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The issue caused early elections in Israel, but why do Strictly Orthodox Jews refuse to serve in the country's military?

The Charedi refusal to serve in the armed forces is based on an ideological split dating back to the French Revolution

May 31, 2019 11:17
There are frequent Strictly Orthodox protests in Israel against the military draft
3 min read

The Charedi refusal to serve in the IDF — the stumbling block in Netanyahu’s inability to form a governing coalition — is rooted in an ideological opposition to Zionism and a reticence to come to terms with modernity.

It was the combination of the French Revolution and the Haskalah, the Jewish Enlightenment, that fragmented a hitherto monolithic Judaism.

Ghetto walls in western Europe were torn down and there was an influx of Jews into open societies, leaving Jews with the dilemma of how to fit into this new world.

This choice of identity ranged from rebuilding the ghetto walls and reimagining the past at one extreme, to conversion to Christianity at the other.