Five Times More Haredim Than Seculars Use Psych Exemption To Escape Army Service

Data published by the IDF Personnel Directorate reveals that the rate of haredim who obtain psychiatric exemptions is five times higher than among secular people,even though haredim have another "escape route" out of military service.

IDF: Haredim abusing psych exemption
Despite available religious exemption, five times more haredim than seculars use Profile 21 to avoid draft, army says
Yossi Yehoshua • Ynet

Not only a "secular disease". Data published by the IDF Personnel Directorate reveals that the rate of ultra-Orthodox who obtain psychiatric exemptions is five times higher than among secular people, although they have another "escape route" out of military service.

Recruitment data from the past year indicated that 12% of total recruits were haredim who were exempt from military service based on religious reasons.

Another 6.5% of recruits were released due to medical problems, 4.5% of which were given psychiatric exemptions (profile 21), and 2% were haredim that could have also obtained an exemption based on religious reasons.

The implication is that some 45% of those who receive psychiatric exemptions from the IDF are haredim, although they only constitute 14% of the total number of annual recruits.

The number of haredim that are released on profile 21 is five times higher than the number of seculars, and is much higher than what has been officially reported thus far.

The IDF Personnel Directorate explained the phenomenon by claiming it is much easier to issue exemptions based on a profile 21 than it is to postpone military service due to religious studies.

'More convenient'

During a recent meeting behind closed doors, IDF Personnel Directorate head Major-General Avi Zamir was quoted as saying, "We would expect the haredi sector of all people to act honestly."

MK Yohanan Plesner (Kadima), who is acting to promote haredi recruitment, explained that haredi youth that postpone their military service are not allowed to work or leave the country, and are obliged to study at least 45 hours a week. Therefore, the majority of haredim prefer to get psychiatric exemptions.

"The data is amazing and shatters the existing stigma vis-à-vis the rate of psychiatric exemptions among the secular sector," said Plesner.

"We realized that the number of volunteers among non-haredim is unusually high, while the rate of service dodgers in the haredi sector is higher than what we previously thought. We need to act swiftly in order to battle this phenomenon," he added.
 
Major-General Eliezer Stern, who served as the IDF Personnel Directorate head up until three years ago, spoke adamantly against the phenomenon, saying "they pretend to be psychos in order to get an exemption because it is convenient for them.

"Psychological problems are not an exact science, and those who really want out can play the role and would not be caught. Bnei Brak and Jerusalem do not have a higher rate of mental problems than Ra'anana, and as far as I am concerned it is a form of fraud that the haredi leadership knows about, but does not condemn," he said.

'Professionals easily fooled'

According to an official at the IDF mental health department, it is easier for haredim to fool mental health officers because they do not understand and know the haredi sector as well as the secular one.

Senior clinical psychologist Dr. Dafna Katzenelson-Barak explained that lying in order to dodge military service is an acceptable norm among the haredi sector.

In recent years, Dr. Katzenelson-Barak has treated many cases of adult haredim who want to reverse their psychological exemption because of its implications. "They don’t realize the consequences of having a psychiatric profile," she explained.

"Unlike the secular public, which is highly trained and knows what to say to the mental health officer so that it does not harm them in the future, the haredm make up extreme psychological scenarios. Later on they have a difficulty appealing it," she added.

Dr. Katzenelson-Barak noted that young haredim obtain letters from private psychologists that testify of their mental problems ahead of their enlistment, which leaves mental health officers with little options.

She called on her colleagues to stop encouraging the phenomenon – both among seculars and haredim.

Comments

[David]

Senior clinical psychologist Dr. Dafna Katzenelson-Barak explained that lying in order to dodge military service is an acceptable norm among the haredi sector.

It seems lying is also the acceptable norm everywhere else in the Charedi world.

[Chicago Sam]

Insanity and mental illness are perfectly "normal" characteristics for the Haredi and the Hasidim.

Maybe they are right!

[Yochanan Lavie]

Was Corporal Klinger of MASH a chareidi?

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

It makes sense to me that hareidim are 5 times more likely to be mentally ill.

[Yerachmiel Lopin]

Why bother to claim to be psycho if they can get out of service without fraud?

[hh]

Humorous Video Explaining Difficulty Getting Into Lakewood Jewish Schools

http://thelakewoodview.com/voice/humorous-video-explaining-the-difficulty-of-getting-into-the-lakewood-jewish-schools/

[A. Nuran]

Yochanan - No. He was competent and hard-working. And while he tried to play the system he understood the rules applied to him.

[Menachem Mendel lll]

THOU SHALL LIE.
THOU SHALL CHEAT.
THOU SHALL BEAR FALSE WITNESS.
THOU SAHLL SCAM.
THOU SHALL DO WHATEVER IT TAKES.

So let it be written.
So let it be done.

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

YL
The chords for "Suicide is Painless" (the theme from MASH) are the same as Bashanah Haba'ah.
What would Capt. Sidney Friedman have said?

[David]

Yochanan:

Despite all his efforts, his commanding officers are never fooled. The commanders largely tolerate his antics because they are entertaining, and Klinger is otherwise a conscientious and reliable orderly who makes a point of never letting his schemes interfere with his duties.

From
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maxwell_Klinger

[farshlepte krenk]

I have little sympathy for the Haredim, but I support their efforts at evasion. The IDF is a criminal organization that terrorizes the subordinated populations in the occupied territories and participates in the illegal detention and torture of youth

[David]

The IDF is a criminal organization that terrorizes the subordinated populations in the occupied territories and participates in the illegal detention and torture of youth

Lies, and you know it. Either that, or you are just plain ignorant and stupid. Which one is it?

[nobody]

These numbers account for the haredim who want to work (you know, get jobs) but to do so without having to serve in the army. So in that case, their legal exception does not apply because they do not intend to learn full time, they intend to work, so the only option other than actually serving is to get a psych clearance. Isn't that what this report means?

[ruthie]

The IDF is a criminal organization

FARSHLEPTE KRENK i don't really have to respond to your stupidity.
your name says it all.

[Chatz]

4 Hasidic Jews protest repeal of ban on gay troops at West Point

http://www.lohud.com/article/20101221/NEWS03/12210320/4-Hasidic-Jews-protest-repeal-of-ban-on-gay-troops-at-West-Point

[shlomo zalman]

I am famailiar with this scam first hand.
Most of these fakers are from the extreme neturei karta type and not the routine litvish chareidi. They would come in to the draft board and act catatonic. No talking, difficulty walking, no eye focus, no communication. The doctor in charge knew very well what was up, but had to give the kid a psychiatric deferral anyway. This scam has been running for decades,and everyone who works in the draft board knows it. The rationalization is that who wants these pathetic parasites in the army anyway?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Apologies to MASH:

Through early morning davening
I listen to my old Rebbe
The pains that are withheld for me
I realize that scamming's free...

[chorus]:
That parasitism's painless
It brings on many changes
and I can take or leave it if I please.

I try to find a way to make
A yeshiva that's a fake
Without that ever-present hate
but now I know that it's too late, and...

[Chorus]

The army game is hard to play
I'm gonna lose it anyway
The "freiers" will not stay away
so this is all I have to say.

[Chorus]

The only way to win is cheat
Who cares if Tzahal is defeated
and to the Arabs give my seat
for that's the only lazy feat.

[Chorus]

The sword of Allah will pierce our skins
It doesn't hurt when it begins
But as it works its way on in
The pain grows stronger...watch it win, but...

[Chorus]

A brave man once requested me
Why do you serve in the army
A black hat soldier's not to be
and I replied 'oy why should me?'

'Cause parasitism's painless
it brings on many changes
and politics condones it, yes siree.
...and you can do the same thing if you choose.

[David]

I am famailiar with this scam first hand.
Most of these fakers are from the extreme neturei karta type and not the routine litvish chareidi. They would come in to the draft board and act catatonic. No talking, difficulty walking, no eye focus, no communication. The doctor in charge knew very well what was up, but had to give the kid a psychiatric deferral anyway. This scam has been running for decades,and everyone who works in the draft board knows it. The rationalization is that who wants these pathetic parasites in the army anyway?

Fine. Throw them in jail for fraud. And the doctors that signed off on this nonsense as well.

[jancsipista]

well this might be the plain truth they are for real mentally disturbed the question is how disturbed in this case the know exactly what they are doing playing the game stop giving them money and lets see how they will survive on their own teach them a lesson about the real real world not their imagined make beleive universe that they create for themselfs

[moshe]

I guess this only proves what I've known for a long time. You have to be crazy to be charedi.

[David]

"We would expect the haredi sector of all people to act honestly."

Wow. Maybe he should get discharged from the army for psychological reasons!

[Barry]

"Religion is an attempt to get control over the sensory world, in which we are placed, by means of the wish-world, which we have developed inside us as a result of biological and psychological necessities. [...] If one attempts to assign to religion its place in man's evolution, it seems not so much to be a lasting acquisition, as a parallel to the neurosis which the civilized individual must pass through on his way from childhood to maturity." –Sigmund Freud, Moses and Monotheism, 1939

The majority of psychologists (including military psychologists) take a view similar to Freud and that people with hyper religiosity are neurotic and are incapable of acting rationally. People who are irrational act impulsively and not in their own or others best interests. In a military context such irrationality would prove disastrous.

You will not find military recruiters in Monsey for that same reason.

[Alter Kocker]

At the induction centre, when a chareidi candidate shows up acting as if they are mentally deranged, offer them some electro-shock therapy; a cattle prod up the ass should straighten them up. A zap or two might make them a little more co-operative.

[The Farshlepte Krenk]

All of you Zionist apologists, in your rush to condemn Haredim, fail to apply the moral standards by which you judge those charedim to the traife medineh. This cognitive dissonance is also apparent in the editorial tone that Shmarya takes. The overt racism displayed by the religious zionist camp is just one facet of a society where racism is embedded in the legislation; a bifurcated society where an enormous ethnic segment is denied fundamental rights. Your appalling blindness of this state of affairs puts the motive behind your moral criticism in question. The assumption that individuals should be uncritically beholden to the demands of state is flat out false. If my country, the USA, wished to draft me for their immoral imperialist wars, I too would use any deceitful means at my disposal to evade that draft. Many Charedim similarly defy the draft on moral grounds, some of which I disagree with, some of which I reprehend. But your unwillingness to even consider the objections of these conscientious objectors is indicative of the fundamentally polemical and uncritical nature of your inquiries. I have thus far limited my remarks on this blog to sarcastic remarks, and my screen name reflects this trend. To suggest that the screen name I chose is a valid reason to reject the content of my statements is not only a fallacious ad hominem, but also an indication of the sheer magnitude of your unwillingness to confront the issues in question.

[Barry]

Farshlepte Krenk, it is the NK view which you spout that suffers from cognitive dissonance.

Put simply, the majority of Jews who have rejected Ultra Orthodoxy and adopted enlightenment values be they assimilationists or Zionists appreciate a simple fact that the Derech Yisroel Saba that all your revered rebbes and tzadikim pushed for Jews to follow in the 19th century is a derech whose destination was for many the gas chambers. That is the issue of sheer magnitude which you are incapable of confronting expect by spouting hatred at those who feel morally obliged to point out that uncomfortable truth.

No one is arguing that individuals should be uncritically beholden to the demands of the state. What is being argued is that modern state is beholden to ensure that its citizens are free from the irrational demands of its clerical leadership. History shows that no nation has had a worse leadership for a longer period than the Jews because it has left that leadership to its clergy. However the clergy insist that one must not learn history. Wishful thinking and ritual will overcome hard Darwinian logic that the primitive and weak are doomed.

Your professing conscientious objection to war does not wash either.

You will not find the idea of conscientious objection in the pre Enlightenment world view. Quite the opposite.

Again Freud - "A religion, even if it calls itself a religion of love, must be hard and unloving to those who do not belong to it."

[Office of the Chief Rabbi]

Really fine, YL. Inspired by the full moon?

[Yochanan Lavie]

Well, OCR, I was howling at the eclipse...