The Former Haredi Doctor Who Enlisted

"I never ruled out military service – but I lived in a different world"

Lieutenant Dr. Tz., 37, a resident of Beit Shemesh, describes the path he took as a life with several different chapters. He didn't spend his childhood in the Haredi community, but at age 17 he "became more religious" and joined Haredi yeshivas. "In the basic education I received, there wasn't anything against military service," he recounts. "But during those years of becoming more religious, I was focused on the Haredi world. Naturally, I didn't encounter too many people around me who enlisted."

According to him, he didn't have a principled opposition to enlistment. "Actually during my Haredi period, it wasn't in the atmosphere of 'we'll die rather than enlist' like we see today, but more of a sense of mission in the spiritual world. My experience of that world was less anti."

"I understood that I wouldn't be a kollel student my whole life"

Already after he married and had a child, Tz. understood that life in kollel wasn't suitable for him. The search for a profession with social ideals and meaning led him to the world of medicine. "Medicine seemed to me like a profession that involves kindness and helping people," he says.

He tried to be accepted into the IDF medical track – but was rejected due to his age. "They told me I should have played the Haredi card – maybe they would have waived the age requirement. But I'm a straightforward type, they said no – so no."

Later he was tested for Haredi integration programs, but chose instead civil service with Magen David Adom, hoping to advance himself professionally.

"There was always a feeling of embarrassment: where were you in the army?"

Alongside his medical studies at Hebrew University, a sense of deficiency grew within him. "There was always that question – where did you serve? And I would stammer. I didn't have a clear Haredi excuse, and my family wasn't against it either – on the contrary. I have brothers who served, some of them still in active service today."

Over the years he also left Haredi practice, and his wife became secular as well. "We underwent integration into Israeli society," he describes. "Within general society, when you didn't do army service – you feel like an outsider. It's a bit like a Haredi who goes out into the world and doesn't know children's TV shows."

"When the war started, I felt I had to do something"

When he specialized in emergency medicine and the Iron Swords war broke out, Tz. felt the time had come to act. In September 2024, as part of a unique program for enlisting men over age 26 ("Phase B" enlistment), he began the process. "Ever since I got my license I'd been thinking about it. I'm lucky – as a doctor, the army really needs me, it's not like that in other professions."

At home too, the decision was met with understanding. "My wife is in advanced pregnancy, and it's not simple, but I feel she's proud of it. She feels part of what's happening now."

"The younger Haredi generation is more open, more realistic"

Today, as a doctor working in a Haredi neighborhood, Tz. witnesses changes beginning to permeate. "You see a trickle – actually from the Haredi mainstream, not from the margins. I see really Hasidic guys coming to sign enlistment forms. Once this was rare."

He doesn't rush to predict revolutions, but notices a new approach: "The young generation is less combative. They understand that something here isn't working. There are tons of dormant talents here, that like with the Russian immigration – once there's a critical mass, there will be a tremendous contribution to society."

"To integrate the Haredim – you need to know how to embrace diversity"

When asked what general society needs to do to enable Haredi integration in the IDF and society, he emphasizes: "If we want Haredim to remain Haredi but integrate – we must accommodate their way of life, even if it's very different. I didn't leave the Haredi world by slamming the door, and I know it's possible to respect even what seems strange to us."

On the other hand, according to him, openness is also required from the Haredi public: "The strongest characteristic of Haredism is segregation. They need to know how to step a little outside the 'box.' Even if they return to it – to step out, take a turn outside. It's not easy. Even I, when I left the yeshiva world, felt like my life was ruined. But that's the only way to get closer."

Lieutenant Dr. Tz. doesn't claim to be an expert on Haredi society, but brings with him a unique perspective – as someone who lived within it, left it, and now serves the state as a reserve doctor. For him, this isn't a story of becoming religious or secular – but of reconnecting to Israeli society.