The battle over the draft law is usually framed around one issue: how many eligible haredi (ultra-Orthodox) men will enlist, and whether the burden of service will be shared more equally.
But a report released on Sunday by the advocacy group Out for Change argues that the debate often overlooks another group: Israelis raised in haredi homes who no longer identify as such.
Among men ages 20 to 29 from haredi homes who reported serving in the IDF, 71% no longer identified as haredi when surveyed, according to the organization’s analysis of Central Bureau of Statistics (CBS) data.
The figure is not an IDF enlistment rate, nor can it show whether respondents left haredi society before or after serving. It does show, however, that most young men from haredi homes who reported military service did not identify as haredi when they were surveyed.
The report refers to these respondents as “former haredim”: people who grew up in haredi homes but no longer identify as haredi.
Number of ex-Haredim on the rise
Their numbers have risen over the past two decades, according to the report. Based on CBS social-survey data from 2021 to 2024, 13.5% of men ages 20 to 34 who grew up haredi no longer identified as ultra-Orthodox, nor did 9.6% of women in the same age group.
Half of the former haredim surveyed in the report are under 30.
Leaving ultra-Orthodox society, however, does not necessarily mean becoming secular. Some 66% of former haredim identified as religious or traditional-religious. Among those aged 20 to 34, that figure rose to 69%.
The findings point to a group that does not fit neatly into Israel’s usual haredi-secular divide: people who have left the closed haredi community, while often remaining connected to religious life, and who are entering the army, higher education, and the labor market on their own terms.
The workforce data show both the extent of that integration and its limits.
In a separate CBS Labor Force Survey analysis of Israeli-born Jewish men aged 25 to 64, 77% of former haredim were employed in 2024. That was well above the 51% employment rate among men from haredi backgrounds who remained haredi, though below the 87% rate among non-ultra-Orthodox men.
Former haredim also worked substantially more hours than those who remained haredi, yet the types of jobs they held were often closer to those of their haredi peers than to those of non-haredi men.
Only about one-fifth of employed former haredi men held high-skill jobs outside teaching, compared with more than 40% of employed non-haredi men, according to the report.
The same gap appeared in hi-tech. Between 2020 and 2023, 8.4% of employed former haredi men worked in hi-tech jobs, compared with 21.3% of employed non-haredi men.
The report attributes much of that gap to the educational obstacles faced by people leaving the haredi school system, including gaps in English, mathematics, and the formal qualifications needed for higher education and skilled work.
Those barriers are also reflected in their financial situation.
Across respondents aged 20 to 64, 64% of former haredim said their households could cover monthly expenses, compared with 75% of non-haredi Jews. Some 55% said they were satisfied with their financial situation, compared with 66% of non-haredi Jews.
The report also challenges the perception that leaving haredi society necessarily means a complete break with family.
Stability a challenge for Haredim who have left
Among single former haredim, a category that includes divorced and widowed respondents without children, 86% said they were satisfied with their family relationships. But only 47% said they were very satisfied, compared with 70% of non-haredi respondents in the same category.
In the 2023-24 survey period, 43% of former haredim said they had felt depressed during the previous year, compared with 31% of non-haredi Jews. The measure is based on respondents’ own reporting and is not a clinical diagnosis.
Out for Change said it would use the report as the basis for developing what it describes as Israel’s first national plan for people leaving ultra-Orthodox society.
The organization’s July 5 EXIT conference is expected to bring together groups working with former haredim, government ministries, researchers, and philanthropic organizations to formulate policy recommendations. The initiative has not yet been adopted as a government program.
“The data are not merely a snapshot,” Out for Change CEO Nachi Pasikov said. “They will serve as the basis for shaping policy and building the first national plan for people leaving haredi society.”
The draft-law debate will remain focused on quotas, sanctions, and IDF manpower needs. But the report argues that policymakers should also consider what happens after people leave haredi society: whether they can close education gaps, find stable work, and build independent lives.