The Hesder Yeshiva Association said on Thursday that its students will report as planned to the IDF Armored Corps in the coming August draft, ending its boycott of the unit. The decision came after the annual meeting of yeshiva heads and a meeting this week between IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and leading Religious Zionist rabbis.
The meeting also included the deputy chief of staff, the head of the Ground Forces, and senior officials from the Military Rabbinate and the Military Advocate General’s office. Zamir presented the operational situation and said the IDF is currently short of thousands of combat troops and needs every soldier and female soldier to meet its fighting tasks. He said expanding women’s combat roles has “enormous operational importance,” while stressing it would be done in full compliance with the shared service order.
At the same time, about 50 rabbis at the association’s assembly raised sharp objections to how the order is being enforced in the field. They warned of a crisis in mixed-gender combat service and said that mixing soldiers in enclosed systems such as tanks or Namer armored personnel carriers, as well as in crowded bunkers and outposts, violates Jewish law and IDF orders. They argued this prevents observant soldiers from serving in some corps, including the Artillery Corps and the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps, and feared the women-in-tanks pilot could produce the same result.
Despite the disagreement, both sides described the talks as significant. Zamir praised the contribution of yeshiva and pre-army academy students, especially during the current war, and said he is committed to the principle of a “people’s army” and to avoiding the exclusion of religious troops. The association said it will continue dialogue with the army to ensure that its students can serve according to halakhic requirements, and the rabbis called for no division in the IDF and strict enforcement of shared-service rules.
