Rabbi comes under fire after deriding ‘crazy’ female troops

TIMES OF ISRAEL STAFF

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Defense minister says he will reconsider position of Yigal Levinstein as head of pre-army academy; female general calls comments ‘infuriating’

Soldiers of the Caracal Battalion prepare for a hike as part of their training on September 3, 2014. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman on Wednesday said he would consider removing a rabbi from his position as head of a pre-army yeshiva, after the cleric was heard telling new army recruits that military service drives female soldiers “crazy” and strips them of their Jewishness.

In footage broadcast by Channel 2 news on Tuesday — just a day before International Women’s Day — Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, who runs a pre-army religious academy in the West Bank settlement of Eli, told several hundred graduates of another academy, in the settlement of Bnei Atzmon, that IDF service has “driven our girls crazy.”

The comments drew wide condemnation for Israeli government officials and Liberman said Levinstein could be stripped of his position in the Eli school.

“We will reconsider the position of Rabbi Levinstein and his fitness to prepare young people for service in the Israel Defense Forces,” Liberman said in comments widely reported in Hebrew-language media.

“Since the establishment of the state, women have served in the IDF and made an enormous contribution to the security of Israel,” Liberman added, speaking from Washington, where he is on an official visit. “Rabbi Levinstein’s verbal attack not only hurts women in Israel but also hurts the IDF, the IDF’s heritage and the basic values of the State of Israel.”

Zionist Union’s MK Tzipi Livni at a party faction meeting in the Knesset on January 16, 2017. (Hadas Parush/Flash90)

Tzipi Livni (Zionist Union) told Israel Radio that the pre-army academy in Eli could not be recognized for the purpose of government funding while Rabbi Levinstein remained its head.

“This has nothing to do with women. It’s about how we prepare our young people,” she said. “There is nothing that connects Rabbi Levinstein to education.”

Gila Gamliel, Likud’s social equality minister, initially refused to comment on Rabbi Levinstein’s words, saying she wanted to hear the Defense Ministry’s position and that she had “not yet heard” what Levinstein said.

Pressed for a third time, she told Israel Radio that the rabbi’s expressions were “unfortunate” and “dark” and that many women, including religious women, served in the army.

But she insisted that it was premature to express a conclusive view because people sometimes retracted their words, so she did not “want to rush.”

In the recording, Levinstein is heard disparaging female soldiers.

“They recruit them to the army, where they enter as Jews, but they’re not Jews by the time they leave,” he said. “Not in the genetic sense, but all of their values and priorities have been upset and we must not allow it.”

“What happens if there’s a female company commander? This is a question of madness, it belongs in an insane asylum,” Levinstein said.

Rabbi Yigal Levinstein speaking at the ‘Zion and Jerusalem’ convention, July 2016. (Screen capture: YouTube)

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