Secret recordings reveal ultra-Orthodox leader backing enlistment of non-students

An exclusive Channel 13 report aired Tuesday exposed a major gap between public rhetoric and private views inside the ultra-Orthodox leadership. Secret recordings obtained by the network capture Rabbi Moshe Berzovsky, one of the senior figures in Agudat Yisrael and a leading hardliner against the draft law, saying that young Haredi men who do not study Torah should be drafted.

In the recording, Berzovsky says, “Students in yeshivas should be exempt, all those who learn Torah, but those who do not learn Torah, all those who do not learn Torah, should be drafted.” Publicly, however, he has been one of the most vocal agitators against enlistment, recently helping organize a “Million Man Rally” and declaring at mass protests, “No matter how many hardships, how many sufferings, even if we have to sit in prison, we will not leave the God of our fathers.”

The report also recalls Berzovsky’s political influence, including his role in 2018 in pushing an uncompromising line against Avigdor Lieberman’s draft bill, a move that helped bring down Netanyahu’s government. Privately, though, he describes a pragmatic path for integrating some Haredim into the army, citing the creation of ultra-Orthodox units 25 years ago and saying, “Who studies, we want an exemption for him. Who does not study, we do not demand that he get an exemption.”

Berzovsky points to the military technology track “Kodkod” as proof that enlistment can draw large numbers of Haredim, saying it is “70% Haredi” and that when the army allows it, there is a “huge rush.” He adds that any broad enlistment plan would require an outside supervisory body with authority above the army to protect the soldiers’ religious way of life. His circle rejected the report, saying the quotes were taken out of context and were part of an internal discussion about the system’s hostility toward the Haredi public.