Defense Minister Yisrael Katz has instructed the Defense Ministry and IDF to formulate a new plan for Chabad yeshiva bochurim, after the army reportedly realized that canceling the long-standing Chabad arrangement had backfired.

According to a report by military correspondent Mendy Rizel on Channel 14, the directive came after IDF officials concluded that the collapse of the Chabad arrangement caused serious damage to the army’s own enlistment goals. Under the previous framework, Chabad bochurim were able to travel to 770 for their year of kevutza after signing a commitment to enlist at a later age.

For years, the arrangement allowed talmidim from Chabad yeshivos in Eretz Yisroel to continue the regular Chabad yeshiva track, including the kevutza year at 770, while preserving a structured path for those who would later enter army service. According to the report, after the arrangement was canceled, the IDF lost hundreds of motivated Chabad recruits who had previously helped the army meet its Charedi enlistment targets.

The arrangement has been under pressure since the High Court struck down the broader draft law, leaving the army without the legal framework that had allowed it to continue the old system. Attempts to reach a replacement agreement stalled, with the IDF rejecting four proposals presented by Beis Din Rabbonei Chabad and citing legal limitations under the current situation.

In practice, the cancellation left many Chabad bochurim stuck between the army’s demand for enlistment numbers and a system that did not accommodate the Chabad yeshiva track. Instead of preserving the framework that had brought in Chabad recruits in past years, the IDF’s refusal to renew the arrangement left bochurim facing arrests, uncertainty, and the loss of a path that had worked for both sides.

In Tishrei, a bochur was arrested at Ben Gurion Airport while traveling to the Rebbe and sentenced to military prison. Later, eleven Chabad bochurim returning from their kevutza year were detained at Ben Gurion Airport and taken into military custody.

Beis Din Rabbonei Chabad has repeatedly stressed that the role of yeshiva bochurim is to remain fully immersed in Torah learning. In a public letter, the rabbonim wrote that the campaign is not merely legal or political, but “an attempt to weaken Torah learning itself”, and called on Anash to join an Atzeres Tefillah Uze’akah for the protection of Torah learning.

In another letter to a Lubavitcher bochur imprisoned over the draft, Rabbi Yitzchok Yehuda Yaroslavsky wrote that yeshiva bochurim defend Eretz Yisroel through dedicated Torah study, giving strength to the soldiers on the front lines.