Crisis Deepens as 13 More Hesder Yeshivas Halt Enlistment to the Armored Corps

A few hours after the IDF responded to a letter from hesder yeshiva heads who said they would stop sending students to the Armored Corps because of the integration of female combat soldiers, 13 additional hesder yeshiva heads announced that they would stop enlistment to the Armored Corps starting with the next draft. This follows yesterday’s report that the yeshiva heads clarified they oppose refusal to serve and that everyone will serve, but not in the Armored Corps.

Together with the 12 yeshiva heads who had already announced this week that they were stopping enlistment to the Armored Corps, there are now 25 hesder yeshivas that have halted enlistment to the Armored Corps. Because hesder yeshivas receive a fixed quota in each enlistment cycle, this means hundreds of fighters will be missing from the Armored Corps because of the decision to integrate female combat soldiers. The yeshiva heads who joined the letter are Rabbi Michael Aharonov, of Yeshivat Maale Ephraim, Rabbi David Amitai, of Yeshivat Avinovam, Rabbi Shlomo Binyamin, of Yeshivat Lev Ladaat, Rabbi Eran Tamir, of Yeshivat Orot Ashkelon, Rabbi Elisha Yinnon, of Yeshivat Afula, Rabbi Eyal Yakubovich, of Yeshivat Safed, Rabbi Eliyahu Mali, of Jaffa, Rabbi Avihu Fishpeder, of Yeshivat Ashkelon, Rabbi Shlomo Shoshan, of Yeshivat Beit Shean, Rabbi Yehoshua Schmidt, of Yeshivat Nachalat Yosef, Rabbi David Turgeman, of Dimona, and two additional yeshiva heads who asked not to have their names published.

The rabbis stressed that the meaning of the High Court’s decision is the mixing of combat units, and wrote, “We are pained by the feeble response of the State of Israel and the IDF, which did not express opposition to this move. As yeshiva heads, we are aware of the heavy responsibility placed on our shoulders. The IDF is the army of the people of Israel, and the sanctity of the camp is the basis of the IDF’s spirit and of success in defeating the enemy. The entry of female soldiers into tanks together with male soldiers causes a spiritual and practical impairment in combat capability.”

The rabbis said, “After serious consideration, we decided that service in the Armored Corps is forbidden according to halakha, and therefore we will not send our students to serve in the Armored Corps starting with the next draft. Our thousands of students who are enlisting in combat units will continue to do so with mission and force, but the IDF bears responsibility to ensure that those with combat profiles who are not suited for infantry are placed in a combat framework appropriate to their fighting spirit.”

Yesterday the IDF said it was preparing to advance a pilot to examine the integration of female fighters into the Armored Corps, while stressing that no decision has yet been made on the matter. The army said, “The High Court did not instruct the IDF to enlist female soldiers in the Armored Corps, but rather instructed it to carry out the planned pilot.” It also emphasized that “a pilot, as its name implies, is an initial experiment for examining whether to continue,” and that it would be conducted “in accordance with the joint service order, while strictly adhering to all required operational and professional standards, and according to operational need.”

The army clarified that one of the central issues raised in discussions with figures in the religious Zionist ציבור concerns joint service by men and women. “Among all the options being examined in the pilot, there is no alternative in which men and women will serve jointly in the same framework,” it said. It also added that the need to examine expanding the integration of women into combat roles stems from the ongoing war and the increasing burden on the reserve system. “After about two and a half years of an intensive, multi-front, unprecedented war, in which the IDF’s operational missions were expanded and the burden on the reserve system increased significantly, the IDF needs every fighter, male and female,” it said. The army also said that “as the people’s army, the IDF sees supreme importance in integrating all populations, while making a great effort to preserve their lifestyles and needs, in a way that does not harm one population at the expense of another.”