Guns and Shtreimels: The forgotten Haredi Fighters in Israel’s War of Independence

In the chaotic days of the summer of 1948, months into Israel’s War of Independence, the Rabbi of the Belz Hasidic dynasty received an unusual inquiry from a young yeshiva student named Menashe Eichler. Menashe, who was also known by his underground pseudonym “Dov”, foresaw that the expected battle over the village of Ein Karem on the outskirts of Jerusalem would be prolonged into Shabbat, and he wanted to receive his Rabbi’s approval to desecrate Shabbat for the fighting. The Rabbi permitted it, and Menashe and dozens of other Haredi fighters from the Religious Platoon of Lehi, Israel’s most contentious pre-state militia, fought until the village was captured. After the battle, the Haredi fighters walked along the mountainous roads all the way home, explaining that they had received permission to fight but not to make it easier for themselves to return home.

In those days, the Religious Platoon wasn’t an anomaly. During the War of Independence, the vast majority of ultra-Orthodox men of military age enlisted in the IDF. Some, like Menashe, joined even before the war, entering different Jewish resistance groups that mainly fought against the British authorities that ruled the land as part of the British Mandate, but also clashed with Arabs. Many joined individually and integrated alongside less religious or non-religious resistance members. These Haredi fighters came from all segments of the ultra-Orthodox world, including its most isolated groups such as Satmar and even the infamous Neturei Karta, which today advocates nothing less than Israel’s annihilation. There was also a combat unit of Haredim from the insular Gur Hasidic dynasty, who fought alongside secular comrades in the IDF’s Alexandroni Brigade. But this participation in the defence forces didn’t last long.

Fast-forward to 2025. Israel has been divided for many decades over the question of conscription of Haredi men into the IDF. “We will die and not enlist!” is one of the most familiar slogans heard at protests by some Haredi segments. Yet while, in real terms, 923 Israeli soldiers have been killed and over 12,000 injured since the October 7 attack, secular, traditional and Modern Orthodox Jewish Israelis, who have been carrying the burden of mandatory and reserve military service in Israel’s longest war, are looking with thinning patience at the Haredim, who make up 13.9% of Israel’s population. They demand change.

Today, Menashe’s son, Yisrael Eichler, is a member of the Knesset on behalf of the Hasidic Agudat Yisrael faction in the United Torah Judaism party. The late Menashe remained a devout Belz Hasid while serving as a reservist in Israel’s subsequent wars. Yisrael, on the other hand, did not follow in his father’s footsteps. Despite the mandatory military service law, he did not serve in the IDF, like the vast majority of ultra-Orthodox men in recent decades. Together with other Haredi politicians and influential rabbis, he called on his community to participate in a united Haredi rally in Jerusalem against the enlistment law for Haredim, which drew hundreds of thousands of participants last October. Some violent incidents against police and journalists, outrageous signs by radical Haredim (“We would rather die as Jews than live as Zionists”), and the use of symbols from the hostages’ campaign to support yeshiva students who were arrested for dodging the IDF draft, further deepened the rift between Haredim and the rest of the Jewish serving public. How did Israel end up in this situation?

Anti-Zionists who fought for the Zionist state

The majority of Haredi Jews – then as now – have opposed Zionism ideologically. Among other things, their religious anti-Zionism includes the view that it is forbidden for Jews to reconstitute Jewish rule in the Land of Israel before the arrival of the Messiah. Yet Haredi society then was significantly different and more pragmatic.

“Initially, Haredim believed that because they weren’t Zionist, the Arabs wouldn’t harm them, but in reality the opposite happened,” explains Moshe Ehrenwald, an Israeli historian and author of the Hebrew book Haredim during the Independence War. “The vast majority of casualties in the Events of 1929 [a week of violent riots in August 1929, in which Palestinian Arabs attacked Jews all over Mandatory Palestine] were Haredim. Out of 133 Jewish casualties in the attacks, 67 were killed in Hebron and 18 in Safed. Every Jew was a Jew, and Haredim were an easier target,” he says.

“Haredim also liked the idea of British rule and didn’t want a Jewish state, but at the last moment everything changed. They didn’t trust the British; before the beginning of the War of Independence, Haredi representatives met with the British authorities and said that they did not trust them to protect them,” Ehrenwald explains. Haredim preferred that Haganah fighters stay in the Old City of Jerusalem and not be evacuated, as the British demanded.

According to Ehrenwald, “many of the leading rabbis were Holocaust survivors themselves, who understood that if they wanted the Jewish people and Judaism to survive, they had to protect this place. They understood that an existential war was coming, and they had to join. Anti-Zionist people were ready to give up their lives for an upcoming state that would not align with their beliefs.”

Yair Halevy, an Israeli researcher of the Haredi community, agrees. “It was a different world. Haredim were more pro-Zionist back then, in terms of their approach to the flag and army enlistment. They were generally a more open society; they were living among the secular and Modern Orthodox, the vast majority worked and didn’t study in the yeshivas, and they consumed media, books and clothes like the rest of Jewish society,” Halevy says.

As a striking example of this openness, Halevy notes that Haredi outlets then showed photos of women, and even when there were discussions before the war about possible enlistment of Haredi women for national-civic service, the initiative wasn’t disqualified outright by the Haredi leadership. There were also young women from Haredi backgrounds who joined resistance movements, such as Haya “Yael” Ben-Dov, who joined Lehi before she turned 15. She took part, among other things, in a failed attempt to assassinate General Evelyn Barker, the General Officer Commanding of the British Forces in Palestine and Trans-Jordan.

Tuvia’s Battalion defending Jerusalem

Nowadays, many in the Haredi leadership oppose the enlistment of any Haredi men, not only yeshiva students who dedicate their lives to Torah study. But in 1948, the Haredi leadership called on all working Haredi men of enlistment age to join religious units, in which they could contribute while their religious lifestyle was protected. As Halevy points out, in contrast to today, only a minority of men studied in yeshivas.

The main dispute between Haredi representatives and the IDF was over the enlistment of yeshiva students, but within days they managed to reach an agreement. As the siege on Jerusalem intensified, the parties announced that “yeshiva students are exempt from any obligation to conscript and serve in the army.” Nevertheless, due to the situation, it was agreed that yeshiva students aged 17–22 would train for three days and then serve 24 hours a month. From the age of 23, they would train for three days and then enlist in the municipal guard for guard duties for 12–15 hours per week. The yeshiva heads also pledged not to interfere with students who volunteered for “more active forms of service”. And many did: in the Kol Torah yeshiva, out of 82 students, 12 died in battle.

Ehrenwald describes how, under heavy bombardment by the Jordanian Arab Legion, the yeshiva students responded to the call and went to the recruitment bureau for medical checks. Out of 900 yeshiva students, 230 were marked as distinguished students – similar to arrangements with some prominent university students – who were meant to continue their studies, 300 were disqualified for health reasons (mainly Holocaust survivors who hadn’t recovered), and 370 were eventually recruited. They joined Tuvia’s Battalion.

“Jerusalem was under siege and fighting for its existence, and the army picked my dad to lead the battalion,” recollects Kobi Bier, son of the late Tuvia Bier. “He was the only private who led a battalion,” he adds with a laugh. In those chaotic days, there were no trainers, weapons or uniforms, as everything and everyone was already mobilised. Tuvia’s Battalion’s mission was therefore to set up and strengthen fortifications in Jerusalem – a mission that required them to operate on the front line under fire.

“Father always said that the communication with his soldiers was great, with no disciplinary issues. He rigorously followed the agreement with the Haredi leadership but was also rigorous with his own soldiers,” Kobi says. The yeshiva students, who also came from Satmar and Neturei Karta, combined their studies with two to three nights of service, and after seven months the battalion was disbanded.

Over the years, Kobi has met a few of his father’s former soldiers. “They always spoke fondly about the battalion,” he says. However, he claims that when he suggested collecting material for the archive of Tuvia’s Battalion, which he manages, they suddenly sidestepped. “I don’t think they were ashamed. They just don’t talk about those times, so it won’t become a trigger for creating a similar mechanism today,” Kobi suggests. Halevy adds: “Historians started to study this chapter quite late, and the Haredim are not eager to highlight the previously less strict character of Haredi society.”

What now?

In 1949, the Knesset passed the Defence Service Law, which established military conscription and required that all Israeli citizens be drafted into the IDF. Most Arab citizens of Israel do not serve in the military or in national-civic service, with the exception of the Druze and Circassian communities.

The exemption for yeshiva students from mandatory military service, granted through Defence Ministry regulations, has allowed Haredi men to “defer” their IDF service by studying in yeshiva from age 18 until they reach an age at which the draft no longer applies. Growing Haredi demographics, along with a dramatic increase in yeshiva participation, have brought enlistment rates to a new low. In 2024, the Calcalist newspaper revealed that the number of Arabs (Muslims and Christians, not including Druze and Circassians) in military or national-civic service in the 2022–2023 service year was 3,800 – more than double the official figure for Haredim.

According to the Israel Democracy Institute, in recent years less than 10% of Haredi men of enlistment age have joined the IDF or civic–national service. As of 2022, only 9% of soldiers came from the Haredi education system (70% of them are no longer defined as Haredi). Halevy adds a social perspective: “A Haredi man who joins the army endangers his future in the community; it can affect his social status and matchmaking.”

After October 7, Israeli society that bears the service burden has been cracking under the strain, with extended mandatory and reserve service. Even though many in Israel saw the October 7 attacks and the ensuing multi-front war as the closest Israel has been to an existential threat since the War of Independence, this did not trigger mass enrolment of Haredim as in 1948.

Yet some Haredim stepped forward. One of them is Israel Shapira, a Haredi journalist and tour guide, who joined as a reservist as part of the Shlav Bet programme, which recruited 600 Haredim over the age of 26 during the war.

Shapira, a father of four who had never served before, recollects: “We were all shocked by the news after October 7. I said to myself: they are fighting there, and you are sitting here – go and do something. So, at age 33 I joined Shlav Bet.” Shapira underwent basic combat training at a lower level with other Haredi men in a programme intended to support their religious lifestyle. He served over 450 days as a reservist, many of them in hot spots.

“Spoiler: Haredi enrolment is not working perfectly,” he admits, pointing to the IDF’s disorganisation regarding suitable kosher food, service without women, and other issues. Similar stories, along with accounts of severe mistreatment of Haredi soldiers in the early days of the state, also push Haredim away from service. Yet, despite the apparent lack of support for Haredi army service, Shapira says that “Haredim are 200 shades of black”, and that he has received more positive than negative feedback from Haredi society.

Shapira argues that during the War of Independence, “the ultra-Orthodox had much less power, and the existential threat was higher than on October 7. Those who don’t have a distant family member who serves, or aren’t familiar with people who were called up for reserve duty, don’t fully understand it.”

Ehrenwald agrees: “Then people felt in their own flesh that they had to protect Jews; there was an attack by seven Arab nations, and it was hard to know whether they would continue the Holocaust. It could have been the same on October 7 if Hezbollah and Iran had joined Hamas. But in the mid-term period, Haredim felt this threat less.”

In June 2024, Israel’s High Court of Justice ruled that the decades-long blanket exemptions from army duty for full-time yeshiva students were illegal. The Haredi leadership has therefore been pushing to pass a law largely keeping its constituency out of the army. Last week Benjamin Netanyahu’s government, which is backed by the Haredi parties, finally proposed a law to regulate Haredi enlistment.

The new bill has been met with a wave of criticism, even from members of Netanyahu’s own Likud party, who threaten to revolt against what they see as a toothless law that preserves the current exemption for yeshiva students. For Shapira and many others, however, Torah studies in yeshivas protect the nation: “Those who don’t study can serve, and we can argue about how to define a yeshiva student. But from the Haredi perspective, the state is not a necessity but something that has happened. For 2,000 years, the Jewish people survived because of the Torah.”