JERUSALEM — Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox Israelis were expected to gather in Jerusalem on Thursday for a mass demonstration against efforts to enlist some of them in the military, a protest that is likely to deepen divisions in a country reeling from two years of war.

The show of force comes amid an attempt by the Israeli government to find a legal and political compromise to end the decades-old practice of granting exemptions from military service to most ultra-Orthodox seminary students.

That privilege has long stirred widespread public resentment that has become more acute since the Hamas-led attack on Israel on Oct. 7, 2023, which ignited the wars in the Gaza Strip and Lebanon. Hundreds of soldiers have died in those conflicts, and tens of thousands of reservists have served multiple tours of duty.

Military service is compulsory in Israel for most Jewish 18-year-olds, both men and women.

Israel’s Supreme Court ruled last year that there was no legal basis for allowing the military exemptions and that, in the absence of new legislation, the army must begin drafting ultra-Orthodox Jewish men.

Military Says it Needs 12,000 More Soldiers

The military has said that it needs 12,000 more soldiers to fill its ranks. Tens of thousands of ultra-Orthodox men of draft age currently do not serve.

Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu has long relied on the support of ultra-Orthodox parties to remain in power. The government is working on a bill that aims to go some way to addressing the military’s needs and keep Netanyahu’s right-wing and religiously conservative coalition intact.

Critics of the proposed bill say it would continue to allow most ultra-Orthodox Israelis to avoid being drafted, with low quotas for enlistment and minimal, delayed sanctions imposed on those who do not comply.

Leaders of the ultra-Orthodox community, known in Hebrew as the Haredim, or “those who tremble before God,” have called the demonstration Thursday a “march of the million” and advertised it as a prayer vigil rather than a protest.

The gathering will be centered around the western entrance to Jerusalem, and was expected to cause major disruptions in the city and beyond. A long section of the main Jerusalem-Tel Aviv highway was closed in both directions to all traffic other than buses ferrying demonstrators, while the city’s train station, situated near the western entrance, was also expected to be shut.

The founders of modern Israel exempted Haredi seminary students from military service when the state was created in 1948, in part to try to rehabilitate the ranks of Torah scholarship that were decimated in the Holocaust.

At that time, there were only a few hundred such students, but the Haredim now make up at least 13% of Israel’s population of 10 million.

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This article originally appeared in The New York Times.

By Isabel Kershner, David M. Halbfinger and Natan Odenheimer/David Guttenfeider
c. 2025 The New York Times Company