Israeli Holocaust Survivor Condemns Ultra-Orthodox Comparison of IDF Service to Holocaust

Daniel Shila, an Israeli whose family perished in the Holocaust, strongly condemns a recent ultra-Orthodox campaign that compared serving in the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) to dying in the Holocaust. A slogan painted in large letters on a truck read, "Better to die as a Jew in the Holocaust than to be exterminated in IDF camps." Shila calls this statement a desecration of his family’s memory and an insult to Holocaust victims and their relatives.

Shila recounts his father Baruch Mordechai Shleski’s survival story, who escaped Poland in 1935 while his entire family was later killed in the Lodz Ghetto and Nazi death camps. His father served in the IDF during Israel’s War of Independence, and in the current conflict, 24 of Shila’s descendants from yeshiva backgrounds have enlisted, none of whom shirked military service. Shila rejects the ultra-Orthodox claim that IDF service is "self-extermination," calling it a false slander rooted in opposition to Zionism and secular society.

He further criticizes the ultra-Orthodox community for historically failing to protect their youth from secular influences, citing mass conversions in Krakow between 1873 and 1914 as evidence of educational shortcomings. Shila contrasts this with the Mizrahi religious community, which supports military service and has established preparatory frameworks for enlistment, investing significant resources to help their youth serve.

Shila urges the ultra-Orthodox to abandon their hostile propaganda against IDF service and instead embrace the mitzvah (commandment) of "helping Israel in times of distress," emphasizing that no other commandment compares in importance. He challenges those spreading such offensive messages to consider the pain inflicted on Holocaust survivors’ families and to cease undermining national unity during times of conflict.