Israel Considers Military Recruitment Inside USA As Soldier Shortage Persists

Amid an enduring soldier shortage, and as an all-out occupation of Gaza looms, the Israel Defense Forces are considering a campaign to recruit soldiers from Jewish populations living in the United States and other countries around the world. 

According to Israeli Army Radio, a state media outlet, Israel may mount an effort to recruit 600 to 700 Jews a year from the diaspora, a term referring to Jews living somewhere other than Israel. At first, Israel would concentrate its effort in the United States and France, the countries with the two largest Jewish populations, at roughly 6 million and 450,000, respectively.  

As of February, there were 3,500 diaspora soldiers serving in the IDF, with nearly 900 of them Americans. Israel calls such troops lone soldiers. “The majority of American lone soldiers are coming after high school, either directly after high school or after a gap year program,” said Noya Govrin, Director of the Lone Soldiers Program at Nefesh b’Nefesh, a nonprofit that encourages Americans and Canadians to “make aliyah” — that is, to move to Israel and become citizens. “In the past two years, there has been a notable increase in college graduates that come to Israel to serve as lone soldiers,” she told Times of Israel.

Earlier this month, one of those American lone soldiers who’d recently returned from service in Gaza was the target of an overnight arson attack on vehicles parked at his family’s house in suburban St. Louis, Missouri. Graffiti painted on the street accused him of being a murderer and proclaimed DEATH TO THE IDF. 

BREAKING:

🇮🇱🇺🇲 An Israeli soldier with US citizenship was attacked in Clayton, Missouri, his vehicles were set on fire and destroyed.

Graffiti outside the family’s home called for death to the IDF. pic.twitter.com/ZBOe3MRL6q

— Megatron (@Megatron_ron) August 6, 2025

“Awkward moment for some of my fellow Jews in the diaspora,” wrote Rafael Shimunov, New Yorker host of a “Jewish Left” radio show. “Cheerleading Israelis sending their kids to do genocide, but will never send their own.” 

The IDF is coping with a 10,000- to 12,000-soldier shortfall. There are two principal drivers: draft-dodging by ultra-Orthodox Israelis, and lower retention of current soldiers, who are leaving the IDF at an elevated rate as the war in Gaza nears its second anniversary. Some are voluntarily leaving via extreme means: At least 16 soldiers have killed themselves in 2025, and 54 since Oct 7. More than 3,700 have been diagnosed with PTSD. 

There are some 14,600 deserters, according to the Jerusalem Post, which appears to apply that term to draft-dodgers. The IDF is about to close the window on a sort of amnesty plan, which gives draft-dodgers until Thursday to sign up for service by phone or online and then be rapidly ushered into the IDF’s ranks in the coming weeks. If they do, they’ll be spared criminal charges and penalties that include a prohibition on foreign travel.  

The issue of ultra-Orthodox military conscription has threatened to topple Netanyahu’s government, as parties representing that community have demanded legislation that would grant them an exemption from military service. In June 2024, Israel’s Supreme Court ruled that the government must start drafting the Haredi, who’d previously enjoyed an exemption ever since Israel’s creation in 1948.  

Haredi men typically dedicate their entire lives to religious study in seminaries called Yeshivas and receive public welfare.  With Israel waging a multi-front war encompassing Gaza, the West Bank, Lebanon, Syria, Yemen and Iran, the exemption has become increasingly unpopular with the other segments of Israeli society that must heed the call. 

As public opinion among both American Jews and non-Jews grows increasingly negative toward Israel’s war in Gaza and the Zionist state in general, it remains to be seen how fruitful a recruitment campaign inside America would be. Priming the pump for IDF recruiters, Israel-catering members of the US Congress have controversially introduced a bill that would extend credit and employment privileges enjoyed by US military service members to American citizens serving in the IDF — with no such privilege for service in any other foreign army.