The IDF continues to open new opportunities to women serving in the military R”L and the latest addition to that growing list is being a mashgichat Kashrut. The move is the result of the initiative taken by the advisor to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz on women’s affairs, Brigadier-General Racheli Tevet-Wiesel. The female mashgichot will be assigned to the IDF Chief Rabbinate.
Tevet-Wiesel explains that when it comes to matters of religion, the IDF does not set policy but rather follows the lead of the Chief Rabbinate. As such, in the current administration Deputy Minister of Religious Affairs Rabbi Eli Ben-Dahan has stated women will now be accepted and begin serving in this capacity. Therefore, the IDF is following the Rabbanut in this case as well.
Women selected for this new duty will have a minimum basic training and then enrolled in a mashgiach course in the Chief Rabbinate’s Tzrifin facility.
Chief Rabbi David Lau has stated he is not opposed to women serving in this capacity. IDF Chief Rabbi Brigadier-General Rafi Peretz has expressed his opposition, for he feels it is not appropriate in the military, but it appears he is not being asked.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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2 Responses
The bigger problem is not enough supervision period. Most food prep is totally unsupervised.
The first problem with this is that especially for women, the frummer a person is, the less likely they are to be in IDF. You don’t want a person to say “I saw the mashgichat kashrut doing such and such last night … and therefore I can’t rely on her committment to kashrus”. The women who would be best at the job don’t join the army.