IDF launches pilot program to integrate female soldiers into Armored Corps

The Israel Defense Forces (IDF) will launch a dedicated pilot program to integrate female combat soldiers into the Armored Corps, Kan News radio reported today. The move comes after receipt of a letter from Religious Zionist rabbis warning against mixed-gender service in tank units.

The option being examined by the IDF is a unique, elite track within the corps’ 460th Training Brigade, where training and operational activities would take place in gender-specific platoons, alleviating concerns that religious soldiers would be required to serve in mixed-gender tank crews. The proposed track would include classified technological capabilities.

Letter from rabbis to PM: Mixed-gender service harms the operational resilience and service capability of soldiers

Twenty rabbis of the religious Zionist organization “Torat Haaretz Hatova” sent a letter yesterday to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, requesting an “urgent meeting” following an increase in the integration of female combat soldiers into combat units.

In the opening of their letter, titled “Harm to the operational resilience and service capability of our soldiers,” the rabbis noted that their students serve at the forefront of the IDF and view their service as a supreme religious and national duty. However, they expressed “deep concern over the accelerated trend of integrating female soldiers into combat units.”

The rabbis argued that the IDF is “advancing toward gender mixing prohibited by Judaism, contrary to logic and security needs.” They also referred to the IDF draft law being promoted by the government: “This directly contradicts the IDF’s stated intent to enlist thousands of ultra-Orthodox soldiers.”

In their letter, the rabbis warned that turning the Armored Corps into a mixed-gender unit would lead to serious consequences. “It will exclude Torah-observant soldiers and weaken the entire combat force. Yielding to foreign agendas that do not reflect the IDF’s principles of victory harms the state’s security,” they stated.

The rabbis concluded by urging the prime minister: “Stop these actions that divide both society and the military. Preserve the IDF as an army that allows all soldiers to serve while remaining faithful to their halachic way of life.”