Amid a mounting number of complaints from religious IDF soldiers pertaining to an obvious change in policy among officers and matters of religion and halacha, a new organization called “Tzav Echad” (“צו אחד”) has been formed to protect the rights of soldiers impacted by this policy change.
For example, there have been numerous cases of late in which religious soldiers were compelled to shave their beards and to listen to lectures that were an affront to their religious hashkafa. In addition, some were compelled to participate in visits to churches and other forbidden venues, and when they complained, all were told they must follow IDF regulations and orders.
The new organization is collecting the complaints filed by soldiers and hopes to present them in the form of a report to the IDF Rabbinate and senior military commanders. The new NGO has launched a Facebook page https://www.facebook.com/tzavEchad/?fref=ts and invites soldiers to complain if and when they feel their religious rights are violated in the military. One does not have to give one’s name and serial number to file a complaint.
The heads of the NGO are hoping they will have an impact on decision-makers in the military as the new anti-religious trend appears to be widening and it is becoming increasingly difficult for many a religious soldier serving in the IDF.
In the coming days, WhatsApp messages will be sent to 40,000 soldiers serving and some before their induction, including officers and members of the higher command, informing them of the organization and its Facebook page, encouraging any and all with complaints to take advantage of the forum to notify organization officials.
The heads of the organization explain their goal is to restore the proper acceptable approach towards religion and tradition that existed and to bring a halt to the current reality in which many a religious soldier is prevented from living in accordance to his religious beliefs in the IDF without justification for the new regulations whatsoever.
The organization also plans to offer a defense for soldiers impacted by the new unwanted trend to enable to continue advancing in their military service without compromising their religious lifestyle.
(YWN – Israel Desk, Jerusalem)
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6 Responses
I CANT BELIEVE IN A JEWISH STATE
IN A JEWISH GOVERNMENT , AND THEN THE NON RELIGIOUS JEWS IN ISRAEL WANT TO KNOW WHY FRUM JEWS DONT WANT TO SERVE IN THE ARMY
Throughout the discussions over requiring Chareidim to serve in the army over the last few years, some of the government officials involved have made it clear that even though the army says they don’t particularly need or want the Chareidim (they cost more to accommodate and the army is having trouble fulfilling its mission on the limited funds that it has, and they want soldiers who’ll fit into the mainstream), the powers that be still want to enlist/draft as many Chareidim as possible because they’re scared that in a few decades a majority of the population will be people who’ve been educated to Torah values rather than Zionist ones. The army brass would rather not have them but they obey the instructions given to them by the political echelon and do the job they’re given, which is to take the Chareidim in and “change their values” and “integrate them into mainstream Israeli society”. Anyone who’s been through military training knows that it involves a lot of harsh discipline to break the trainees spirits and instill them with terror and produce soldiers who’ll do anything they’re ordered to even if it conflicts with the values they’ve been brought up with. And the reports are that a lot of Yeshiva bochurim who go into the army quickly forget all about davening, Kashrus, Shabbos, etc. because they’re being subjected to so much terrorizing pressure. We should be davening for them. Some of them eventually come back to their senses and regain some of their Yiddishkeit, but a lot of them get led astray by all the temptations (forced interaction with non-religious women) and get totally lost. Hashem yeracheim.
What a surprise! The IDF that was the continuation of the Communist militia, the PALMACH, and modeled after Stalin’s Red Army is anti-religious. Who could have imagined such a thing?
The fact is that the IDF today is the least anti-religious it has ever been. There is still a bit to go before it will reach neutral but not that far. The aged leadership of the cult of Torah haters is dying out. Their replacements do not have the fanatic, visceral hatred of their predecessors. They are for the most part just ordinary low-lifes that have been raised a certain way. The most public example of this is the difference Pretty Boy Lapid and his father. His father would never have said that he does not hate the Hareidim and is willing to prove it with a lie detector test. In fact I believe Pretty Boy.
Without the burning hatred of their parent’s generation, they are not willing to make the sacrifices needed to continue the oppression of the Torah community and its exclusion from State and private institutions. So it is only a matter of time before the Torah community will be the dominate, if not the only, element in all of Israel.
Not only that, but they started a couple of years ago mixing the girls in where they had promised the Dati Leumi that that wouldn’t happen.( a repeat of Midian). They also punished soldiers who refused to listen to “kol isha”-women singing.
They want to destroy Judaism in every way possible. After the war two years ago an officer was almost fired for taking his group to the Kosel to say “Hagomel.” Those soldiers were obviously moved by going there, and the country nearly collapsed from fear they might become religious.
You Americans can do a lot to help. Find a way to put pressure. Tell them you won’t let your boys enlist.
Tell them that it will effect Aliya. You are strong and powerful. Unite and try to help.
Tzav Echad seems to be an organization for boys who thought they’re smarter than the warnings from Hapeles and other gedolim and are now suffering the consequences in the army.
#1 Tell your non-religious and non-Jewish friends that Israel’s government, judicial court and military is anything but Jewish – the antithesis of the Torah. There’s no mitzvah in the Torah to serve in the army and certainly not in an army out to secularize religious Jews.
Remember also that Rav Elyashiv, ztl, a few days before he went into his final illness issued a statement that no one who is Shomer Mitzvos is allowed to go into the army or the National civilian service. He knew what he was talking about.