Yeshiva rabbis say they won’t send students to tank units due to integration of women

The leaders of 12 yeshivas said Tuesday that they will no longer send their students to join tank units because of an army plan to integrate women into the Armored Corps.

The yeshivas are all part of the hesder program, which allows Orthodox soldiers to combine military service with periods spent studying in yeshiva. Service in the Armored Corps has been a mainstay of the hesder program for decades, though some of its soldiers serve in other units.

The rabbis put their names to an open letter declaring their opposition to a High Court of Justice ruling last month that the Israel Defense Forces must begin a trial program for female soldiers to serve in the corps by November, following repeated delays by the military.

Critics panned the rabbis’ missive as a call to refuse to serve.

In the letter, the rabbis wrote that they “take a very serious view of the decision by the High Court of Justice to require the IDF to integrate female combat soldiers” in the Armored Corps.

Get The Times of Israel's Daily Edition

by email and never miss our top stories

By signing up, you agree to the terms

“Virtue… is the foundation for the spirit of the IDF and its success in eradicating the enemy,” they said. Putting female soldiers in tanks alongside with male soldiers “has a spiritual and practical impact on combat ability.”

“We have decided that service in the Armored Corps is prohibited by Jewish law, and so we will not send students to serve in tanks beginning with the coming draft,” they wrote.

The rabbis called on the army to find suitable alternative combat roles for their soldiers.

Among the signatories were Rabbi Elyakim Levanon and Rabbi Shahar Imber, the joint heads of the Elon Moreh yeshiva; and Rabbi Baruch Wieder, head of Hakotel Yeshiva in Jerusalem.

The leaders of nine yeshivas put their names to the letter, while the heads of another three asked that they not be identified, the Ynet news site reported.

Many members of the religious Zionist community currently enlist in the Armored Corps — as well as in the Artillery Corps and various infantry brigades — as part of the hesder program.

Hesder yeshivas allow students to combine several years of Torah study with a shortened military service, currently set at 17 months, compared with the current 30 months of service for men.

An unidentified senior army source told Ynet that the letter presented a significant threat and a “clear equation” to the army.

“A few female soldiers each year against giving up on many dozens of soldiers in each draft [cohort],” the source said. “The High Court has put us in an impossible position.”

The head of the opposition Democrats Party, Yair Golan, a former deputy chief of staff of the IDF, panned the rabbis’ letter, insisting women “will integrate in every place that they want, and every role in the IDF needs them.”

MK Naama Lazimi, of Golan’s party, said the letter amounts to “organized refusal” to serve in the army.

“When yeshiva leaders decide to boycott positions in the IDF because of gender discrimination, they rebel against the state and the rule of law,” she said.

Opposition MK Merav Michaeli posted to X that hesder is a “VIP program” that comes at the expense of the secular and women, and that the yeshiva leaders “brainwash young boys who are given a special privilege.”

However, the rabbis were supported by Religious Zionism party MK Simcha Rothman, who told Army Radio on Wednesday that religious soldiers were being asked to violate Jewish legal principles.

Rabbi Dovid Fendel, the head of the Sderot yeshiva, who was among the signatories of the letter, pushed back against the claims that the letter was a call to refuse service.

Speaking to the pro-government Channel 14, he said the students are very motivated to serve, but “it is very difficult for us,” and the would-be soldiers themselves “don’t want to serve alongside women.”

The letter came after Religious Zionist rabbis from a range of institutions representing the community expressed their concern last month over the tank integration program.

Despite the claims that men would be forced to serve inside tanks with women, the military has been planning only gender-segregated tanks. If the number of recruits allows, platoons or companies would also be divided by gender. An Armored Corps company is normally composed of 11 tanks.

This is due in large part to concerns surrounding modesty, as in some cases, crew members must use the bathroom and perform other bodily functions within the confined space of the tank.

However, women and men would likely end up serving together at the battalion and brigade levels.

Female soldiers can already serve in tanks in the IDF’s Border Defense Corps as part of an all-female tank company in the Caracal mixed-gender light infantry battalion, which operates along the Egyptian border — not in fighting deep behind enemy lines.

The tentative coed pilot program in the Armored Corps — whose units are trained to enter deep into enemy territory — was originally scheduled to start in 2024. The IDF had previously deemed the program impractical. Its opening was delayed twice during the multifront war, and the IDF last said it was expected to begin in November 2026.

Women already serve in a variety of combat roles in the IDF, in many cases alongside male counterparts.

Critics of gender integration in the military often decry it as a dangerous experiment with potential ramifications for national security, while defenders hail it as a long-needed measure that puts Israel on par with other Western countries.

The army has insisted in the past that it is allowing more women to serve in combat positions for practical reasons, not as part of a progressive social agenda.