The Gur dynasty, the largest Chassidic movement in Israel with upwards of 110,000 members, reached an agreement with the defense ministry according to which a quota of 250 Chassidim would enlist to serve in Israel Police in exchange for an exemption for all the other Gur Chassidim who reach draft age, Army Radio reported.
National Security Minister Itamar Ben Gvir, who initiated and approved the Haredi enlistment program, ordered the doubling of the number of recruits and allocated 1,200 positions to that end. Today, 358 Haredi policemen and 65 Haredi policewomen serve in the police. 230 of them are career officers, of whom 36 are officers and 208 are non-commissioned officers.
Today, some Haredi recruits in the police enlist as part of Shaham (Haredi Service in the Police), where they are part of a separate training course for Haredim. The men in Shaham have a low physical profile (64 and under, out of 97 points), and the women have a quality rating of 44 and above out of a weighted score of several parameters, based on a psychotechnic test. It’s not yet clear if the new recruits will be joining the existing Shaham track, or will be part of a new track for men with higher physical profiles.
About 75% of Shaham police recruits are women. Haredi male police recruits may join a service tract that provides them with all the amenities and conditions they require to maintain a Haredi lifestyle while in uniform.
According to the report, the talks on behalf of Gur are held by Rabbi Avraham Binyamin Zilberberg, a close associate of the Gerer Rebbe. Zilberberg met with security establishment official at a security facility in central Israel last Thursday, and the two sides agreed that an exemption would be granted to most Gur Chassidim between the ages of 18 and 26, the ages when the defense minister is required to extend their exemption until they are no longer required by law to serve.
It’s not clear whether the agreement would be given the stamp of approval by the High Court of Justice. By law, the defense minister is authorized to exempt certain sectors of the population, most notably Arabs and Haredim, but in its latest ruling last June, the High Court ruled that the government must direct the IDF to recruit yeshiva students. The AG, Gali Baharav Miara, told the High Court that the IDF is prepared to recruit 3,000 Haredim. Since then, the IDF has sent draft orders to about 1,000 Haredi youths, of whom only a few dozen came forward.
While the numbers are still small, as it has Gur’s official blessing, this path may be more numerically successful in getting Haredim through the draft office, and making service more socially acceptable within the wider Haredi and Chassidic communities.
