The question of Haredi military service in Israel has always been about more than the army, and the war has made that unmistakable.
On this episode of Identity/Crisis, Yehuda Kurtzer is joined by Yehoshua Pfeffer, a rabbi and public thinker working on questions of Haredi citizenship, work, and service, to unpack why the draft debate has become so volatile since October 7, and why the IDF is more than an institution: it’s a crucible of Israeli identity. Together they explore the fears driving Haredi resistance to the draft, the anger and exhaustion felt across Israeli society, and whether change can happen through trust and politics rather than coercion—before the bonds of kinship and shared fate wear too thin to hold.
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Here’s more from the Shalom Hartman Institute this week:
Listen to our recent episode “America Betrays the Stranger.”