Rav Yehoshua Eichenstein to Chutz Laaretz Yeshiva Bochurim: “In America There Is Religious Freedom — Here They Want a Melting Pot”
Amid growing concern over a recent phenomenon in which yeshiva students from abroad who come to Israel are expressing interest in enlisting in the IDF — and in some cases have already done so — senior Torah figures addressed the issue this week at a special gathering for overseas bochurim.
According to a report by journalist Shilo Fried on Ynet, activists opposing the draft say the trend has accelerated during the prolonged war, as young chareidi men from the United States and other countries spent extended periods in Israel under rocket fire and amid fighting, leading some to feel drawn to participate in the national war effort. Data cited in the report indicated that in a recent intake to the Tomer Battalion of the Givati Brigade, nearly all of the chareidi recruits were from abroad, with only a small number coming from Israel itself. Similar patterns were reportedly identified in other IDF units.
In response, the organization Agudim, operating under the umbrella of Ezram U’Maginam, convened a conference this week aimed at establishing a framework to discourage overseas yeshiva students from enlisting.
Addressing hundreds of overseas students studying in Israeli yeshivos, Rav Yehoshua Eichenstein, rosh yeshiva of Yad Aharon, delivered a lengthy and pointed shmuess in which he contrasted American and Israeli culture and warned of what he described as a fundamental ideological agenda behind military conscription.
“The people here tonight,” Rav Eichenstein said, “come from Western culture and arrived here in Eretz Yisrael. Because you were raised in Western culture, you do not fully understand Israeli culture or what stands behind it. Let me give some background.” He cited the Torah’s description of Yaakov as an ish tam, explaining that innocence has limits. “When you are sitting next to a rasha, you are not allowed to be innocent,” he said. “We must understand this basic concept.”
Rav Eichenstein described American culture as inherently “innocent,” noting that religious freedom in the United States is rooted in the country’s founding by persecuted religious minorities who created a system based on separation of religion and state. “Everyone is religious in his own way,” he said, “and that is the foundation of American freedom of religion.”
“In this country,” he continued, “the situation is different. The state was founded on the religion of Zionism. There is no separation of religion and state. The state is religious at its core — but it is a Zionist religion.” He argued that Zionism sought to create a “new nation” through a “melting pot,” with the army serving as the central tool to shape this new identity. As part of this argument, he pointed to Israel’s mandatory conscription of women, stating that aside from Israel, North Korea is the only country in the world that drafts women.
Rav Eichenstein further warned that what he termed “naïve Americans” are susceptible to arguments about “sharing the burden,” without recognizing what he described as a deeper agenda. He alleged that senior military and state officials fear that in several decades the chareidi community will wield significant political power, and that the goal of conscription is to turn religious Jews into “dropouts.” He described the Supreme Court as a central stronghold of this effort.
He asserted that remaining religious after army service is extremely difficult, claiming that even within the religious-Zionist sector, large percentages abandon religious observance. He cited statements by rabbis associated with religious-Zionist institutions, saying they themselves acknowledge that many enter the army wearing a yarmulka and leave without one.
According to Rav Eichenstein, “The judicial system and the Left are using the army as a weapon against religion. They don’t want compromises — they want the surrender of the religious public.” While he acknowledged that there are individuals within the army who try to accommodate religious needs, he insisted that large segments of the military have an ideological goal of promoting secularization. He related, based on what he described as personal sources, incidents involving mixed-gender living arrangements during operations, which he said caused distress and protest among soldiers’ families.
{Matzav.com}