Rabbi Shaya Boas, the Rav of the Ohel Avraham shul in Vienna, published a sharply worded post on Wednesday on his Facebook account against the IDF, after he published a statement on Wednesday: “Yeah, right – they want to recruit Charedim. They want to destroy [לשמד] Charedim!”
In the post, he described the IDF’s conduct towards his son: “My son enlisted through the IDF’s Charedi Administration. After a year of civilian training within the army, he was sent to a cyber course at the IDF School of Computer Science on behalf of the Administration – and this after he refused a prestigious course – only because they demanded that he give up his Chareidi status.”
“He asked again and again and was promised: the course will be separated by gender and the food will be Badatz. He did not demand a mikveh nor Chassidish shechita. Just that they meet the minimum.”
The father added: “But in practice? There was no gender separation. There was no Badatz food. The sleeping arrangements? Ten meters between the males and females. My son, who stood by his principles, is now stuck in limbo. Waiting for an undefined assignment.”
“And his friends from the Charedi track? They caved in. They joined the mixed course. They’re also compromising on kashrus. And you can’t even claim that these are new departments that are ‘still learning the field.’ The Chareidi Administration and the Bina B’Yarok track have been around for more than a decade, with budgets, experience, and structure.”
“If, after all this, they don’t meet their commitments, this is not a malfunction; this is policy.”
“And one more thing: before marketing a new track, make sure the existing participants are satisfied. What is the point of the whole campaign to recruit Charedim if my son comes home and tells all his friends that the ‘Charedi-adapted’ tracks are a big bluff?’
“So enough with the stories about ‘sharing the burden’ and all the other nonsense. This is not about contribution. It’s about a melting pot. About erasure.”
It should be noted that the above story is not an isolated one, with many Chareidi and Dati Leumi soldiers telling similar stories, especially regarding gender separation, including sleeping arrangements. The IDF is one of the only armies in the world that has a mandatory draft law for women, making gender separation extremely difficult as women serve in so many roles in the army.
Earlier this week, Kol B’Ramah revealed the story of Yisrael, a Chabad Chasid from the north who has been serving in the reserves for 15 years in a Home Front Command battalion, including about 200 days in the war.
According to the report, he had requested for months to be transferred to another combat battalion after his battalion became mixed, leading to situations that violated his rights as a Chareidi. Even his commander tried to address the issue but the mixed battalion refused to release him.
In the meantime, he didn’t enlist for another reserve duty order and is considered AWOL.
He said: “I am interested in continuing to serve and several non-mixed battalions wanted to take me, but the army won’t allow it. My commander also approached the officer who deals with gender issues, and she also refuses to allow it – and this is against orders. Is this how the army wants to absorb Charedim, without granting them their rights?”
(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem)
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34 Responses
Yehoreig veal yaavor
all those of a different persuasion have ALL been affected by machlat hatzioniyut
You know why only Israel has a mandatory draft law for women because the whole founding of the state is for the purpose of shmad to destroy yiddushkeit which is most easily accomplished by having women around.
Only confirming what we already know for over 50 years. People think the rabbis are stupid or something as if they are some guy off the street, they’ve been warning about this forever. And yet you still have people who throw them in the garbage and say they don’t know what they’re talking about. Perhaps you need to fix your warped hashkafa
You need a few Chardal people at the top echelons of IDF under guidance of the gedolim for that change to take place.
There are units where they are definitely respecting these things
“He did not demand a mikveh nor Chassidish shechita. Just that they meet the minimum.” For those who consider these hanhagos as important or even relevant, they are also part of a ‘minimum’. There is no reason for chassidishe shechita or daily access to mikveh to not be available for any who want to be nohaig in these ways — even if they should come to appreciate these observances after not possibly being concerned about them in prior times.
I don’t know what happened there, of course, but, just a thought – maybe a war interfered? The unit had to move somewhere?
FWIW, R Amram is described in Gemora – sleeping in the same house (less than 10 meters?) from a group of freed hostages, and he, despite his holiness, attempted to climb into an attic to them … He did not blame the army for not dealing with hostages instead of him – simply raised his voice to call others to save himself from yetzer hara. Hope there are other charedim in that unit who could help?
Yes, they want the chareidim because they want to destroy them and convert them from Judaism to godless Nationalist Zionism. That was always the goal and remains so.
all true plus. from personal family experience. they are total liars. they get you in and then its all over. no religion. no nothing. And they dont need you either. My relative signed up for combat and he is now doing basically nothing. Some minor shmira. He is also officially on leave every other week. 7 days in, 7 days out. so for 50% of the time he is home doing nothing. That’s how badly they ‘need’ chareidim.
Oy Tatte! Whos shocked?! The IDF is known to eh the lowest of the lowest.
Poor pappa believed his son wld get he minimum “chareidi” necessities.
PoorPappa.
Your son wldve gotten it ANYWHERE else besides in the JEWISH ATHEIST MEDINAH whos only desire is to have everyone devoid of anything Spiritual.
Oh what a tragicomedy!
It’s not a bug, it’s a feature. עצת בלעם This is the reason the girls are there to begin with, to create a ‘gender separation problem’. That is how they made chilonim from the young Holocaust survivors and then the naive new olim from Sephardic countries, this has been the gesheft for the last 77 years. (More, because this policy of ‘gender separation problems’ started in the Zionist youth groups before the state.) Much has been written in the chiloni world on what goes on in the IDF with ‘gender separation problems’, however due to tzniyus I will not quote them here. The information is easy enough to find. All of the baloney about needing Chareidim in the army is only about this – getting them to stop being Chareidim. They are afraid of the inevitable demographic time bomb (aided by enormous chazara b’teshuvah) that, b’ezras Hashem, will destroy the tumah they worked so hard to build.
The Gemara in pesachim says that an am haretz has more anti semitism to Torah Jews then that of gentiles, this is a fact, when the Gemara says something it is a fact of life, the Israeli army was based on destroying Torah and it is till this day and the reason they didn’t draft bochrim till now was from the fear that they will be strong etc. But there comes these navi sheker people and start saying things like “they helped kedusha” which means they don’t know what it is, and stuff that the bottom line is “I’M PROTECTING JEWISH PEOPLE” and the truth is that these people would literally beg the arabs to harm us and the arabs won’t do it cause they see how much these secular army are begging they should harm, do you ever see any Israeli security in any charedim neighborhood, and if you do its only a lie, they absolutely do not and will not protect any person that goes in category of a non zionist Torah life Jew, this is a fact till this day, the Gemara is eternal and till the moshiach
Why does the big mouth Lapid not intervene? And Goland and the other chillonim.
Its all only dibbur they dont care at alll for the religious solders in the so called Jewish state
What about the trans loonies in the israeli army. Even America under current president Trump has banned trans from joining American army.
Rav Chaim of brisk (yes rabbi soliveitzicks grandfather) said that if Zionists could have one thing only, either a state or no state but the shmadding and destruction of Yiddishkeit they would take the latter since the entire intent of the state is to shmad what purpose is there in having a state if the core goal is not accomplished
A “chareidi” rav with a Facebook account
Rabbi Shia Boas maybe should also be directly forwarding these grievances to the Chareidi parties & their MK’s.
It’s about melting pot & erasure:- Repeat of seized Yemenites in the 1950s 🤔.
How about everyone waking up to reality & going to vote at WZO to have stronger religious representation!!!
IE: “We insist on our right to have other people die to protect us, so that we don’t have to look at a woman, or eat a Rabbanut heckshire”
Geoffrey: Sorry, but sleeping in same room as females is not the same as “just” “looking at a woman”. Requesting a reliable hechsher in a “Jewish” state is no less than the absolute minimum we can ask for.
And if the “other people” don’t want to die, the first thing they need to stop, is the Avoday Zoroh/Giluy Arayos/Chilul Shabbos festival ON Simchas Torah.
Shocked at the hate in these comments. Shocked. And equally shocked at the YWN moderator for allowing them to be published. This site has become a hate filled Netura Karta fest with the most blatant anti Semitic comments.
AND mentioning a comment form the Brisker Rov זצ”ל, from over 100 years ago about the Zionist movement in Europe is NOT APPLICABLE to the Yidden living in Eretz Yisroel now!
Today, the largest assembly of Yidden in the world is Eretz Yisroel. With the largest Yeshivos.
I find it amazing how these hateful commentators sit behind their smartphones and criticize fellow Yidden who give their life to protect other Yidden.
What are you doing to help protect Klal
Yisroel???
Shame on the moderators for allowing such hateful comments on this site.
Geoffrey say it like it is- so we don’t have to look at a woman or so that we don’t have to be forced to board in the same room as a woman.. who could be an issur kareis at any point in time
Woah, reading some comments here about IDF and Jewish soldiers who days & night sacrifice their lives for the sake of all Am Yisroel, I feel like I got on some Hamas and pro-Palestinian website. You should all feel ashamed and don’t wonder why an average secular Jew will hate Charedim after reading your hate messages. You blame Zionists and chilonim for hating frum people, look at the mirror and you will see who hates more. You can eat your only hasidishe shchita, sit miles away from women, go to mikveh many times a day, but in the end of days your will have your heshbon before Hashem and there is no Tshuva on such Lashon Hara that you are spreading around here. No wonder your little kids will grow up and will go out on the streets fighting those IDF soldiers like we saw on the other articles calling them Nazis.
Yes Mr Geoffrey Stuart, you ignoramus of a fool, halocho requires separate living quarters for different genders and that’s what we want, because you don’t give a crap about halocho, doesn’t mean we also need to
Geoffrey
Not true. Charedim would love to serve. Everyone of my chareidi relatives would have signed up if not for these issues.
If there was a truly separate army controlled by charedim you would see a massive demographic shift to the army. It can be done but for obvious reasons the other side prefers a predominantly leftist army
@always_ask_questions
The Gemara about Rav Amram Chasida says that the women were put in an attic which required a ladder to access. The Gemara says that the ladder was so heavy that even 10 men together could not lift it. The fact that Rav Amram Chasida was able to move it was because the Yetzer Hara was giving him an extremely difficult nisayon. He did not put himself into a situation in which he expected to be tested.
Geoffrey Stuart
Why are those things mutually exclusive? Why can’t someone serve their country and at the same time have their religious sensibilities respected and accommodated?
There will always be places and roles in the army which can not be made suitable for the conditions Chareidim consider necessary – and unfortunately, that is limiting to what roles are open to Chareidim. That being said, to the extent positions are supposed to be Chareidi-appropriate, they absolutely should be run that way – and if they’re not, then it is completely appropriate to make a major stink about it. There will, of course, times during war where some conditions just can’t be met – but such circumstances should be the exception rather than the rule.
The army needs Chareidim, and it is an avla that Chareidim don’t serve – but it is critical that the army accommodate Chareidi sensibilities such that they are able to maintain their religious standards. Individual commanders who violate these conditions should first be re-educated, but if they continue to do so, then discipline is warranted.
an Israeli Yid
@ Always_Ask
Your understanding of the gemarah you quote is quite mistaken.
The Gemarah is showing the exact opposite of what you took out.
It is showing that no matter how lofty, and how inconvenient it would be for one to sin, one is still unsafe so long as the temptation is possible.
Again, The gemarah is showing us to learn FROM R Amrams mistake, not to emulate it!
You who fail to see that, and who supports these situations, it is almost certain that you are defiled in this matter.
All of you who feel you represent the highest standards of yideshkeit should really slow down and take a few minutes to examine your ways. Your levels of hate and intolerance towards other Jews is unacceptable.
@ Geoffrey Stuart
If you want to talk about it, at least be accurate
“we never asked for a state, we had other plans, you started the state and now demand we give up our religious values to defend “YOUR” state?!
“we opposed you from the beginning! We had no interest in your schemes, but you went ahead and did it anyway! We have always been Moser Nefesh to cling to our values, and its not changing now!”
We treat your government as any other government of our exile, they are not “us”.
We seek not to quarrel, and we want to be peaceful citizens, but raise a hand against our Torah and we will resist you with everything we have!
But the audacity to usurp our identity and tell us to fight for ourselves, while in actuality meaning YOU? Thats beyond disgusting!
Perhaps the issue is that when in these armed forces, one cannot vote with one’s feet; one needs to listen to orders. Sounds like MORE engagement is needed, not to throw hands up and break the partnership. We all know how ignorant people can be of religious laws. Do we want unity and survival or do we want to “stand by principles” and bolt, pointing to ancient history events. We all know many people today are tolerant and open to guidance.
aaq- putting yourself in a nisayon is assur and you completely misquoted the gemara, the girls were sleeping in an attic that could only be accessed by a ladder that took something like ten (i forgot the exact number) to move, it was only due to the incredible power of the yetzer hara that he was able to move it
The hatred shown by these so called frum people reminds me of the hatred the Palestinians have for all Jews
Tziyonim Reshaim! Yimach Shmam!
I fully agree with Reb Shaya. Unfortunately same happening with my nephew and same happened with my cousin.