Yair Sherki shares thoughts on Haredi enlistment: "I cried a lot"

The excitement at the recruitment office has always been an integral part of the Israeli experience, but since the events of October 7, the meeting between new recruits and their family members has taken on a completely different emotional weight. In the series of reports "Welcome to the IDF" on Channel 12, the company's correspondents accompany the country's young men and women in their first steps in uniform. In the program "Avri and Sherki," journalist and anchor Yair Sherki shared the intense feelings that accompanied him while covering the paratrooper enlistment and recalled the power of the personal experience when he accompanied his younger brother.

The moments of parting at the induction center triggered an unprecedented emotional response for Sherki, who described a process of breaking down that is not characteristic of his routine journalistic work.

"I remember that when I accompanied my little brother to his enlistment with my mother, I cried a lot," he recalled. "Furthermore, when I went to film the enlistment for the paratroopers, something happened to me that had never happened in my life: I cried throughout the entire report. It was after October 7 and I saw all the soldiers."

The difficult and moving feeling was also shared on air by Jackie Levy, who co-hosted with him and mentioned his own family memory of the first time he saw his father tear up at the induction center.

The security reality directly affects the motivation and readiness of the young soldiers. Channel 12 correspondent Almog Boker, who accompanied the enlistment day for the Armored Corps — the corps in which he himself served in the past — noted the striking difference between the current generation and previous generations.

"Certainly in days like these you think about your service, I was also in the Armored Corps, and also about your son," Boker said. "For me, there is still time, but it is clear that it crosses your mind and is stressful. You see guys who are ready; I didn't know anything when I arrived. After what we have been through in the last three years, they are ready and want the Armored Corps."

Alongside the fighters from the regular tracks, social complexity and special sensitivity were also recorded in the induction process regarding the issue of Haredi sector enlistment. Boker told of a tense and thought-provoking meeting with a father from a Haredi community who accompanied his son to the military induction process.

"The Haredi story caught me. I met a father there who was accompanying his Haredi son to enlist. I asked the father if there were any questions, and he said not about the enlistment, but about the conditions of service," he detailed. "You have to take this into account, and not look only at our side. You have to understand the enormous difficulty they have in enlisting their children."

The documentation at the various recruitment offices shows that despite the concerns and public tension, the current waves of enlistment are characterized by a firm spirit of volunteering. The journalists' meeting in the field with the new generation of male and female fighters sharpens the feeling that behind the uniforms and equipment stand teenagers with a high sense of mission, alongside families who support them and provide them with a strong backbone in the decisive moments.