From the Liveblog of
Thursday, June 11, 2026
13 more yeshiva rabbis say they won’t permit students to serve in tank units due to integration of women
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Thirteen Hesder yeshiva rabbis add their names to a letter saying that they would no longer send their students to join tank units because of a pilot plan to integrate women into the Armored Corps.
The yeshivas, which now total 25 are all part of the Hesder program, which allows observant young men, typically national religious, to combine several years of Torah studies with a shortened military service, currently set at 17 months.
In the letter published yesterday, the rabbis wrote that they “take a very serious view of the decision by the High Court of Justice to require the IDF to integrate female combat soldiers” in the Armored Corps.
“Virtue… is the foundation for the spirit of the IDF and its success in eradicating the enemy,” they said. Putting female soldiers in tanks alongside with male soldiers “has a spiritual and practical impact on combat ability.”
Despite the claims that men would be forced to serve inside tanks with women, the military has been planning only gender-segregated tanks. This is due in large part to concerns surrounding modesty. If the number of recruits allows, platoons or companies would also be divided by gender. An Armored Corps company is normally composed of 11 tanks.
The IDF responded to the letter yesterday by insisting men and women would be serving in separate frameworks and would not be in the same tanks.
The Times of Israel Community.