Free Republic

Even though most yeshiva students in the Chareidi ("ultra-Orthodox") sector opt for army deferments, Chareidi Zionists admire the students of the Hesder yeshivas, who divide their service in the IDF with their Torah learning. One of my high-school chavrutot (study partners) went to a Hesder yeshiva and became an officer in the IDF. He wrote his classmates in yeshiva in the USA that he and the young men under his command were involved in some of the most dangerous pursuits of terrorists. He also wrote that, when possible, he taught Talmud to the soldiers in his command. The Chareidim focus...

Many leading rabbis in hesder yeshivas – which combine religious studies with military service – have lately endorsed appeals to their student-soldiers to shun participation in the implementation of the projected disengagement from Gaza and, more specifically, to play no part in evicting Jewish residents. This has instantly produced the expected political reactions, including demands from Labor's Amram Mitzna and Ophir Pines-Paz that special arrangements for hesder conscripts be abrogated. MK Matan Vilna'i (Labor) went a step further and urged in an Israel Radio interview last Thursday that the entire hesder framework be disbanded. There may be a kernel of...

A hesder soldier - one who combines yeshiva studies and military service in a five-year program - is currently imprisoned for a week in a tough military jail for refusing to take part in a mixed dance. The punishment came after a week of strife between some 25 hesder soldiers and their battalion commander regarding how they should spend a few days of semi-vacation. Although it is generally accepted in the army that hesder students are permitted to return to their yeshivot during these "social" weeks, the commanders in this particular case felt differently. They originally demanded that the soldier-students...