, the kippah on the crown of the head and, despite the heat that prevails these days, the long coat and hat, also black. “We are soldiers of the Torah,” describes Daniel, 63, as he serves a young man in his business selling traditional Jewish clothing and religious objects. The Supreme Court order announced on Tuesday ending the exemption of the ultra-Orthodox (13% of the 10 million Israelis) from the army does not bother the population of Bnei Brak in the least, of some 185,000 inhabitants, the vast majority of They are haredi (ultra-orthodox).
In front of the window of Daniel’s establishment (who prefers not to give his last name), on the central Rabino Akiva Street, pedestrians circulate whose way of dressing leaves no doubt. The merchant points to them: “Walk anywhere and you will see. I think I’ll be an understatement if I tell you that 85% of us here are ultra-Orthodox. Those who are not religious are the majority from outside.”
Not far from that place, at mid-morning this Wednesday, hundreds of men of very different ages repeatedly rock back and forth while reading religious texts in one of the classrooms of the Slabodka yeshiva, one of the schools for the Torah study that dot the streets of Bnei Brak. “I don’t feel any special obligation,” says Yehiel Nadel, a 20-year-old student who is suspicious that being a soldier and being a Haredi can be made compatible. This young man does not feel challenged by the Defense authorities, who try to attract young religious people to special units in which they do not live with women, enjoy special food and have more time to pray. “It is necessary that they understand our culture and its origin,” he says.
“Spiritual battle”
“Of course we have to have an army, but we also have to address the spiritual root of things. And my role is on the spiritual level, that which has protected the Jewish people for thousands of years, when we did not have an army,” Nadel justifies. “We feel that our role is here in the spiritual battle,” he adds in the middle of a group of students that has formed around the reporter. They all sport colorful ringlets and are dressed exactly the same: black pants and a white shirt. Behind, the racks where coats and hats rest during classes.
“We do not feel represented by this court, which has deepened the rift in Israeli society,” says Phineas Cohen, 28, another student at the Slabodka yeshiva. “What would happen if the Supreme Court in Spain forced Catholics to become Protestants? It would be seen as an affront to religious feelings,” he says.
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So far, about 1,800 ultra-Orthodox are joining the ranks voluntarily per year, but the war in Gaza, whose end is not in sight soon, is a heavy burden for the army, which has called up more than 300,000 reservists since October. After the Supreme Court’s announcement, Israel hopes that some 3,000 can be added to that quota of 1,800 religious next year under the weight of the law, although no one sees the authorities dragging Haredis into combat.
“There will be many demonstrations, strikes and transfers to prison if the army tries to recruit the ultra-Orthodox by force,” understands Shilo Freid, a journalist for the newspaper Yediot Aharonot, which, in turn, does not see it as difficult to achieve the goal of 3,000 in the coming months. He also does not see the ultra-Orthodox parties that support Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu dropping the government coalition. This number of religious soldiers is not a figure that can be considered decisive, but it is interpreted as a way of breaking a privilege enjoyed by those who dedicate themselves to the sacred scriptures since Israel was born as a State 76 years ago.
Avi Kosman, a rabbi who arrived four decades ago from the United States, does not want to talk about politics, but he does describe two worlds that openly collide, that of the study of the Torah and the Bible and the secular one. He does not like to prophesy, but he is clear that “yeshiva students are not going to go to the army,” he says during a conversation surrounded by students in one of the classes. When asked how unpopular he thinks it is for many soldiers and their families that Haredis do not go to the army, Kosman acknowledges that “that is a good approach” and that “they are 100% right.” In any case, he affirms that he is not going to change his mind and also believes that the plan to integrate the ultra-Orthodox into the Armed Forces is “not realistic.”
Bnei Brak, in the metropolitan belt of Tel Aviv, has the highest population density in Israel, with more than 26,000 inhabitants per square kilometer (compared to the national average of 387). At the same time, it suffers from a high poverty rate and the highest unemployment rate (6.2% compared to the 4.1% national average). Spirituality and the fact that an important part of the most influential rabbis have been trained in their schools is a pole of attraction, explains Daniel, the salesperson in religious clothing who wears his ringlets gathered over his ears next to the temples of his glasses. . “There are those who need a physical battlefront; Others of us need the spiritual battlefront,” he explains to reject the legal imperative to resort to the army that now falls to the haredis.
Arriving as a teenager to Bnei Brak from Casablanca (Morocco), Moshe Marciano, 48, defends that it is the sacred scriptures that attract so many people to Israel. “Look,” comments this Slobodka yeshiva student while pointing his finger, “this one, from Germany; east, from Yemen; east, from the United States; I, from Morocco…” Next to him, Nahum Meir, 65, knows that he is not going to be called up due to age, but he sadly describes how he interprets reality: “The court has cut off the branch from which Israel was born, the Torah.” Every conversation leads to that book.
There is also another detail that helps to understand the environment in which Bnei Brak lives despite the war that has shaken the country since last October 7. For several hours, Morning Express does not come across a single soldier, something almost impossible in any other city in Israel. In Bnei Brak the “soldiers of the Torah” impose their law.
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