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Rabbi Yigal Levinstein

Rabbi Levinstein apologizes for 'disrespecting the fighting girls’

In a letter to the Eli yeshiva graduates, the rabbi wrote that his disparaging remarks about women in the IDF had been taken out of context, and that he apologizes for the style, but not for the content: ‘I think they are wrong and what is being done to them is terrible, but it is not right to belittle them and in that, I was mistaken.’

Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, the head of the Bnei David pre-army preparatory yeshiva in Eli, sent a somewhat apologetic letter to students and graduates of the yeshiva on Monday evening, following the public uproar over his disparaging remarks about women serving in the IDF.

 

 

He dismissed accusations that his remarks were laced with sexual innuendo against women, claiming that his words were taken out of context. He noted that when he said that women who served in the IDF were "not hot," he actually meant they had no religious affiliation. For that same reason, he said that upon discharge from the army they would no longer be Jewish. Thus, they would find it difficult to marry yeshiva graduates.

 

That said, the rabbi apologized for the manner in which the things were said, and admitted that it was not right to belittle the IDF soldiers.

 

Rabbi Levinstein, Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Motti Kimchi) (Photo: Motti Kimchi)
Rabbi Levinstein, Avigdor Lieberman (Photo: Motti Kimchi)

 

Levinstein spoke harshly against theh LGBT community and against the recruitment of women into the army, which led to harsh criticism from Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who called on him to resign. Levinstein also recently attacked the Supreme Court and former chief justice Aharon Barak.

 

"Perhaps some of you are angry, or even ashamed at having studied in Eli with the ‘ignorant’ rabbi,” wrote Levinstein in the letter. "I have an obligation to you, and therefore, I believe it would be right to express my opinion on matters pertaining to the issues that arose."

 

According to him, as head of an institution that trains and prepares graduates of religious education for military service, he must inform the youth of the "new situation" in the matter of men and women serving together in the army. He espoused that it is his responsibility to warn them accordingly and maintain the religiosity of those who enlist even after they are discharged from service. “This task is becoming very difficult these days," he wrote.

 

In the letter, Levinstein explained that "For me, the woman is the best start-up from the Creator of the universe. It is the greatest gift that the Creator had ever bestowed upon the world. Claiming my words to be disrespectful or derogatory to women couldn’t be further from the truth. I think they are wrong and what is being done to them is horrible, but it isn’t right to belittle them, and in that, I was mistaken… Women were taken prisoner by the feminist movement. In my cry, I am trying to save the girls from feminist captivity and fight for their honor as women according to Judaism."

 

At a conference held by rabbis against the "impact of the reform on the identity of the State of Israel" in July, Levinstein argued with regard to the LGBT community: "There is a crazy movement of people who simply lost the normality of life, and this group has been driving an entire country crazy. It has infiltrated the army with all its might and no one dares speak against them." He called members of the gay community “perverts" and accused the IDF of allowing them to implement their worldview into the military system.

 

At the beginning of the month, in a lecture he gave to pre-draft students, the head of the preparatory academy mocked the combat female soldiers, saying they were "not hot" and wondering who would agree to marry them.

 

He did not spare criticism from the IDF, claiming: "In Bamahane, which is the army's newspaper, for 10 years there have only been pictures of girls. I asked: are there any male soldiers in the IDF? I haven’t seen any pictures of men, and if there are, they are surrounded by girls, all of whom are wearing camouflage colors… Someone said to me: Don’t worry, they’re practicing for marriage, (but) I don’t know who would marry them."

 

(Translated and edited by N. Elias)

 


פרסום ראשון: 03.28.17, 14:13
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