Hesder yeshiva leaders announced Thursday that their students will enlist in the IDF Armored Corps this August, walking back a threat by some rabbis to stop sending students to the corps over a pilot program examining the integration of female soldiers into tank units.
The decision was made during the annual meeting of Hesder yeshiva heads, attended by about 50 rabbis. It came two weeks after 12 hesder yeshiva leaders sent a letter to the IDF saying their students would no longer enlist in the Armored Corps because service there was “contrary to halacha.”
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Hesder yeshiva leaders said their students will enlist in the IDF Armored Corps, retreating from a threat to halt enlistment over a pilot program for female tank crews
(Photo: IDF)
The dispute was triggered by an IDF pilot program to examine the integration of female tank crews.
The Hesder Yeshiva Association said representatives of the yeshivas met this week with IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir and other senior military officials. According to the association, the meeting was “important and highly meaningful.”
During the talks, the association said, the yeshiva representatives raised concerns over implementation of the IDF’s Joint Service Ordinance and stressed the need to ensure that every observant soldier can serve according to his faith and values. The sides discussed possible principles for addressing the issues and ways to implement them, the association said.
In their statement, the yeshiva heads said Zamir emphasized his responsibility, and that of the IDF, to examine any pilot program in light of its compliance with the Joint Service Ordinance. They said he presented the outlines formulated by the military for that purpose.
“We thank the chief of staff and senior IDF officials for the important and meaningful meeting,” the statement said.
IDF Chief of Staff Lt. Gen. Eyal Zamir
(Photo: IDF)
Following the meeting, the yeshiva leaders decided that hesder students would report for Armored Corps enlistment as scheduled next month.
However, the statement made clear that the broader dispute over mixed-gender service had not been resolved. The rabbis referred to what they called a “crisis over the integration of male and female soldiers in combat units,” saying it violates the Joint Service Ordinance and prevents religious soldiers from serving in several IDF branches, including the Artillery Corps and the Combat Intelligence Collection Corps.
They added that launching a pilot program involving mixed service of male and female soldiers in the maneuvering Armored Corps would prevent observant soldiers from serving in the corps as well, a branch in which Hesder yeshiva students have served since the program’s early years.
The IDF pilot program that sparked the controversy will not take place inside the Armored Corps itself. It will be carried out in the Border Defense Corps, with an all-female framework: no men will serve inside the tanks or in the company.
In practice, the IDF’s decision means the pilot will be managed outside the Armored Corps, while the corps provides professional guidance. The arrangement is intended to allow the military to continue examining the integration of female tank crews without changing the current structure of regular armored brigades, while also addressing sensitivities raised in internal IDF discussions.