Anyone seeking to make a pilgrimage and pray at the graves of the righteous should begin at Mount Herzl National Cemetery – the holy mountain where the martyrs of Israel lie. These are the soldiers and other people who gave their lives for the Jewish people and the State of Israel, sacrificing everything so that we can live here in security.
The sacrifices required for military service are very much on our minds today, especially when it comes to sharing this burden of service – a burden the ultra-Orthodox community continues to oppose.
At a time when we are defending seven active fronts, when the nerves of an entire society are stretched to the limit, when tens of thousands of reservists have accumulated days of service equivalent to an entire decade, the debate around the mandatory draft law and the consequences of refusing to serve has taken on new urgency. There should, indeed, be consequences for not serving – and there certainly should not be any rewards.
Draft dodgers
Under current law, any citizens obligated for army service who refuse to enlist in the IDF can face disciplinary or criminal charges. The Israel Defense Forces launched a coordinated operation to detain draft evaders – many of them yeshiva students – laying bare the divisions within Israeli society and exposing why such measures don’t work. Arrests and lengthy prison sentences, even if they are based on sound moral principles, do not result in meaningful change.
On the contrary, they deepen insularity within the ultra-Orthodox community and place additional strain on an already overcrowded prison system. Needless to say, these “forced recruits” will not suddenly become high-performing, motivated combat soldiers who embody the spirit of sacrifice that defines elite units.
If we are serious about raising a generation rooted in mutual responsibility and shared destiny, evading national duty must carry real and visible consequences. Still, I believe prison should no longer be among them. Instead, other measures are both fair and necessary. Travel restrictions, for example, are a reasonable and widely used legal mechanism. They apply to everyone – whether haredi, religious Zionist, or secular – when legal obligations go unmet. Draft evaders should be no exception.
Yet the government has approved NIS 10 million to finance logistics, transportation, and infrastructure for this year’s Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage to the grave of the founder of Hassidism, Rabbi Nachman, in Uman, Ukraine. Even more troubling, some have proposed exempting draft evaders from travel restrictions so that they, too, may join the pilgrimage.
The attorney-general has since said the government has no authority to grant such exemptions. Nevertheless, the idea that public funds – and possible legal exemptions – are being channeled to overseas pilgrimages while reservists and their families shoulder unbearable burdens is nothing short of absurd.
Respect for the reservists
I do not dismiss the spiritual value the site holds for hundreds of thousands of Jews in Israel and the Diaspora, and many who visit also serve or have served in the IDF. Even so, it’s hard to ignore the disparity: While millions in public funds go toward a pilgrimage abroad, thousands of reservists will be spending the holidays far from their families without comparable support.
If there is any group the state should prioritize and reward, it is our soldiers – those men and women carrying the load of defending our country, to whom these resources and our gratitude truly belong.
Let it be clear: This is not a personal attack against our haredi brothers. It is a call for genuine equality for all. At its core, the debate about who needs to serve and what exemptions there should be is about the meaning of equal citizenship. Israelis are asking: Is this just about rights and benefits or does equal citizenship also mean sharing collective responsibilities – across all sectors of Israeli society, without exception?
The answer is clearly the latter. If there is excess funding available to subsidize flights to Uman, it should be redirected to support the reservists spending the holidays on the front lines – and their families, who are simply collapsing under the unfair burden.
Surely if Rabbi Nachman were alive today, he would recognize the holiness of those who serve, and he would view those buried on Mount Herzl as the holiest of saints, worthy of us all visiting.
Our mission now is to redefine the meaning of shared civic responsibility. Not through boycotts, not by pointing fingers, but by creating a new language of equality – where all segments of Israeli society share equally in both the burdens and the privileges of citizenship.
The writer is director-general of the Ohr Torah Stone educational network and a former mayor of Efrat.