Quitting Air Force rabbi retracts resignation
Rabbi Moshe Raved sends letter of apology to senior IDF officers, expresses regret for implications of earlier resignation letter
Raved apparently sent an apology to senior IDF officers, including the army's Manpower Directorate, the Air Force chief, and the chief military rabbi. A decision about Raved's future in the IDF will be taken next week.
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Raved, who heads an IDF program for recruiting haredi soldiers, resigned a day after the army announced it would not excuse religious troops from official events that feature female soldiers singing.
However, in his letter Thursday Raved expressed his regret over the implications of his resignation letter. While he did not retract his departure from the project, he asked to remain in the post of Air Force rabbi until the end of his term at the end of the year.
Earlier this week, an rmy official slammed the resignation as "a coordinated move by elements within the ultra-Orthodox community," but added that the military did not intend to take any disciplinary action against the rabbi, given the proximity of his retirement from service.
"I participated in formulating the guidelines which inspired the Shahar Program," Raved wrote in his letter of resignation. "I was guided by the need to allow haredi soldiers to maintain their way of life and observance. Over the past few months, the (IDF) Personnel Directorate had decided to review these guidelines. I was part of those deliberations and saw how the last draft excluded sections meant to maintain the soldiers' observance and included sections that may infringe on that."
Kobi Nachshoni contributed to the story
