The Kanoi Next Door: to get to the rank of general one must start off at the bottom, and serve as an ordinary soldier.
Visit any hospital or clinic in Israel and see the number of charedi families benefitting from the State.
Miriam, thank you for your post, those living outside of Israel do not always realise the different options available to serve one’s country.
I cannot understand the concept of those engaged in Torah learning being disengaged from the world around them, quite the contrary the brave souls form Nahal Haredi, or volunteer in Zaka are closely connected to all of Klal Yisrael. The stigma of how does it look haunts so many haredi communities, breaking away from social expectations and doing the right thing is the action of the brave. Fear of breaking away with traditions which are in themselves only recent minhagim dominate the charedi rabbonim, who politically are busy using imagined slights against Gadolim to canvass opinion against the State as well as each other.