The Women’s Affairs Advisor to IDF Chief of Staff Lt.-Gen. Gadi Eizenkott, Brigadier General Rachel Tevet-Wiesel, reveals there has been an increase in the number of religious females entering the military in recent years. She reports that in 2014, over 1,800 religious females entered the IDF.
The senior officer reports that in 2010 only 935 females identifying themselves as religious entered the IDF among 7,000 eligible females from the nation’s state religious high schools. That number rose to 1,062 in 2011 and to 1,503 in 2012.
Tevet-Wiesel reports that in the past, while religious girls would automatically enter the Education Corps, today there are other options and they are entering combat positions and even the elite ‘8200’ intelligence unit. She adds there are quite a few religious girls in the latter.
Tevet-Wiesel adds that the IDF tries to assign the religious girls to courses in pairs to make it easier for them, always trying to have two religious girls together.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
There are females in the techno & intelligence field with many in educational corps.
It is yehareg ve’al ya’avor for women to enlist in the idf.
Didn’t the Chazon Ish pasken that it’s yehareg ve’al ya’avor for a single girl to join National Service?
If Sheirut Leumi (National Service)is less halachically problematic than IDF service for a girl, you could draw your own logical conclusion.
Lior,
Can you please explain to me how you came to that absentminded conclusion? Please think about what you’re saying before posting it thanks.
“It is yehareg ve’al ya’avor for women to enlist in the idf.”
There are respected rabbis who say that it is mutar, even a mitzvah.
Were charedim to serve, the IDF would not need women.
People who do not live in Israel are not always aware of the nuances of the goings on here.
When the Sherut Le’umi law was enacted, the Chazon Ish issued a proclamation that for a girl to do this national service was forbidden and was in the category of “yehareg ve’al ya’avor.” This was the ONLY time ever that the Chazon Ish permitted and even requested publicizing a psak halachah with his name attached to it.
When some frum askanim approached the Chazon Ish telling him that “Rav Ploni (a knowledgeable national religious rav) was not so vehemently opposed to Sherut Le’umi, the Chazon Ish replied, “Rav Ploni doesn’t have daughters… ”
The fact is that after the 1948 war, women were never essential to the army’s operational capability to defend the country. This is well known in Israel, and many ranking General Staff officers over the years have admitted this, albeit mostly after they had left the service…. The IDF for at least the past decade has been suffering from an excess of soldiers. There are way too many soldiers and not enough jobs/positions for all these “jobniks.” Hence, for about the past 60 years, the IDF has never “needed” women from an operational manpower (or womanpower) perspective. It’s well known that removing the women conscripts from the army would save many millions of shekels from the defense budget. The army knows if would be much cheaper to hire civilian employees to fill nearly all the positions woman conscripts fill today.
A few decades ago, a prominent secular journalist was interviewed on this very subject. The interviewer was suprised by the journalist’s opinion in this matter. In summing up, he was asked if he would urge his own (secular) sister to enlist in the army, and his reply (in Hebrew) was the equivalent of “h_ll no way!”
The only recourse of the respected rabbis, NONE of whom are “barei plugta” of the Chazon Ish, is to disregard his psak of “yehareg ve’al ya’avor,” but this is not a halachic disputation. They can claim “mutar” and even “mitzva” as much as they want to, but this is just unmigitated impudence toward the Chazon Ish, much like a child in first-grade arguing with a professor in a university about some fine point in physics. They are not even in the same league. I think that the one who is not yeshivish might want to rethink his own absentminded comment. I do, however, agree with his second sentence: “Please think about what you’re saying before posting it thanks.” By all means please do.