The first company of troops from the Israel Defense Forces’ new ultra-Orthodox brigade, known as the Hasmonean Brigade, stood for a ceremony Wednesday morning at the Western Wall in Jerusalem after completing seven months of basic and advanced training.

The approximately 50 Haredi soldiers finished a 55-kilometer (34-mile) march from the outskirts of Jerusalem to the holy site, where they received the unit’s new signature dark blue beret.

The ceremony came amid deep societal tensions over whether and how to draft Haredi soldiers into the IDF. The establishment of the brigade was part of the military’s efforts to expand the enlistment of ultra-Orthodox men as it faces personnel shortages caused by the ongoing war in Gaza. It also aims to demonstrate, despite opposition to enlistment from leading Haredi rabbis, that military service can go hand in hand with ultra-Orthodox observance.

“Your power and strength are impressive and are expressed in a high level of professionalism, cohesion and inspiring tenacity,” said Col. Avinoam Emunah, an Orthodox senior officer who commands the brigade, according to an IDF statement. “You, my dear ones, know at all times that strength comes from God, and thanks to Him you will excel in defending the people of Israel, with God’s help.”

A fierce legislative battle is being waged over a bill regulating how and how many Haredi men, who previously enjoyed wholesale exemptions from otherwise mandatory military service, would be conscripted. Disagreements over the bill caused Haredi lawmakers to leave Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s coalition.

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Netanyahu’s Likud party recently ousted MK Yuli Edelstein as chair of the committee handling the issue in hopes of reaching a deal with the Knesset’s two Haredi parties, which fiercely oppose enlistment. Edelstein’s replacement, MK Boaz Bismuth, congratulated the Hasmonean soldiers.

Soldiers from the Hasmonean Brigade take part in a march after completing seven months of basic and advanced training, in Jerusalem’s Old City on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

“The army and the Torah go together, shoulder to shoulder. One strengthens the other,” he posted on X above a video of the soldiers singing “Hatikvah,” Israel’s national anthem. “Only together will we win.”

הצבא והתורה הולכים יחד, כתף אל כתף. האחת מחזקת את השני.

מברך את חטיבת “החשמונאים” – החטיבה החרדית הראשונה בצה”ל שסיימה היום את מסלול הכשרתם ובטקס מרגש בכותל המערבי קיבלו את הכומתה.

רק יחד ננצח ???????? pic.twitter.com/1reugunZ8m

— Boaz Bismuth (@BismuthBoaz) August 6, 2025

According to the Ynet news site, Bismuth intends to submit a new draft of the bill within weeks, and will hold discussions on it during the current Knesset recess so he can advance it when the parliament reconvenes in October.

Opposition lawmakers have pilloried Edelstein’s ouster, portraying it as a capitulation to Haredi draft-dodging as an increasingly overstretched military fights in Gaza.

But both sides of the aisle celebrated Wednesday’s ceremony. Opposition Leader Yair Lapid also congratulated the Haredi troops, writing on X that “there is nothing more Jewish than defending the Land of Israel.”

A soldier from the Hasmonean Brigade prays at the Western Wall after completing seven months of basic and advanced training on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

But Haredi communal leaders, who see military service as a threat to Torah study and the Haredi way of life, have not accepted the Hasmonean model as a solution.

They have continued to object to efforts to conscript yeshiva students and to crack down on draft dodgers, issuing a statement following a recent rabbinic conference insisting that students are “forbidden to go to any military framework,” even frameworks established to accommodate an ultra-Orthodox lifestyle. They hope the coming legislation will enable most Haredi young men to continue to avoid military conscription or other national service.

Some 80,000 ultra-Orthodox men aged between 18 and 24 are currently believed to be eligible for military service, but have not enlisted. The IDF has said it urgently needs 12,000 recruits, due to the strain on standing and reserve forces amid the ongoing Gaza war and other military challenges. Overall, around 2,700 Haredim joined the army over the past year.

Despite that pushback, the IDF has been opening new units, as well as considering building a separate induction center for Haredi troops, to meet the army’s personnel needs.

Soldiers from the Hasmonean Brigade take part in a ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

In January, the first 50 Hasmonean soldiers were drafted to the brigade’s first regular company. They completed their training on Wednesday, culminating with the march to Jerusalem.

The military said the soldiers during their seven months of training “conducted exercises throughout the country to prepare for action according to operational needs and in any location.”

“During their training, the troops carried out navigation drills, night combat, raid, and assault exercises,” the military said, adding that “the entire training program and the base infrastructure were adapted to the lifestyle of the ultra-Orthodox soldier.”

The soldiers who completed their basic and advanced training are now set to participate in a squad commanders’ course to train the future generation of troops in the brigade, the IDF said.

In May, another 50 soldiers were drafted to the brigade and are set to complete their training in December.

Ultra-Orthodox soldiers draft to the IDF’s new Haredi brigade, known as the Hasmonean Brigade, January 5, 2025. (Israel Defense Forces)

Meanwhile, another 100 older Haredi men were drafted earlier this year into the brigade’s first reserve company, where they completed six months of infantry training.

The reserve company is made up of people who already did the so-called Shlav Bet (Stage B) track, in which post-army age people are put through two weeks of basic training and then sent to serve in noncombat roles.

During June, the reserve company conducted several weeks of operations in the northern Gaza Strip. According to the IDF, the Hasmonean reservists killed at least 44 terror operatives.

The IDF said earlier this year that the recruitment of the initial 150 soldiers was a “significant milestone” in establishing the Hasmonean Brigade and “the process of expanding [the number of] members of the ultra-Orthodox community in IDF service, especially in light of the operational needs arising from the needs of the war.”

Soldiers from the Hasmonean Brigade take part in a ceremony at the Western Wall in Jerusalem’s Old City on August 6, 2025. (Chaim Goldberg/Flash90)

Ahead of the draft, the IDF said it carried out a “wide-ranging preparation process” to integrate the Haredi soldiers into the military. That process included recruiting staff for the brigade, renovating an old training base — the Tebetz Camp in the Jordan Valley —  and “adapting it to the ultra-Orthodox lifestyle.”

Soldiers serving in the new brigade are permitted to wear “Sabbath clothes” on Saturdays when not on duty instead of military uniforms, and are required to attend prayers and a mandatory hour of Torah study daily.

The troops are also required to have phones that are “kosher” — devices on which social media and most other apps are blocked.

The previously existing IDF units for Haredi soldiers include the Netzah Yehuda Battalion in the Kfir Brigade, the Tomer Company in the Givati Brigade’s Rotem Battalion, the Hetz Company in the Paratroopers Brigade’s 202nd Battalion, and the Nevatim Airbase’s ground defense unit, as well as numerous other noncombat roles.

In 2024, the IDF established a first-ever Israeli Air Force technicians unit for young men from the ultra-Orthodox community.