The Defense Ministry calls off its plans to defund a pre-army program for comments made by one of its leaders that disparaged female soldiers, but announces its intention to restrict the number of students.
Today, the Bnei David preparatory program has no limit on the number of participants who get their army service postponed, unlike other programs that have such a restriction, the ministry says.
This is unfair, the ministry says in a letter to the head of the program, Rabbi Eli Sadan.
Earlier this month, video footage surfaced of one of the program’s other leaders, Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, speaking out against women serving in the army, saying they went “crazy” and became “not Jewish” during their time in the military.
Rabbi Yigal Levinstein speaking at the ‘Zion and Jerusalem’ convention, July 2016. (Screen capture: YouTube)
The video prompted outcries of condemnation from across the political spectrum. Levinstein, however, remained resolved in his opposition to female soldiers, although he later apologized for his sarcastic tone.
Though Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman threatened to cut the program’s funding, the ministry says its decision to put in place previously unknown quotas on the institution was made “regardless of the Rabbi Levinstein’s remarks.”
— Judah Ari Gross
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