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A looming crisis over conscripting ultra-Orthodox Jews into the Israeli army is jeopardizing the governing coalition and fracturing the state.

The public mood on the matter has undergone a sea change in Israel after two years of hostilities, and this is now perhaps the most explosive political challenge facing Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu.

The Legal Battle

Legislators are reviewing a proposal to end the exemption granted to yeshiva scholars engaged in Torah study, established when the State of Israel was founded in 1948.

The deferment was struck down by the Supreme Court almost 20 years ago. Temporary arrangements to maintain it were finally concluded by the court last year, pressuring the administration to begin drafting the community.

Some 24,000 call-up papers were sent out last year, but only around 1,200 ultra-Orthodox - or Haredi - draftees enlisted, according to defense officials given to lawmakers.

Friction Boil Over Into Violence

Strains are boiling over onto the public squares, with parliamentarians now deliberating a new legislative proposal to compel yeshiva students into national service alongside other secular Israelis.

A pair of ultra-Orthodox lawmakers were targeted this month by hardline activists, who are furious with the Knesset's deliberations of the bill.

And last week, a special Border Police unit had to extract enforcement personnel who were attacked by a large crowd of ultra-Orthodox protesters as they sought to apprehend a alleged conscription dodger.

Such incidents have sparked the creation of a new messaging system named "Dark Alert" to send out instant alerts through Haredi neighborhoods and summon demonstrators to prevent arrests from taking place.

"This is a Jewish state," remarked Shmuel Orbach. "One cannot oppose religious practice in a Jewish state. It is a contradiction."

A Realm Apart

Yet the shifts blowing through Israel have failed to penetrate the environment of the religious seminary in Bnei Brak, an Haredi enclave on the outskirts of Tel Aviv.

Inside the classroom, teenage boys study together to analyze the Torah, their vividly colored school notebooks contrasting with the rows of formal attire and traditional skullcaps.

"Come at one in the morning, and you will see a significant portion are pursuing religious study," the dean of the academy, the spiritual guide, said. "Via dedicated learning, we protect the troops on the front lines. This constitutes our service."

Ultra-Orthodox believe that continuous prayer and spiritual pursuit defend Israel's armed forces, and are as crucial to its military success as its conventional forces. This tenet was acknowledged by the nation's leaders in the past, Rabbi Mazuz said, but he conceded that public attitudes are shifting.

Growing Societal Anger

The Haredi community has significantly increased its percentage of the country's people over the last seventy years, and now represents 14%. An exemption that started as an exception for a small number of yeshiva attendees turned into, by the onset of the Gaza war, a body of approximately 60,000 men left out of the conscription.

Opinion polls show approval of drafting the Haredim is increasing. Research in July found that an overwhelming percentage of secular and traditional Jews - encompassing a large segment in Netanyahu's own right-wing Likud party - supported sanctions for those who refused a enlistment summons, with a clear majority in favor of removing privileges, the right to travel, or the electoral participation.

"It seems to me there are people who are part of this country without giving anything back," one military member in Tel Aviv commented.

"It is my belief, however religious you are, [it] should be an justification not to go and serve your nation," said Gabby. "If you're born here, I find it somewhat unreasonable that you want to avoid service just to learn in a yeshiva all day."

Voices from Inside a Religious City

Advocacy of extending the draft is also coming from religious Jews outside the ultra-Orthodox sector, like a Bnei Brak inhabitant, who is a neighbor of the seminary and points to observant but non-Haredi Jews who do perform national service while also engaging in religious study.

"I am frustrated that ultra-Orthodox people don't enlist," she said. "It's unfair. I also believe in the Torah, but there's a teaching in Jewish tradition - 'The Book and the Sword' – it signifies the Torah and the weapons together. That is the path, until the days of peace."

The resident runs a small memorial in her city to local soldiers, both from all backgrounds, who were lost in conflict. Lines of photographs {