Religious-Zionist rabbis threaten to halt enlistment over mixed combat roles

A dramatic dispute is unfolding inside Israel’s religious-Zionist camp, away from the public focus on ultra-Orthodox draft exemptions. This week, dozens of rabbis from leading and influential hesder yeshivas signed an unusual letter warning that they may stop sending students and children to the army if the military changes its standards on religious observance and gender separation.

The discussion centers on attempts to place female combat soldiers in the Armored Corps. Journalist and former tank crewman Ariel Sharfer said the pressure is coming from civilian advocacy groups outside the army, not from the army itself. He argued that the tank corps has clear limits on integration, saying that instructors are acceptable, but “female fighters” are not, and certainly not mixed tank crews. In his view, mixed service creates an impossible situation for religious soldiers, especially in armored personnel carriers and other enclosed vehicles where long periods in the field leave no room for full separation.

Sharfer acknowledged critics who say a wounded soldier would not object to a female medic or paramedic, but rejected that as cynical. Most service, he said, is routine, and changing the rules because of outside pressure directly harms religious troops. He also stressed that the Armored Corps has a strong internal tradition and is not easily changed, recalling a past dispute over the tank crew’s black beret, when the corps chief reportedly vowed to resist any replacement.

He said the rabbis’ letter reflects genuine concern, but also an increasingly polarized religious-Zionist public, with some Sabbath newsletters and activist groups becoming more hardline while others are more liberal. Sharfer concluded with his father’s pre-army advice, that in the military there is no “I” and no “want,” only the army’s needs, and every soldier becomes a personal number. He predicted the army will eventually have to compromise because of manpower shortages, or else “the APC will remain empty,” leading to a new arrangement with hesder yeshivas.