Watching and listening to recent news, it would have been possible to think there is tension between the IDF and yeshiva students, but recruitment data for hesder yeshiva students shows the situation in the field to be completely different.
In the last month, 650 students from 40 hesder yeshivas across the country have joined various military occupations.
This recruitment cycle is the second largest of the three recruitment periods, in which more than a quarter of the participants are recruited. The men were recruited to infantry brigades - Golani, Givati, Nahal, and Kfir, which are open to hesder yeshivas, volunteered for the Paratroopers Brigade, and will continue the legacy of the armored corps, artillery, combat intelligence collection, combat engineering, and navy.
All those with combat profiles, who constitute 86% of the boys who enlisted, were placed in combat positions. The remainder will be deployed as combat support and rear-area personnel in the operations division and in various units such as the rabbinate, the intelligence corps, headquarters, and planning coordinators, as well as becoming staff members who will provide support for IDF soldiers.
In addition, about 40 foreign volunteer students who came from the Diaspora to study Torah at hesder yeshivot and serve in the army went to enlist. This year more than 400 young people from the Diaspora came to study at hesder yeshivas and will combine rich study and living together with Israeli students. The live encounter with the yeshiva rabbis creates an unforgettable experience that teaches a life of mission in Israel and the Diaspora.
Hesder Yeshivot Association head Eliezer (Leizu) Deutsch said: "In contrast to the talk about 'the declining generations', we see that despite the generation gap, yeshivot hesder students today are similar in quality to the students who joined the army 45 years ago. We're happy to say that parents and rabbis accompanied the yeshiva students to enlist and the boy's singing voices rang out and were heard from afar. Good luck down the road."
Hesder Yeshivas Committee head Mali Jesselson congratulated the new recruits and said: "The desire to learn Torah never ends, and in their own recruitment our students complete a talmud tractate. Our young people are moving toward a fulfilling period, and we wish them to act as models to all and fulfill the Torah in their conduct. We believe that love of the Torah, the people, and the land will empower them, both in esprit de corps and in training for battle. 'Go with this, your strength, and save Israel'."