Rosh Yeshiva: “They Told Him: ‘You Won’t Encounter Women’—It Was A Lie”
During a discussion on Thursday on the draft law in the Knesset’s Foreign Affairs and Defense Committee, Rabbi Chaim Wolfson, the Rosh Yeshivah of the Yerucham Yeshiva, brought up the story of his talmid, Cpt. Eitan Fisch, H’yd, a combat soldier and armored corps officer from the yishuv of Peduel, who fell in battle in the Gaza Strip.
Rabbi Wolfson said that Eitan enrolled in the armored officers’ course out of a sense of mission but encountered difficulties related to mixed-gender service alongside female soldiers, contrary to prior agreements that had been conveyed to him and the yeshiva.
“They told him he wouldn’t encounter women anywhere. I called my brother, who was then the commander of the armored officers’ course, and he said, ‘That’s a lie—he’ll encounter them all the time,’” Rabbi Wolfson recounted.
Eitan was forced to transfer to another unit to continue the course without compromising his identity and religious commitment. “He paid a very heavy personal price—and this is an example of a soldier facing a system that expects him to give up his identity,” Rabbi Wolfson said.
“There was a prior agreement, but on the ground Eitan discovered a different reality. The system must ensure protection for Chareidi soldiers and not demand that they face such dilemmas alone,” Rabbi Wolfson asserted.
Minister Orit Struck responded to Rabbi Wolfson’s comments, saying, “We heard the shocking words of Rabbi Chaim Wolfson. Even today, before the new legislation (for a Chareidi draft law), there is no legal or regulatory protection for a religious soldier’s right to observe his halachic obligations. And even in the draft bill currently being advanced, there is a clear preference for female soldiers’ rights over the rights of Chareidi soldiers—and the rights of non-Chareidi religious soldiers receive no mention whatsoever.”
“It’s unfathomable that the law establishes a lack of equality whereby the rights of the religious, halacha-observant soldiers are inferior to women’s rights in the army. Rights must be equalized—both regarding Chareidim and religious [non-Chareidi] soldiers.”
(YWN Israel Desk—Jerusalem) All credit goes to YWN
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