IDF Court Punished Religious Soldiers for Refusing to Violate Sabbath 78 Years Ago

In July 1948, during the War of Independence, two religious soldiers, cooks Shimon Manheim and Eliezer Blumenthal, refused a direct order to cook a hot meal on the Sabbath for their religious platoon. They argued that cooking on the Sabbath constituted a desecration of the holy day and that the religious soldiers would not eat food prepared on Shabbat.

Despite their explanation, the soldiers were court-martialed by their battalion commander for insubordination. They were sentenced to have their heads shaved and to one month in prison. The soldiers appealed the verdict. In September 1948, a military court upheld the conviction but increased their sentence to three months imprisonment.

The religious soldiers in their platoon went on a hunger strike in solidarity with the cooks. The incident, despite military censorship, leaked to the public and reached the Knesset. The Minister of Religious Affairs protested the "humiliating" sentence and the censorship. Surprisingly, secular ministers, including the Interior Minister and the Minister of Agriculture, supported the religious soldiers, arguing for freedom of conscience. Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion subsequently ordered the release of the soldiers and initiated an inquiry into religious matters within the IDF.

The newspaper "Haaretz" also published an editorial urging caution and tact in dealing with religious soldiers and questioning whether it was time for a "renewal of the Sanhedrin" in Israel. In November 1948, the IDF's appellate court overturned the original verdict on formal grounds, though the soldiers remained technically convicted. Manheim, one of the cooks, returned to his combat unit.

Tragically, in December 1948, during the battle for the Faluja Pocket near Kiryat Gat, Manheim and 86 other soldiers from his religious platoon were killed in action. Manheim died on his 21st birthday, having been previously punished for refusing to desecrate the Sabbath.