A New Chareidi Party Challenges the Status Quo: The Draft, Daas Torah, and Israeli Society, with Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein (303)
August 31, 2026
AI Summary
5 min readA New Chareidi Party Challenges the Status Quo: The Draft, Daas Torah, and Israeli Society
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein, director of Global Faith Engagement for Israel 365 and a longtime Orthodox activist, describes the newly formed Hatzibur HaChareidi party as representing "a new old Yiddishkeit." The party, founded by Beit Shemesh deputy mayor Monty Leitner, is running in the upcoming Israeli election on a platform that breaks sharply from the established Haredi political parties—United Torah Judaism and Shas—on the draft, government cooperation, and what it means to be a Haredi citizen of Israel.
Why a New Party Now
Adlerstein argues that dissatisfaction in the Haredi world has been building for over a decade. The Ma'ayan HaChinuch (Mamach) school network started with one school and now has over 200. Thousands of Haredim have served in the IDF through the Netzach Yehuda program and emerged with a different attitude toward military service. The Haredi workforce has grown, and Haredim are entering academia in significant numbers. Three years of war have created a "disjoint connection" between what people are told to think and what they feel.
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What you'll learn
- 1 (07:05) **Why a New Haredi Party is Necessary** - Rabbi Adlerstein explains the long-simmering dissatisfaction in the Haredi world that led to the formation of Hatsibor Haredi.
- 2 (10:37) **Are the Existing Haredi Parties Stuck?** - The guest describes the paralysis of the current Haredi political leadership, which sees the system breaking down but lacks the authority or vision to change it.
- 3 (11:47) **Reclaiming "Daas Torah"** - Rabbi Adlerstein argues that the new party is 100% on board with Daas Torah, but that the concept has been corrupted and needs to be saved from the current political establishment.
- 4 (15:51) **The 3.25% Electoral Threshold and the Risk of Wasted Votes** - The discussion turns to the practical challenge of the new party clearing the electoral threshold to enter the Knesset.
- 5 (21:04) **The Draft: Who Qualifies as a Full-Time Learner?** - The core of the party's draft platform: genuine full-time learners get deferments, while everyone else serves in some capacity.
- 6 (30:31) **The Deeper Reason for Torah-Study Deferments** - The guest explains that the justification for deferring full-time learners goes beyond producing scholars to a core principle of Jewish existence.
- 7 (40:09) **The "Bein HaZmanim" Vacation Problem** - Rabbi Adlerstein agrees with the host that the extensive vacation time for yeshiva students is absurd and counterproductive.
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Show Notes
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The Chareidi draft issue has become one of the most contentious questions in Israeli society, and the established Chareidi political parties have largely presented a united front: protecting the existing system and opposing efforts to draft Chareidi men into the IDF.
But a newly formed Chareidi political party, HaTzibbur HaChareidi, is offering a very different approach.
Its platform says that those who genuinely devote themselves full time to Torah study should be protected and allowed to continue learning, while those who don't should serve the country in some capacity. But the party's challenge to the Chareidi status quo goes well beyond the draft. It argues that many working Chareidim, Chareidim who have served in the army, and those who want greater participation in Israeli society are no longer adequately represented by the existing Chareidi political establishment.
Rabbi Yitzchok Adlerstein is supporting HaTzibbur HaChareidi, and in today's conversation we discuss what this new party stands for and whether it has a realistic chance of changing Chareidi politics. We talk about the draft, who should qualify as a full-time Torah learner, whether yeshiva attendance should be monitored, Chareidi service in the IDF, Daas Torah, government funding, and the relationship between Chareidi society and the State of Israel.
Rabbi Adlerstein describes the party's vision as a "new old Yiddishkeit." The question is whether that vision can offer a genuine alternative to the Chareidi political status quo.
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