The government announced Monday that, starting in 2026, it will no longer finance the education of ultra-Orthodox youths who are studying at so-called “drop-out yeshivas” and decline to enlist in the IDF for their mandatory service.

Drop-out yeshivas are institutions designed to keep Haredi men who are not interested in full-time religious study within an ultra-Orthodox framework to prevent them from leaving the community.

Coalition funds given to the Haredim as part of the 2025 state budget include NIS 28 million ($7.7 million) for programs to prevent these youths, some of whom are viewed as at-risk of substance abuse or crime, from dropping out of yeshivas or leaving the community.

While Haredi community leaders argue that full-time Talmud students should not be conscripted, many studying in drop-out yeshivas do not study all day like the students in mainstream yeshivas do. Some so-called drop-out yeshivas even actively encourage their students to work or to pursue higher education.

Responding to a petition by the Israel Hofsheet (Be Free Israel) religious freedom advocacy group, which claims that this funding violated last year’s High Court of Justice ruling barring the government from providing funds to ultra-Orthodox yeshivas for students eligible for IDF enlistment, the state announced that, going forward, it would not budget for these students who had ignored enlistment orders.

In order for yeshivas to receive money for such students, the young men will have to report to an enlistment center and settle their status, as every other yeshiva student must do.

According to the state, there are currently some 21 institutions and 483 students who receive such funding. Around one-third of them are aged 16-18, while the rest are 18-23.

Following the state’s announcement, the High Court recommended that Israel Hofsheet withdraw its........

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