(Bloomberg) -- Religious girls don’t belong on the battlefield. That’s been the traditional view of most of Israel’s modern Orthodox community, and young women have generally gone along with it.
The October 2023 attack by Hamas and the subsequent war have changed that.
With Israel’s conflicts in the region widening, two elements have converged to give birth to the country’s first-ever combat unit for religious women: a shortage of battlefield soldiers and a growing number of the modern Orthodox community’s women voicing their desire to join the fight. In November, the Israel Defense Forces opened its first all-female, religious combat unit.
“I always had a dream to enlist in a combat role, but I never thought it would actually happen,” said Shira Winter, one of the new recruits. “Then the war came, and everything changed.”
Israel’s military has been stretched by a war that it has fought on multiple fronts, and that has dragged on more than a year. Forces are currently deployed in Gaza, Lebanon, and in the buffer zone with Syria, as well as in the West Bank and along the border with Jordan.
The ease with which militants from Hamas, designated a terrorist organization by the US, broke through Israel’s border also made it clear that heavier forces might be needed to protect its frontiers in the future. With about 170,000 active personnel out of a population of 10 million, Israel’s army is large by global standards. But even with hundreds of thousands of additional reservists it’s seen as too small to cope with the existential threats facing the country.
“They really need more combat soldiers; you hear about it all the time,” said Adva Bucholtz, another new recruit. “It seems to me that my service there would be significant.”
Religious leaders and the army are trying to adapt. With just a few dozen women currently enlisted, the unit of female religious combat troops could potentially expand if the project is a success.
“The recruitment of a Religious Women’s Unit aims to provide an opportunity for women interested in combat roles, while offering the appropriate environment to do so,” the Israel Defense Forces said.
Both women and men are conscripted at the age of 18 in Israel, one of the few countries in the world where military service is mandatory for able-bodied female citizens. While women were on the battlefield in the 1947-48 war of independence, there are have been years when they were kept out of combat. An amendment on women’s rights with regard to military service in 2000 gave females access to the same opportunities as men. Most combat jobs are now open to them — including as fighter pilots and tank operators — with stories of their exploits in the recent conflicts boosting interest in such roles.
Religious women can easily obtain an exemption. Most Ultra-Orthodox men and women don’t serve, with the male non-participation a fraught political issue. In the past, religious conservatism — with strict rules on close interactions with the opposite sex — kept women in the modern Orthodox, or Religious Zionist community, as they are known in Israel, from seeking combat roles in mixed-gender units. They were, in fact, urged by parents and teachers to take the available exemption from conscription, and instead encouraged to volunteer for civilian national service in settings such as schools and hospitals. Most still take this route.
Over time, a growing number chose to enlist in the military. About 45% of modern Orthodox women currently opt to join up, serving, for the most part, in non-combat roles. Since the beginning of the war, the number of those volunteering for combat roles has increased to about 10% of those who join the military, the architects of the new program say. It has spurred religious leaders to find a solution that will make it easier for the women to serve, while still maintaining a traditional lifestyle.
Bucholtz, who had concerns about constraints on things like finding time for daily prayers in a regular combat unit, said the new all-female, religious unit is “very reassuring.”
As the dean of Ohr Torah Stone’s Midreshet Lindenbaum seminary, Rabbi Ohad Teharlev has overseen the enlistment of hundreds of religious women into non-combat roles yearly, following a year of post-high school Jewish studies. In the past, he discouraged students from volunteering for combat posts, mostly because they would have had to serve in mixed-gender units.
“When soldiers are out in the field, its very complex,” Teharlev said. “Being in the field is being together 24 hours a day. It’s not just a religious issue, its also an issue in terms of the intimate space.”
He cites, for example, the case of a female paramedic, who was inside an army vehicle for hours with men during the Gaza war with no opportunity to get out. She had to ask the men to look away when she needed to relieve herself.
For decades, men have had the option of serving in male-only, religious combat units, making it easier for the military to provide for their needs. No similar combat units existed for religious women — until now.
The new recruits, who will serve as combat intelligence troops, will undergo eight months of training, after which they will be in a female battalion. The group will be led by an all-female staff of commissioned and non-commissioned officers. It will also be accompanied by a woman who can provide guidance on spiritual and religious matters, the first time a woman will serve in the military in such a role.
Rabbanit Hila Naor, who teaches at the seminary led by Teharlev, was chosen to take on the job. She will assist the new combat unit with questions and challenges, be present for prayers and teach weekly religious studies sessions.
Naor said she did her military service as a teacher, noting that if combat positions had been an option, she would have been interested.
“At the time, we didn’t have a lot of choices,” she said.
--With assistance from Thomas Hall.
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