Does Israeli Army Service Make Orthodox Women ‘Crazy’?
Israeli female soldiers in a training exercise. Image by Getty Images
By Naomi Zeveloff March 8, 2017
The head of an Israeli pre-military academy said that Orthodox women who serve in the army are turned into “crazy” women with “confused” values.
Yigal Levinstein, who heads the academy in the West Bank settlement Eli, made the inflammatory comments at a lecture to several hundred young male graduates of a different academy. Video of his lecture was aired by Israel’s Channel 10.
“They go in Jewish and they’re not Jewish when they come out,” Levinstein said of Orthodox female soldiers, clarifying that it was “not in terms of genetics” but in terms of values.
He mocked Orthodox female soldiers as “practicing for their wedding” when they put on camouflage makeup. “I don’t know who will marry her,” he said.
Levinstein’s comments were condemned by Defense Minister Avidgor Lieberman, who said that he was considering firing Levinstein as well as other Israeli politicians.
Yigal Levinstein Image by YouTube
According to the Times of Israel there are 4,000 religious women serving in the Israeli Defense Forces.
Contact Naomi Zeveloff at [email protected]
A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen
I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
