Who needs enemies when we have one another? That was the question I found myself grappling with on Wednesday after seeing a video of what appeared to be more than 1,000 ultra-Orthodox yeshiva students dancing and chanting: “We do not believe in the regime of the heretics, and we will not appear in their IDF draft centers.”
The chant, which rhymes in Hebrew, is chilling. The video, widely available online, captures the fervor of the moment: hundreds of young men jumping up and down as the head of their yeshiva, Shalom Ber Sorotzkin, runs across a platform at the center of the hall – it was his son’s wedding – singing along and urging his students to join him.
On any day, such a display would be deeply disturbing. Here are about 1,000 ultra-Orthodox men, dodging the IDF draft while openly disparaging the very state that allows them to do so, provides them with welfare services, and offers them a quality of life they would struggle to find elsewhere.
But there is more. These men dancing are Sorotzkin’s students at the yeshiva he runs called Ateret Shlomo. Last year, the yeshiva received NIS 18m. from Israeli taxpayers; in 2023, it received NIS 25m., and in 2022, another NIS 18m. Overall, it has received something like NIS 100m. in the last five years.
Yesh Atid MK Elazar Stern recounted on Wednesday how he had attended a meeting of the Knesset Finance Committee the night before. The committee was debating the state budget, which is moving toward a plenum vote later this month.
The committee’s chair, MK Moshe Gafni, was absent since he was at the Sorotzkin wedding. Yet, that did not stop the members from approving scandalous funding proposals for haredi yeshivas and educational institutions, including Ateret Shlomo – the very institution whose students were calling the state a “regime of heretics.”
This is the kind of scenario you can’t make up. Israeli taxpayers are literally funding those working to dismantle the country. Who needs Hezbollah, Hamas, or Iran when we are financing a fifth column from within?
Consider the state budget, which must pass by the end of the month. It includes NIS 1.27 billion designated for yeshivas like Ateret Shlomo. If that isn’t bad enough, an additional NIS 36m. is being allocated – I kid you not – to NGOs that help yeshiva students avoid army service. Again, the state is weakening itself from within.
And this is not an isolated incident. Just last month, Dov Landau, a powerful rabbi within the ultra-Orthodox world and head of the Slobodka Yeshiva, issued a directive to members of United Torah Judaism, the political party for which he serves as a spiritual guide, not to participate in Zionist institutions such as the Jewish Agency for Israel or Keren Kayemeth LeIsrael-Jewish National Fund.
“Zionism is rooted in heresy… and rebellion against divine sovereignty. There is no allowance to participate with them, serve in their institutions, or vote in their elections,” Landau declared.
How much has his yeshiva received from the state? More than NIS 50m. since 2015.
NONE OF this makes sense. Why would a country willingly fund institutions that seek its downfall? The sad answer: politics. Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu needs the haredim in his coalition.
He needs their votes to pass the budget, or else the government will collapse, triggering elections he might lose. If the price for their support is over a billion shekels funneled to institutions that openly call the government a “regime of heretics,” then so be it.
The problem is that Israel can no longer afford this arrangement. The economy is slowing, the deficit is growing, and taxes are rising. Yet instead of integrating the least productive sector of society – the haredim – into the workforce and military, we are bankrolling a way of life that is unsustainable.
We need the manpower
Beyond the economic implications, the wedding video raises another urgent issue: manpower. The number of men seen dancing could easily fill two to three IDF battalions, units that are desperately needed. The missions facing the IDF are increasing, yet there is a dire shortage of soldiers.
Reservists who have already served for hundreds of days over the past 18 months are being called up again in the coming weeks. Meanwhile, these young men chant that they will not even show up at the draft center.
The situation is nauseating. It might feel like a fait accompli, but it does not have to be. This can change. But for that to happen, the middle class – those who pay the majority of taxes and serve in the reserves – must take a stand. We must say, “No more.” We cannot continue to shoulder this burden alone. We must refuse to support politicians who sustain this travesty.
Change is possible, but it requires action. Silence will not work. The middle class must mobilize, protest, and demand accountability from elected officials. We must challenge the notion that maintaining power justifies subsidizing those who undermine the state. We must insist that the rules apply to everyone.
There is no justification for a system that allows an entire sector to remain outside the workforce, outside the military, and outside the national effort, all while benefiting from the very state they curse. Israel was built on the idea of shared responsibility. If we want to preserve this country for future generations, we need to restore that principle.
At a time when the country is facing growing security challenges – in the South, the North, and beyond – there is no time to waste. This might have been possible to tolerate before October 7 but definitely not now, at a time when the IDF is missing over 10,000 soldiers to fulfill the missions it already has.
What will happen, for example, if something were to change in Jordan or Egypt and Israel would need to deploy more troops along those borders? Where would they come from?
Israelis must wake up. We must demand that our leaders stop funding those who oppose the state. We must insist that every citizen contribute to the national effort. If we fail to do so, we are not just funding our own destruction – we are accelerating it.
The writer is co-author of a forthcoming book, While Israel Slept, about the October 7 Hamas attacks, and is a senior fellow at the Jewish People Policy Institute, a global Jewish think tank based in Jerusalem.
