The IDF expects a sharp increase in the number of religious girls who opt for full army service in the coming year. During the draft period between April 2010 and April 2011, some 1,200 18-year-old young ladies who classified themselves as observant entered the ranks of the IDF. Army officials expect that number to grow by about 25% this year, with some 1,500 girls signing up for service by the time the current draft period ends in April 2012.
For the third year in a row, the IDF held a conference Wednesday designed to answer questions by potential religious female draftees about army service. Officials of the IDF education unit, which sponsors the event, were said to be shocked at the large number of girls; over 1,000 attended, the largest number of attendees in the three years the event has taken place.
Currently there are some 2,000 religious female soldiers, serving in a variety of capacities – many of them in administrative and educational capacities. At least one is in line to be promoted to the rank of brigadier-general. In response to the demand, the IDF has opened up a number of new opportunities for religious female soldiers that would be appropriate for them – ie; allowing them to avoid intensive battlefield conditions with male soldiers, and allowing them to dress appropriately, with skirts, etc. The opportunities were decided upon after IDF soldiers conferred with the Chief IDF Rabbinate and the Alumah organization, which aids female religious soldiers.
The girls who enter into active IDF service often do so against the advice of family and community. All Orthodox rabbis – from both the Hareidi and the National Religious world – ban IDF service for girls. All of Israel’s Chief Rabbis, Sephardic and Ashkenazi, have from the early days of the state banned such service as well – instead suggesting that girls volunteer for the National Service (sherut le’umi) program, which the Knesset has adopted as a full substitute for religious girls who wish to serve the country but refuse to go to the army (it should be noted that all Hareidi rabbinical leaders, including those from the Sephardic, Lithuanian, and Hassidic streams all ban National Service as well).
Religious girls have a legal right to declare that they are unable to serve in the IDF because of their convictions, and are then eligible to fulfill their desire to serve the state by volunteering for National Service. Speaking to reporters Wednesday, Amir Rogovsky of the IDF education unit said that the fact that so many religious girls were willing to defy their communities and serve in the IDF showed that “many girls realize that they will be able to do much more for the state by serving in the army than they could in National Service. This event was a big success, despite the comments by many leaders of the religious community over the past week against it,” he added.
In an interview with Arutz Sheva Wednesday, Raz Sagi, an IDF soldier who directs the IDF Defense Forum, said that he was utterly opposed to women serving in combat conditions. “I am not observant, but all studies show that combat duty damages girls,” and many have sustained long-term physical and emotional scars because of their service. “It should be noted that despite propaganda by feminists, only 3% of all girls in the IDF are in combat units,” he said. “In some cases, whole exercises have been called off because of the injuries these soldiers sustain. As a secular person, I do not see any religious issues in my position,” he added.
