Leading religious Zionist rabbis tell PM to stop integration of women into Armored Corps

Several leading rabbis of the religious Zionist community have penned a letter to Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu expressing their opposition to a planned pilot program in the military that would see female soldiers serve in the Armored Corps, claiming such a move would “effectively exclude” Orthodox troops from contributing to Israel’s security.

The letter joins other recent calls by religious activists against the IDF’s plans to integrate women into more combat roles in the army, despite the military saying it urgently needs more recruits due to the strain on standing and reserve forces caused by the war against Hamas in Gaza and other military challenges.

“Turning the Armored Corps [into a] mixed-gender [unit] will place our students before an impossible contradiction between their faith and their operational service,” the rabbis write in the letter.

“When the army advances toward gender mixing prohibited by Judaism, contrary to logic and security needs, we can no longer remain silent,” they write.

The letter is signed by former chief rabbi of Ramat Gan Yaakov Ariel; chief rabbi of Safed Shmuel Eliyahu; head of Mercaz Harav yeshiva Rabbi Yaakov Shapira; former chief rabbi of Jerusalem Aryeh Stern; former chief rabbi of Kiryat Arba Dov Lior; and others.

The rabbis claim that allowing women to serve in tanks in the Armored Corps, similar to how the army opened up the Artillery Corps to women decades ago, will have damaging consequences.

“This move will effectively exclude Torah- and tradition-observant troops from contributing to Israel’s security solely because of their way of life, which will lead to weakening the entire fighting array and to the destruction of the people’s army. Capitulating to foreign social agendas that are not the concern of the IDF and are not part of the values of victory harms the security of the state, especially at this time,” they write.

The rabbis in their letter seek to meet with Netanyahu to prevent the move, though it is unclear if the prime minister has the authority to prevent the military from pushing forward with the pilot program.

The army has insisted in the past that it is allowing more women to serve in combat positions out of practical considerations, not due to a progressive social agenda.

Currently, female soldiers can serve in tanks in the IDF’s Border Defense Corps, as part of an all-female tank company in the Caracal mixed-gender light infantry battalion, which operates along the Egyptian border — not in wars or in fighting deep behind enemy lines.

Women soldiers were directly involved in battles to defend against Hamas’s October 7 onslaught, including an all-female tank company that fought for hours, killing dozens of terrorists along the border and in communities attacked by the terror group.

The program in the Armored Corps, which the IDF had previously seen as impractical, was originally meant to start in 2024. Its opening has been delayed twice and is now expected to begin in November 2026 at the earliest.

Despite the claims made by the rabbis and other religious activists, the military has been planning only gender-segregated tank crews, in large part due to issues of modesty, as in some cases, crew members must use the bathroom and perform other bodily functions within the confined space of the tank.

Women already serve in a variety of combat roles in the IDF, in many cases alongside male counterparts.

According to IDF data from 2025, some 8,500 female soldiers served in combat roles, an increase of nearly 240% compared to 2015. In 2025, women made up 21.2% of combat troops.