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A looming political storm over enlisting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israel Defense Forces is posing a risk to the administration and splitting the state.

The public mood on the question has changed profoundly in Israel following two years of conflict, and this is now perhaps the most explosive political issue facing the Prime Minister.

The Constitutional Battle

Politicians are reviewing a draft bill to abolish the special status awarded to yeshiva scholars engaged in Torah study, created when the modern Israel was established in 1948.

This arrangement was ruled illegal by the nation's top court in the early 2000s. Interim measures to maintain it were formally ended by the bench last year, pressuring the government to commence conscription of the Haredi sector.

Some 24,000 draft notices were issued last year, but only around 1,200 men from the community showed up, according to military testimony presented to lawmakers.

Strains Boil Over Into Public View

Strains are boiling over onto the city centers, with elected officials now deliberating a new conscription law to force ultra-Orthodox men into army duty alongside other Jewish citizens.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were targeted this month by some extreme ultra-Orthodox protesters, who are enraged with the Knesset's deliberations of the draft legislation.

Recently, a special Border Police unit had to assist Military Police officers who were attacked by a sizeable mob of ultra-Orthodox protesters as they tried to arrest a suspected draft-evader.

Such incidents have sparked the creation of a new messaging system called "Black Alert" to spread word quickly through ultra-Orthodox communities and summon protesters to block enforcement from occurring.

"We're a Jewish country," said an activist. "One cannot oppose the Jewish faith in a nation founded on Jewish identity. It doesn't work."

A World Apart

However the shifts affecting Israel have failed to penetrate the walls of the religious seminary in an ultra-Orthodox city, an ultra-Orthodox city on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

In the learning space, young students sit in pairs to debate the Torah, their distinctive writing books popping against the seats of light-colored shirts and head coverings.

"Arrive late at night, and you will see half the guys are studying Torah," the leader of the academy, Rabbi Tzemach Mazuz, noted. "Via dedicated learning, we shield the soldiers in the field. This constitutes our service."

Ultra-Orthodox believe that constant study and religious study protect Israel's military, and are as essential to its security as its conventional forces. This conviction was accepted by the nation's leaders in the past, the rabbi said, but he admitted that Israel was changing.

Increasing Popular Demand

The ultra-Orthodox population has more than doubled its percentage of Israel's population over the past seven decades, and now accounts for around one in seven. A policy that originated as an exemption for a few hundred religious students evolved into, by the start of the 2023 war, a cohort of some 60,000 men exempt from the conscription.

Opinion polls indicate approval of ultra-Orthodox conscription is rising. Research in July showed that 85% of the broader Jewish public - even a large segment in his own coalition allies - backed penalties for those who refused a draft order, with a clear majority in approving cutting state subsidies, the right to travel, or the electoral participation.

"I feel there are people who live in this country without contributing," one military member in Tel Aviv said.

"I don't think, no matter how devout, [it] should be an excuse not to perform service your state," said a young woman. "As a citizen by birth, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to opt out just to study Torah all day."

Perspectives from Within a Religious City

Support for broadening conscription is also expressed by traditional Jews beyond the Haredi community, like Dorit Barak, who is a neighbor of the academy and notes observant but non-Haredi Jews who do enlist in the army while also engaging in religious study.

"I'm very angry that ultra-Orthodox people don't perform military service," she said. "This creates inequality. I too follow the Torah, but there's a proverb in Hebrew - 'The Book and the Sword' – it represents the Torah and the guns together. This is the correct approach, until the days of peace."

She maintains a small memorial in the neighborhood to fallen servicemen, both observant and non-observant, who were fallen in war. Lines of images {