
One of the only reasons the Israeli government was fine with the orthodox exemption to mandatory military service was because they knew if they let them do nothing but reproduce for decades on end they would quickly out-populate the native Palestinians, Israel is an apartheid ethnostate
here’s an overview of the history, i don’t think anyone knows exactly but the number was “several hundred” and it was only supposed to be people who were actually doing full time religious study as a gesture of respect to ultra orthodox. but now the community just exempts everyone whether they’re studying or not