“I met a young conscript during reserve duty who told me he could not see any future,” said Ori Oberman, a reservist and one of the authors of a new Taub Center study examining the expected impact of prolonged reserve service on reservists and their families.
“The young soldier knows that once he is discharged, he will be called up for reserve duty again and again. He cannot see his future.”
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‘As reservists, our entire lives have become shrouded in fog: our studies, careers, jobs and families.’ Those pictured are not connected to the article
(Photo: IDF)
Oberman, whose wife served in the reserves alongside him until recently, when she reached the ninth month of pregnancy, said the uncertainty could prevent young soldiers from beginning their civilian lives.
“That soldier will not start his life, will not enroll in studies and, accordingly, will not enter the workforce,” he said. “This creates significant damage to the labor market and could erode human capital. People develop their professional skills less, miss opportunities for advancement and are afraid to make changes.”
The bleak personal account is supported by data in the study, which Oberman conducted with Michael Debowy, also an active reservist, and Dr. Sarit Silverman, the wife of a reservist.
The research found that in 2024, the average payment per reserve day, calculated by dividing total compensation by the total number of reserve days, fell by about 30%. According to the researchers, the decline reflects a change in the composition of the population being called up.
“These horrifying figures prove that the price we are paying for carrying the stretcher alone is unbearable,” said Master Sgt. (res.) Aviv Ezra of Tel Aviv, a combat soldier in Brigade 187 who has completed about 400 days of reserve duty. “It cannot be that the young people fighting for the country on the front lines are abandoned by it on the home front.”
The study warns that prolonged reserve service could cause lasting harm that worsens as the number of service days increases. The researchers estimated that the average reservist, defined in the study as someone who reported for at least 233 days of duty, is expected to lose nearly 5% of their salary.
Among reservists who are fathers and served between 290 and 320 days, a population the researchers said numbers more than 100,000 people, the expected salary loss is at least 6%. Under more severe estimates, the damage to wages could reach about 20%.
Aviv Ezra
Higher education has also been significantly affected. During the 2024-2025 academic year, about 70,000 students served in the reserves. That same year, among Jews and others, the population carrying most of the reserve burden, the rate of undergraduate students fell to its lowest point since the 2018-2019 academic year.
The decline was especially pronounced among those at the peak ages for beginning undergraduate studies, women aged 22 to 24 and men aged 25 to 29, and may reflect a drop in enrollment among new students.
“In a combat soldier’s training, there is something called the ‘fog of the route,’” said Master Sgt. (res.) Roshel Moshayev of Tel Aviv, a soldier in Brigade 551 who has completed about 350 days of reserve duty. “They teach you that uncertainty is a constant part of your life. As reservists, our entire lives have become shrouded in fog: our studies, careers, jobs and families.”
“The world is designed for people who work all year, not for those who divide their time among several frameworks, especially when it is not by choice and certainly when it is not a one-time event,” he said.
“A person who is not at work does not ask for a promotion and misses opportunities. Most state compensation is based on the reservist’s current circumstances, meaning what their three months of work looked like before the reserve round. If you happened to be fired or opened a business and do not yet have an income history, you can instantly become a salaried worker earning below the average wage.”
Roshel Moshayev
(Photo: Avigail Uzi)
The study also found a gap between central Israel and the periphery in the scale of reserve service. While the number of reserve days served by residents of central Israel fluctuated according to the security situation and the military’s needs, the volume of call-ups in the West Bank and along the northern border remained stable over time and was not affected by national trends.
The researchers attributed this to the large number of community-defense missions in those areas, which do not depend on wider combat trends, and to the intensive activity of local emergency response teams.
Looking across different age groups, Silverman said the challenges faced by reservists share the same root: living two parallel lives.
“One foot is in civilian life and the other is in military life,” she said. “It begins with lower enrollment in higher education among people in their 20s, continues with career stagnation among people in their 30s and later affects people in their 40s who want to make a change or advance but find it difficult because they know the security situation may change, and with it their personal lives, when they are called up under an emergency order.”
Debowy, one of the study’s authors, has also served more than 400 reserve days during the war. “In my personal experience as a reserve company commander, I see around me an entire generation of young reservists stuck in an endless state of waiting that does not allow them to begin their real lives,” he said.