Ultra-Orthodox soldiers in Israel rejected by their own
Ultra-Orthodox soldiers whose families and communities rejected them for enlisting are finding solace in a new organization of Israelis who have pledged to support them.
"Ronnie" started officers training in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) Dec. 4. If he makes it through the rigorous course, in four months he will be commissioned as an officer. For him, it will be a victory over the ultra-Orthodox community that ostracized him and the family that threw him out of his home.
The young man, who asked that Al-Monitor not divulge his real name, is an ultra-Orthodox soldier. He is coping with a society that objects to military conscription and encourages its members to study the Torah and remain within the boundaries of the community. I called him late in the evening after his first day of training. “Yes,” he answered in a somewhat bashful tone, “I am the ultra-Orthodox yeshiva student who led to the establishment of the nonprofit organization helping soldiers like me who were thrown out of their homes for wanting to serve in the military.”
Ronnie told Al-Monitor, “Six weeks before my draft date, my mother informed me that if I do indeed go into the army, I would have to leave the house. When she understood that I was determined, she said, ‘Take your things and don’t ever come back.’ That’s what I did. I left with nothing and not knowing where I was going.”
This year, a unique organization was established in Kiryat Arba, next to the West Bank city of Hebron, called "Osei Chayil (Hebrew for “those who do good”) — for the Lone Soldier of Religious Origin.” Its aim is to help Orthodox soldiers who had the courage to go against the tide and found themselves without a home and family and with a whole community mobilized to condemn them for "heresy" against the values of religion and morality.
