Rabbi Hanoch Kaufman — son of Rabbi Chaim Aharon Kaufman, a senior member of the influential Yeshiva Committee — is reportedly collaborating with the Israeli army to create a special service track for his yeshiva students, according to Channel 13.
While his father has been a staunch opponent of Haredim serving in the IDF, the younger Kaufman is pursuing a program that would give some of his students a defined path into military service.
The Yeshiva Committee, once the main channel for coordinating legal service deferments between ultra-Orthodox institutions and the Defense Ministry, has in recent years shifted focus. A Times of Israel investigation earlier this year found it now uses a hotline to advise students on avoiding enlistment altogether.
Rabbi Hanoch Kaufman heads Bakshu Yeshiva, an institution known for integrating Haredi youth who left other religious schools.
Military service exemptions for Haredi men have been under intense scrutiny. Roughly 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged 18–24 are believed to be eligible for enlistment but have not joined the IDF — despite a High Court ruling last year that ended the decades-long blanket exemptions.
So far, Haredi political and rabbinic leaders have resisted all proposals to draft even a portion of their young men, including those who are not in full-time Torah study.
זה מידע שאסור לכם לפספס: בזמן שאביו, יו"ר ועד הישיבות הרב חיים קאופמן, קבע נחרצות שגם צעירים חרדים בטלנים אסור להם להתגייס לצה"ל - הבן שלו, הרב חנוך קאופמן, כראש ישיבת "בקשו" לצעירים חרדים נושרים, נמצא בימים אלו במשא ומתן מתקדם עם משרד הביטחון על הסדרת מסלול צבאי לתלמידיו https://t.co/KarsEGQbzn pic.twitter.com/1JR4vyJqtR
— יואלי ברים yoeli brim (@yoeli_brim) August 7, 2025
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