Yeshiva students

Equality NGO Forum Dvorah slams hesder yeshivot boycott over women's integration in tank units

Forum Dvorah, an Israeli women's rights NGO, criticized hesder yeshivot for boycotting the IDF Armored Corps over a pilot program involving women tank units.

Female IDF soldiers work on a tank; illustrative.
DF armored forces at a staging area in southern Israel near the border with Gaza. January 01, 2024.

Editor's Notes: High Court ruling on women in tanks deepens religious divide in IDF - comment

IDF reserve Infantry and Merkava Tank soldiers train in a military exercise in the Golan Heights on October 23, 2023

Some 25 hesder yeshivot boycott IDF's tank corps over new pilot to incorporate women

Finance Minister Bezalel Smotrich gives a Jerusalem Day address, May 14, 2026.

WATCH: 'All of Israel is ours': Smotrich calls to annex West Bank in Jerusalem Day speech


Fire injures seven near Chabad HQ, Brooklyn, one in critical condition

The fire was reportedly caused by a radiator plugged into an electrical outlet resulting in the apartment being completely engulfed in flames and the personal belongings of 19 students being burned.

 New York Fire Department attempts to control the blaze on Eastern Parkway, February 14, 2025.

Haredim hold prayer meeting in Stamford Hill in protest of bill threatening Yeshivas

Haredi campaigners have expressed fear that the Bill would lead to state interference in yeshivas and force them to teach secular subjects.

Asifas Tefilah, the prayer gathering, held in Stamford Hill in response to the Government’s Children’s Wellbeing and Schools Bill

The government needs to expand haredi recruitment into IDF - editorial

The government has to encourage a fast and vast shift within haredi society, showing that military service and keeping the faith are not contradictions.

 DESPITE THE IDF’s calculation that it needs 7,000 new troops, the vote to revive an older haredi draft bill was approved by the majority of the Knesset members.

Yeshiva students return to Kiryat Shmona, begin blood donations during severe shortage

Many of the yeshiva students have also volunteered to help in the rebuilding efforts and care for residents who were unable to evacuate.

 Kiryat Shmona Hesder Yeshiva students donating blood during a severe shortage, January 8, 2024.

'Far from simple or clear-cut': What do Israelis think about the haredi draft bill?

The Magazine spoke to Israeli men and women who have served in the army and/or have children in uniform. Here’s what they had to say about the haredi draft debacle.

 Protesters demonstrating against the High Court ruling calling for yeshiva students to draft to the IDF, June 30, 2024.

On the haredi draft: Israelis are no longer tolerating the current situation - opinion

"We need a draft so that haredim don’t drift off and evolve into a separate people not just distinct from, but separated from, the rest of Jewry. We need each other too much for that to happen."

 A haredi man and an IDF soldier pray at the Western Wall in Jerusalem, November 14, 2024

Rabbi Asher Deutsch, leader of Peleg Yerushalmi, dies at 79

He previously served as the head of the Lithuanian 'Ponevezh Yeshiva' for 46 years, and has been influential in draft dodging among yeshiva students.

 Head Rabbi of Ponevezh Yeshiva (Ponevitch) Rabbi Asher Deutsch.

War in Israel leads to unexpected increase in enrollment at American yeshivas

Most yeshiva students who went home during the early stages of the war returned in December and January to help support Israel and continue their learning. 

 Jerusalem Day at the Kotel

'Throw them in the toilet': Yitzhak Yosef urges students to 'tear up' draft orders

"What do we have without our Torah? Why did we come here—to become secular? If a draft notice arrives, tear it up. Do you have a toilet at home? Flush it down,” Yosef said.

 Rabbi Yitzhak Yosef during a shaharit prayer in the northern Israeli city of Tzfat, September 17, 2024.

New York: The Hilula of Rabbi Chaim Pinto “The Younger” at the Yeshiva of Rabbi Yoshiyahu Pinto