IDF
High court ruling on Haredi draft exemption may set Israel on course for new elections
By David I. Klein — March 29, 2024
(RNS) — The draft exemptions, long a flashpoint issue in Israeli politics, have become even more fraught since the start of the war in Gaza, as Israel has called up over 300,000 reservists to active service while still exempting Haredis studying Torah.
These US citizens went to fight for Israel. Now they’re hostages in Gaza.
By Yonat Shimron — February 29, 2024
(RNS) — An estimated 23,380 American citizens currently serve in Israeli ranks. Three are now hostage in Gaza.
Amid war, Israel expands military bereavement policy to include same-sex partners
By Michele Chabin — November 13, 2023
JERUSALEM (RNS) — Lawmakers voted to expand the Families of Fallen Soldiers Law to include common-law partners of LGBTQ members of the Israel Defense Forces.
Haredi Jews, exempt from Israel’s military service mandate, sign up to fight Hamas
By Michele Chabin — October 30, 2023
JERUSALEM (RNS) — 'This isn’t a drill. This is an actual war,' one ultra-Orthodox Israeli said. 'During wartime, we must all do the maximum. Anyone who isn’t studying Torah full time should contribute.'
Why Israel got to Surfside so fast
By Jeffrey Salkin — June 28, 2021
(RNS) — Yes, Israelis rushed to help in Surfside. Because that's the entire purpose of the Jewish people.
More Israeli ultra-Orthodox Jews buck tradition and head for the army, higher ed
By Lauren Markoe — January 17, 2018
JERUSALEM (RNS) — 'My father didn’t serve and neither did my nearly 100 cousins, not that I hold it against them,' said one ultra-Orthodox soldier.
Israeli court annuls law exempting religious from military
By Jerome Socolovsky — September 12, 2017
JERUSALEM (AP) — Israel's Supreme Court struck down a 2015 law that granted exemptions from military service to ultra-Orthodox men, in a move that could reignite long-standing tensions between Israel's politically powerful ultra-Orthodox community and the secular Jewish majority.
Some rabbis fear expanding women’s roles in the Israeli army could lead to sin
By Yonat Shimron — March 23, 2017
JERUSALEM (RNS) 'They are enlisting our girls,' who emerge from the army 'non-Jewish,' said Rabbi Yigal Levenstein.
Page 1 of 1
