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The Importance of Nahal Haredi, Now More Than Ever
Haredi Jewish men look at the scene of an explosion at a bus stop in Jerusalem, Israel, on Nov. 23, 2022. Photo: Reuters/Ammar Awad
Last month, amidst all the to-ing and fro-ing across Israel, our solidarity mission from Los Angeles spent a couple of hours at an important event on Rechov Uruguay, a quiet leafy street in the Kiryat HaYovel neighborhood of Jerusalem.
Rechov Uruguay is just one of the many streets in Kiryat HaYovel named for countries that voted at the U.N. in November 1947 in favor of partitioning Palestine – a landmark vote that paved the way for the creation of Israel six months later.
But we were not on Rechov Uruguay to commemorate an event from history. Rather, we were there to celebrate the formal opening of an apartment for soldiers of the Netzach Yehuda division of the IDF, better known as Nahal Haredi.
This past Yom Kippur, just a couple of weeks before the tragic events of October 7th, our synagogue in Beverly Hills held an appeal to raise money to pay for this apartment, and now we were there to dedicate it. The event was attended by a range of dignitaries, but truthfully, they were eclipsed by another aspect of the ceremony that took center stage.
On the morning of October 7th, Haredi soldier Sergeant Binyamin Lev heard about the Hamas terrorist incursion into Southern Israel, and immediately rushed to the town of Sderot, together with his colleagues, to eliminate the threat against Israelis. Hours later he was dead, felled by terrorist bullets.
Sergeant Lev was 23 years old. The apartment on Rechov Uruguay was being dedicated in his memory, with the participation of his commanding officers and his family. It was an event that will remain with me for as long as I live.
Sergeant Lev’s story is incredibly inspiring. He was born into a Chabad family in Paris, one of 8 children. A couple of years ago, out of the blue, he decided to move to Israel and join the Israeli army as a lone soldier, much like our own son Meir, who did the same a year earlier.
Meir told us that he helped Binyamin join the same unit was in – Haredim Tzanchanim, or “Chetz”, a unique paratrooper unit entirely made up of boys from Haredi families.
Binyamin excelled in his military tasks, but he also clung tenaciously to strict Jewish observance, totally devoted to his traditions and family customs. At the dedication event, Binyamin’s grandfather, a gentle-looking, white-bearded Chabad hasid, took out a guitar and sang Binyamin’s favorite song. The words of the song were a verse from scripture.
We all wept as we sang along with him and clapped our hands to the beat. Meir was particularly moved; he attended Binyamin’s funeral in October, and now he was at this dedication event. It brought it home for him, and for us – the real price our people paid on October 7th was on vivid display, personalized and stark.
But truthfully, neither Binyamin nor Meir are typical of the Nahal Haredi recruits. Most Haredim who join the strictly Orthodox units of the IDF come from families that shun them for the choice they’ve made, or at best tolerate them while making clear that active military duty is not okay. Some families tell their soldier sons never to appear in their Haredi neighborhoods in uniform, in case this triggers hostility and causes the family problems.
Incredibly, there are even Haredi families with sons in the army have been forced out of their communities for having broken ranks with their Haredi compatriots. This is why Nahal Haredi needs these apartments, so that their soldiers have got somewhere to live when they are off duty.
This negative attitude by Haredim all stems from a pivotal decision in 1948 by Israel’s first prime minister, David Ben Gurion, to exempt yeshiva students from conscription. This policy, known as the ‘Torato Umanuto’ (“His Torah is His Profession”) exemption, was initially intended to apply to a small number of students to allow for the continuation of Jewish religious scholarship that was devastated by the Holocaust.
At the time, the exemption was relevant to an estimated 400 students, but the numbers have grown significantly. In recent years, reports indicate that the number of exemptions granted annually to yeshiva students has reached into many tens of thousands – the result of an exponential growth of the Haredi sector in Israel.
In 1963, Ben Gurion expressed regret for the blanket exemption in a letter to Levi Eshkol, but he was no longer in power and the exemption numbers continued to grow, long after post-Holocaust concerns had been mitigated by the incredible growth in quantity and quality of yeshiva scholarship. As a result, the ‘Torato Umanuto’ exemption has become a source of endless contention and discord in Israeli society.
Until October 7th, societal norms were such that tensions between Haredim and the rest of Israel regarding the broad refusal by Haredim to take part in defending Israel from military and terrorist threats by participating in national service had evolved into the familiar discourse of a special interest group refusing to consider any kind of alternative narrative.
Nahal Haredi – formed in 1999 to accommodate the needs of Haredi soldiers not suited to yeshiva study – simply got caught in the crosshairs of this epic ideological battle. For all intents and purposes, the concept of Nahal Haredi died on the vine, as it lacked the kind of meaningful support from Haredi rabbinic and political leadership that would have ensured broad success. Those Haredi boys who did enlist – unless they came from abroad as lone soldiers – found themselves shunned and marginalized, as did their families.
But the shock of October 7th and the war that has been raging ever since has shifted the paradigm considerably. Last week, Israel’s Interior Minister, Moshe Arbel of the Haredi Sephardic Shas party, reached out to Yossi Levy, CEO of Netzach Yehuda.
In his letter, later published by Yediot Ahronot, Arbel encouraged the integration of Haredim into meaningful, long-term military service. He particularly expressed his pleasure at the significant increase in interest among Haredi youth to enlist for combat service in the upcoming draft.
Arbel also told Levy how happy he is about the more than 800 new Haredi soldiers who have joined the IDF since October 7th. And in an interview, Arbel argued that it is totally indefensible for Haredim to claim exemption from military service simply because they are Haredim. Like all other Israeli citizens, they should serve, he told the interviewer, except for those who are genuinely engaged in full-time Torah study.
This shift is without question a welcome change, but it has yet to translate into full-throated support for Nahal Haredi by the recognized rabbinic hierarchy within the Haredi world. That support must come, as Israel and the Jewish people face the most challenging threats to their existence in recent history, and the IDF is poised to play a key role, in which the Haredi community have a stake that is no less significant than every other element of Israel’s Jewish population. We are all in this together, and no element of the Jewish world can afford to opt out of the task that lies ahead.
Currently, the Jewish world is reading the biblical portions that deal with the construction of the Tabernacle in the Sinai wilderness. Every Jew was expected to support the construction of this holy sanctuary.
The Midrash informs us that the princes of each tribe decided to wait until the end of the campaign to make their contribution, so that they could then fill in the gaps. But as it turned out, they messed up – the people were so enthused by the idea of supporting the project, that when it came to the turn of the princes, there was nothing left for them to give, an omission that forever remained a blot on their record.
Members of the Haredi community – of which I consider myself a product and proud member – have long considered themselves the princes of Jewish life. Sadly, this has meant that they have not been willing to contribute to the national effort to defend Israel, instead expecting everyone else to play their part while they remained on the sidelines.
That is not the right approach. Just like the tribes of Reuven and Gad, and half of Menashe, Haredim – who by their way of life represent the importance of preserving Jewish identity and tradition – should be first in line to defend Israel and the Jewish people on the battlefield.
The Torah instructs us (Lev. 19:16): “do not stand idly by the blood of your neighbor.” This law demands of every Jew that if someone is in danger, to save them and do anything to ensure their survival.
The Jewish people is in physical and existential danger from terrorists who are out to murder and destroy us. We need the Haredi soldiers now more than ever, to lead the charge against those who mean to kill and destroy us, and to uproot us from the land of our heritage and destiny.
And if the Haredi community comes on board and commits itself to defending our holy homeland, I have no doubt it will be the inspiration that will inevitably lead to the coming of the Messiah and the rebuilding of our Beit Hamikdash.
The author is a rabbi in Beverly Hills, California.
The post The Importance of Nahal Haredi, Now More Than Ever first appeared on Algemeiner.com.
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Sen. Rick Scott Donates Salary to US Holocaust Memorial Museum
US Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) on Capitol Hill in Washington, US, Dec. 7, 2022. Photo: REUTERS/Evelyn Hockstein
US Sen. Rick Scott (R-FL) announced on Wednesday that he will donate a portion of his Senate salary to the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum, underscoring what he called the urgent need to combat antisemitism at home and abroad as threats to Jewish communities escalate.
Scott, who has given part of his congressional salary since joining the Senate in 2019, said his gift was motivated by the growing dangers facing Jewish people and the importance of ensuring younger generations understand the Holocaust.
“Ann and I are proud to support the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum. Years ago, Ann and I brought our daughters to the Auschwitz memorial and museum in Poland because it was so important to us that they learned about the Holocaust and understood the horrors that occurred,” he said in a statement.
“It’s so important that every generation understands the atrocities of the Holocaust, and the museum does an incredible job teaching those lessons to millions of people every year. By sharing the stories of those who survived and those who were murdered, providing critical resources to educators, and reminding each of us what it means when we say ‘Never Again,’ it is a vital institution,” he added.
Scott also recounted taking his daughters years ago to Auschwitz in Poland, describing the visit as an effort to show them the catastrophic consequences of unchecked hatred against Jews.
The senator tied his donation to the approaching second anniversary of the Hamas-led Oct. 7, 2023, invasion of southern Israel, the deadliest single-day massacre of Jews since the Holocaust. Palestinian terrorists killed 1,200 people and kidnapped 251 hostages during the onslaught.
“As we approach the second anniversary of Oct. 7, Ann and I are proud to support the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum’s meaningful work defending the truth of the Holocaust and their important efforts to teach its relevance for today,” Scott said.
Scott’s office did not disclose the specific amount of the donation.
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Texas State University Silent on Status of Professor Who Incited Violent Attack on Jews at Public Library
West Asheville Library in North Carolina. Photo: Screenshot/buncombecounty.org.
Texas State University is refusing to disclose whether it still currently employs a far-left professor who was filmed inciting a riotous assault on three pro-Israel individuals who peacefully spectated an anti-Israel presentation that was held in June 2024 at the West Asheville Library in North Carolina.
As previously reported by The Algemeiner, two of the victims, David Moritz and Monica Buckley, are Jewish, and one is cancer patient Bob Campbell, an 80-year-old military veteran. Their assailants kicked, punched, and dragged them out of the event, titled “Strategic Lessons From the Palestinian Resistance,” after Texas State University assistant professor of philosophy Idris Atsu Robinson spotted them in the audience and invited the 60-80 anti-Israel partisans in attendance to decide their fates.
At one point during harrowing footage taken of the incident, Robinson suggested that the encounter could lead to “murder.” At no point did he deescalate the situation and even seemed to find humor in igniting the passions of a mob.
Responding to an Algemeiner inquiry on Thursday, a Texas State media relations official declined to comment on Robinson’s employment status, saying the university “does not discuss personnel matters.”
The university has been asked before to account for its handling of Robinson.
In June, the StandWithUs Saidoff Legal Department, a pro-Israel nonprofit that seeks to combat antisemitism, notified the school of Robinson’s conduct and rhetoric. According to StandWithUs, “university sources” confirmed that he will not be teaching during the fall semester of the 2025-2026 academic year. However, the university would not comment on the matter “due to the confidential nature of personnel matters,” making it unclear whether Robinson is still employed by Texas State and will teach there in the future.
StandWithUs says Texas State should state Robinson’s employment status, share findings amassed during an internal investigation of him, and produce any previous complaints which accused him of wrongdoing.
“It is critical that universities protect Jewish and Zionist students by refusing to provide a classroom platform to faculty members unlawfully promoting antisemitic hate and violence,” Michael Scheinman, Saidoff Legal Department assistant director of campus and community affairs, told The Algemeiner on Wednesday. “Schools that do not act and fail to implement strong safeguards risk exposing their students to the same hatred and violence suffered by the victims of this attack.”
He added, “StandWithUS Saidoff Legal continues to support the victims of this horrendous hate incident by coordinating with law enforcement, helping to identify masked perpetrators, and urging Texas State University to condemn the antisemitic conduct that contributed to this violence.”
By his own words, Robinson took immense pride in what transpired in Asheville, North Carolina last year. Commenting on the matter the next day while being interviewed on a podcast produced by the organizers of the event, he argued for “popular riots” and “divine violence,” saying explicitly that “terrorists” reserve the right to “take the life of the oppressor.”
“My arms are chewed up,” Campbell, a Navy veteran, told The Algemeiner during an interview which followed the assault. He added that medical staff at a local US Veterans Affairs facility identified “severe contusions” on his body.
“What really upset me — I was [lying] on the floor, and this big guy was on top of me,” Campbell recalled. “The librarian came to the door, looked me right in the eye, turned around and walked back and didn’t do a damn thing. Didn’t call the police.”
The activists proved equally merciless to the other victims, putting Moritz in a headlock and heaving Buckley outside and ordering her not to free herself from their grip.
Expressions of anti-Zionism are escalating to violence more frequently, as previously reported by The Algemeiner.
Earlier this month, Eden Deckerhoff — a female student at Florida State University (FSU) — allegedly assaulted a Jewish male classmate at the Leach Student Recreation Center after noticing his wearing apparel issued by the Israel Defense Forces (IDF).
“F—k Israel, Free Palestine. Put it [the video] on Barstool FSU. I really don’t give a f—k,” the woman said before shoving the man, according to video taken by the victim. “You’re an ignorant son of a b—h.” Deckerhoff has since been charged with misdemeanor battery.
According to the Tallahassee Democrat, Deckerhoff has denied assaulting the student when questioned by investigators, telling them, “No I did not shove him at all; I never put my hands on him.” However, law enforcement charged her with misdemeanor battery and described the incident in court documents as seen in viral footage of the incident, acknowledging that Deckerhoff “appears to touch [the man’s] left shoulder.” Despite her denial, the Democrat noted, she has offered to apologize.
In June, a gunman murdered two Israeli embassy staffers in Washington, DC, while they exited an event at the Capital Jewish Museum hosted by a major Jewish organization. The suspect charged for the double murder, 31-year-old Elias Rodriguez from Chicago, yelled “Free Palestine” while being arrested by police after the shooting, according to video of the incident. The FBI affidavit supporting the criminal charges against Rodriguez stated that he told law enforcement he “did it for Gaza.”
Less than two weeks later, a man firebombed a crowd of people who were participating in a demonstration to raise awareness of the Israeli hostages who remain imprisoned by Hamas in Gaza. A victim of the attack, Karen Diamond, 82, later died, having sustained severe, fatal injuries.
Another antisemitic incident motivated by anti-Zionism occurred in San Francisco, where an assailant identified by law enforcement as Juan Diaz-Rivas and others allegedly beat up a Jewish victim in the middle of the night. Diaz-Rivas and his friends approached the victim while shouting “F—k the Jews, Free Palestine,” according to local prosecutors.
“[O]ne of them punched the victim, who fell to the ground, hit his head and lost consciousness,” the San Francisco district attorney’s office said in a statement. “Allegedly, Mr. Diaz-Rivas and others in the group continued to punch and kick the victim while he was down. A worker at a nearby business heard the altercation and antisemitic language and attempted to intervene. While trying to help the victim, he was kicked and punched.”
According to the latest data released by the FBI, antisemitic hate crimes in the US have been tallying to break all previous statistical records. In 2024, even as hate crimes decreased overall, those perpetrated against Jews increased by 5.8 percent in 2024 to 1,938, the largest total recorded in over 30 years of the FBI’s counting them. Jewish American groups have noted that this surge, which included 178 assaults, is being experienced by a demographic group which constitutes just 2 percent of the US population.
A striking 69 percent of all religion-based hate crimes that were reported to the FBI in 2024 targeted Jews, with 2,041 out of 2,942 total such incidents being antisemitic in nature. Muslims were targeted the next highest amount as the victims of 256 offenses, or about 9 percent of the total.
Follow Dion J. Pierre @DionJPierre.
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Europeans Launch UN Sanctions Process Against Iran, Drawing Tehran’s Ire
Satellite image shows buildings at Isfahan Nuclear Technology Center, before Israel launched an attack on Iran targeting nuclear facilities, in Isfahan, Iran, May 17, 2025. Photo: Planet Labs PBC via REUTERS
Britain, France, and Germany on Thursday launched a 30-day process to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its disputed nuclear program, a step likely to stoke tensions two months after Israel and the United States bombed Iran.
A senior Iranian official quickly accused the three European powers of harming diplomacy and vowed that Tehran would not bow to pressure over the move by the E3 to launch the so-called “snapback mechanism.”
The three powers feared they would otherwise lose the prerogative in mid-October to restore sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said the decision did not signal the end of diplomacy. His German counterpart Johann Wadephul urged Iran to now fully cooperate with the UN nuclear watchdog agency and commit to direct talks with the United States over the next month.
A senior Iranian official told Reuters the decision was “illegal and regrettable” but left the door open for engagement.
“The move is an action against diplomacy, not a chance for it. Diplomacy with Europe will continue,” the official said, adding: “Iran will not concede under pressure.”
The UN Security Council is due to meet behind closed doors on Friday at the request of the E3 to discuss the snapback move against the Islamic Republic, diplomats said.
Iran and the E3 have held several rounds of talks since Israel and the US bombed its nuclear installations in mid-June, aiming to agree to defer the snapback mechanism. But the E3 deemed that talks in Geneva on Tuesday did not yield sufficient signals of readiness for a new deal from Iran.
The E3 acted on Thursday over accusations that Iran has violated the 2015 deal that aimed to prevent it developing a nuclear weapons capability in return for a lifting of international sanctions. The E3, along with Russia, China, and the United States, were party to that accord.
US President Donald Trump pulled Washington out of that accord in 2018 during his first term, calling the deal one-sided in Iran‘s favor, and it unraveled in ensuing years as Iran abandoned limits set on its enrichment of uranium.
Trump’s second administration held fruitless indirect negotiations earlier this year with Tehran.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio welcomed the E3 move and said Washington remained available for direct engagement with Iran “in furtherance of a peaceful, enduring resolution to the Iran nuclear issue.”
An Iranian source said Tehran would do so only “if Washington guarantees there will be no [military] strikes during the talks.”
The E3 said they hoped Iran would engage by the end of September to allay concerns about its nuclear agenda sufficiently for them to defer concrete action.
“The E3 are committed to using every diplomatic tool available to ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon,” including the snapback mechanism, they said in a letter sent to the UN Security Council and seen by Reuters.
“The E3’s commitment to a diplomatic solution nonetheless remains steadfast.”
Iran has previously warned of a “harsh response” if sanctions are reinstated, and the Iranian official said it was reviewing its options, including withdrawing from the nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty.
The E3 had offered to extend the snapback for as much as six months to enable serious negotiations if Iran restored access for UN nuclear inspectors – who would also seek to account for Iran‘s large stock of enriched uranium whose status has been unknown since the June war – and engages in talks with the U.S.
Calling the E3 decision inevitable, Israeli Foreign Minister Gideon Saar said it was an “important step in the diplomatic campaign to counter the Iranian regime’s nuclear ambitions.”
GROWING FRUSTRATION IN IRAN
The UN process takes 30 days before sanctions that would hit Iran‘s financial, banking, hydrocarbons, and defense sectors are restored.
Russia and China, strategic partners of Iran, finalized a draft Security Council resolution on Thursday that would extend the 2015 nuclear deal for six months and urge all parties to immediately resume negotiations.
But they have not yet asked for a vote.
“The world is at crossroads,” Russia’s deputy UN Ambassador Dmitry Polyanskiy told reporters. “One option is peace, diplomacy, goodwill … Another option is a kind of diplomacy at the barrel of the gun.”
The specter of renewed sanctions is stirring frustration in Iran, where economic anxiety is rising and political divisions are deepening, three insiders close to the government said.
Iranian leaders are split over how to respond — with anti-Western hardliners urging defiance and confrontation, while moderates advocate diplomacy.
Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60 percent fissile purity, a short step from the roughly 90 percent of bomb-grade, and had enough material enriched to that level, if refined further, for six nuclear weapons, before the airstrikes by Israel started on June 13, according to the IAEA, the UN nuclear watchdog.
Actually manufacturing a weapon would take more time, however, and the IAEA has said that while it cannot guarantee Tehran‘s nuclear program is entirely peaceful, it has no credible indication of a coordinated weapons project.
The West says the advancement of Iran‘s nuclear program goes beyond civilian needs, while Tehran says it wants nuclear energy only for peaceful purposes.