Paratroopers
ParatroopersFlash90

Earlier this week the IDF formally kicked off its recruitment campaign for what will be the first all-haredi paratroopers unit.

Potential recruits to the “Haredim Tzanhanim” (haredi paratroopers) or “Hetz” unit met with officers and soldiers in existing paratrooper units, participated in simulated firing exercises, and learned in depth about the new haredi unit.

The campaign has even launched an advertising blitz, playing up the excitement of being a part of an active paratrooper force and the religious environment offered by the planned Hetz unit.

“Did you always dream of being a paratrooper? In the new haredi unit now being formed within the prestigious paratroopers brigade you can now combine the haredi lifestyle, with strict adherence to religious law, and still become a glatt kosher paratrooper.”

Organizers of the new unit have promised enlistees food with glatt kosher certification by haredi authorities, as well as professional training which will help them find employment after their service, and prayer services and regular times for religious study.

Not everyone is happy with the new Hetz unit.

Opponents of haredi service in the army warned that the recruitment campaign will likely “entice” young men, drawing them away from religious study and the haredi world, using flashy imagery and promises of adventure, although haredi recruitment is not aimed at those who seriously apply themselves to Torah learning.

Rabbi Tuvia Shulsinger, a leading opponent of the haredi draft law, said the recruitment campaign was yet another attempt to lure people away from the haredi world – and destroy haredi culture.

“They get young haredi men fired up with pictures of paratroopers jumping out of planes – it hurts. There is a war to destroy the haredi world, and this is how they try to entice haredi youths to come to the army.”

“We’re returning to the situation that existed just prior to the establishment of the state, when many young haredi men broke away [from the haredi world], and sadly the haredi establishment did nothing. There’s a whole public relations system [in the army] that understands the mind of a young haredi man; they know that a young man who sees parachuting gets interested, and sadly not everyone stands up to the temptation.”

Rabbi Shulsinger said the campaign to oppose haredi enlistment would continue, but said the phenomenon of haredi army service was becoming widespread.

“Today there is hardly and haredi family that doesn’t have someone who enlisted. We have activists who work hard to reach the young men who want to join [the army], and we try to encourage them to abandon [their plans].”