From the Liveblog of
Wednesday, August 19, 2026
Breslov sect draft evaders said planning to trick authorities into letting them fly to Uman pilgrimage
Add ToI as a Preferred Source on GoogleSam Sokol is a former political correspondent at The Times of Israel. He was previously a reporter for the Jerusalem Post, Jewish Telegraphic Agency and Haaretz. He is the author of "Putin’s Hybrid War and the Jews"
Draft dodgers from the Breslov Hasidic sect reportedly plan to evade travel restrictions in order to fly to the annual Rosh Hashanah pilgrimage in Uman, Ukraine, by lying to authorities about their intent to enlist in the IDF.
According to Army Radio, activists and rabbis belonging to the ultra-Orthodox group held an emergency meeting to discuss the issue and decided that those wishing to leave the country for the High Holidays should report to recruitment centers and state their intent to enlist in order to get the ban lifted. However, they will subsequently refuse to continue the conscription process and will not join the military.
Every year, tens of thousands of Jewish pilgrims, mainly Hasidim, head to Uman from all around the world to visit the tomb of Rabbi Nachman, a Hasidic luminary and founder of the Breslov Hasidic movement who lived at the turn of the 19th century, for Rosh Hashanah — the Jewish New Year — celebrated this year on September 11-13.
Army Radio quotes a senior Breslov rabbi involved in the annual pilgrimage as saying that “every year they try to prevent Hasidim from traveling to Uman, and every year we manage to reach Uman one way or another” and “this year we will succeed as well.”
Last September, dozens of ultra-Orthodox men were arrested at Ben Gurion Airport trying to fly to Uman, according to numbers released by the extremist Jerusalem Faction, an ultra-Orthodox group stridently opposed to the military enlistment of yeshiva students.
Currently, approximately 80,000 Haredi men between the ages of 18 and 24 are eligible for military service and have not enlisted. On Tuesday, the Attorney General’s Office called for the state to strengthen its enforcement of draft orders, including by arresting draft evaders. Despite the vast majority of those evading conscription being members of the Haredi community, the Attorney General’s Office noted that only 34 of the 348 indictments filed for draft dodging so far this year were against Haredim — just under 10% of the total.
“In order to continue reducing the phenomenon of draft evasion and respond to the urgent security need to grow the army, it is necessary to expand the basket of personal economic enforcement measures as soon as possible, and the army and police must also return to carrying out proactive operations and arrests against draft evasion from all segments of the population,” said the Attorney General’s Office’s statement.
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