Dozens of yeshiva students who are in the status of yeshiva members and are entitled to deferment of service until the full exemption at the age of 26, are in academic studies at higher education institutions. This is in contrast to the security service law memorandum which prohibits yeshiva students from studying at universities. Officials in the security system addressed the issue and stated: “The mechanism is broken, there is no enforcement, there is no ability for the army to enter the yeshiva.”
As published in Here News, only ten percent on average out of 1,200 of draft age enlist in the IDF, while the rest receive a deferral and at age 26 receive an exemption, others even evade. Thus, there is no audit, today there are no recruitment targets and there is no government committee that oversees the work processes in the army.
Yonatan Sheinfeld, a 26-year-old yeshiva student with the status of a yeshiva, should receive his exemption from military service these days. He does not serve in the IDF according to the conscription law, but at the same time as being a Yeshiva student – it is enough to study a third year of law, at the Ono Academic College. Contrary to the memorandum of the conscription law, Sheinfeld is even a composer and vocalist in concerts and won Composer of the Year, and also won first place for his songs in the Shabbat Square music parade. According to the law, he must study forty hours a week, and he is not allowed to study at the university, but he is able to do so.
The production company FDD “Production”, which represents Sheinfeld, said: “Yonathan Sheinfeld is an ultra-Orthodox composer and singer, one of the most prominent voices in Jewish music. Since his marriage, Yonatan has been attending Kollel and devotes most of his time to Torah study. He usually finds the leisure time for musical creation in the evenings.
Since the Corona period, Jonathan has also been combining law studies at the Ono Academic Library, in a path that does not require a physical presence on campus, but through classes delivered via Zoom. Yonatan is a private person and the obsessive preoccupation with his personal life without having any public interest in it is very strange.”