JERUSALEM (RNS) – When Shari Fisch learned there would be a march and demonstration outside Israel’s parliament building on April 2 to demand universal military conscription, she said she felt compelled to attend.
“The IDF doesn’t have enough combat soldiers,” said Fisch, who lives in Jerusalem. “My son’s combat unit has called him three times for miluim,” she said, referring to Israel’s military reserve duty.
The manpower shortage has also affected her workplace, where a quarter of its employees have been called up for reserve duty for months at a time during the year-and-a-half-long war in Gaza, she said.
“My co-worker was in miluim for seven months, from Oct. 7 until after Passover, then again over the summer, then again after his second son was born,” Fisch said. “Other staff had siblings and children in miluim for months. How is this tenable? We need the miluim burden of service shared over a greater pool of people.”
While the demonstration, which was organized by Israel Defense Forces reservists and bereaved families of IDF soldiers killed during military service, demanded universal military conscription, it was aimed mostly at Haredi men, also known as the ultra-Orthodox. For decades, Haredi young men were exempt from military service, provided they studied Torah full time in …