Soldiers in the Kfir Brigade, which is also home to Nachal Chareidi soldiers on Tuesday 3 Elul 5772 sent a letter of complaint to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Benny Gantz, citing Nachal Chareidi soldiers receive more benefits than other units in the brigade and the discriminatory practice is unacceptable. Other units operating in Kfir include Duchifat, Shimshon and Charuv.
Walla News reports that the Kfir soldiers complained that Nachal Chareidi (Netzach Yehuda) soldiers receive a $5,000 grant from a donor in the USA, funds earmarked for chareidi soldiers in the brigade, citing commanders are aware of this.
The soldiers point out the other soldiers did not receive this and they are the subject of discrimination for the married Nachal Chareidi soldiers receive $3,000 to purchase furniture and $2,000 for to purchase other needs for their homes. The funds are passed directly to soldiers without passing through official channels of the IDF Personnel Branch or LIBI. They allege that officers and visiting rabbonim assist in the fundraising.
YWN-ISRAEL points out that other units, such as paratroopers have “friends of” organizations in Israel and abroad which supply equipment, watches, bags and much more, usually from successful former paratroopers who wish to assist the young soldiers in the field today. When Gabi Ashkenazi was deputy chief of staff he enlisted funds from benefactors willing to assist poor soldiers to buy TVs, videos, refrigerators and other appliances to assist their families. These actions were correctly met with praise but here, because the recipients are chareidi combat soldiers, it elicits the ire of those who cannot tolerate seeking chareidim benefit.
It appears that these disgruntled soldiers have opted to get onto the increasingly popular anti chareidi bandwagon that enjoys growing momentum in Eretz Yisrael since these soldiers are certainly aware of the fact many units benefit from the generosity of benefactors around the world Baruch Hashem.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Office confirms IDF units are not permitted to accept gifts directly and the letter will be forwarded to proper channels to be addressed.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
Should be titled “Jealous Soldiers Stirring Controversy in Kfir Brigade”.
The secular soldiers are responsible for their jealousy and no one else. While the charedi is still in Yeshiva the seculars are jealous. When the charedi goes to the army, the seculars are jealous. I think we get the point- they are jealous of charedi existence and would not be satisfied until there are no more charedim ch”v.
The reason it was aloud in the first place for the chareidim, is in order to lure them into the army. You gotta be extra nice to finally get these stubborn closed minded chareidi people into the wonderful melting pot that the ‘israeli’ society has to offer…
The Chareidi soldiers should all resign en masse from the IDF. And no more Chareidim should enlist.
“these disgruntled soldiers have opted to get onto the increasingly popular anti chareidi bandwagon”
These is a misleading and dishonest evaluation of what happened. The soldiers from the other battalions of the K’fir brigade were asking why they should not receive what soldiers in the Netzach Yehuda (Nachal Chareidi) battalion receive. They didn’t engage in bashing. All they were asking was that they should also receive the same benefits.
This article makes a very good point. There are several wonderful civilian-supported organizations devoted to strengthening the morale of the IDF. E.g. Keren L’Maayan HaChayal, American Friends of the IDF. These are great causes, and deserve our accolades. So why the sudden consternation that someone establishes a like-minded benevolent fund for Nahal Haredi? Good call.
This complaint is ridiculous. I say this as a current paratrooper. The way it works is that every pluga and gdud works to get its own donations to buy gear. The gear we get from the army is usually barely adequate and we try to supplement it on our own. We personally have a vaada liimun hatzanchan in ramat gan that donated running clothes and a bunch of gifts to the chayalim bodedim. There is an organization called yashar lachayal that enables people to donate to different plugot and get tax 501c3 tax deductions. We got camelbacks donated through them (another piece of gear needed, but not provided by the army). A different pluga got the best quality combat vests and kneepads donated (we are all incredibly jealous) The special forces get a crazy amount of stuuf donated, even gyms for their bases and things like that. I pretty much depends on donor appeal. Paratroopers and special forces have that appeal. Netzach yehuda (nachal chareidi) also does, especially amongst the american frum community who appreciate how it enables chareidi people to serve in the army.
Kfir, on the other hand, is on the bottom of the totem pole. It is a new chativa, has never been in any war (in it is not designed for war), and pretty much does not have a very prestigious name. I can understand why they would have a hard time attracting donations. The soldiers are just jealous of netzach.
I happen to be trying to raise money for my pluga (without much success). We need a lot of equipment but most importantly we need winter gear. The winter is approaching and out in the field it gets incredibly cold. We need fleeces, thermals, and gloves. Unfortunately we don’t get usable cold weather gear from the army. In addition, we have many other items that are needed. If anyone is interested in helping me, post and I hope the mods will put you in touch with me.