Pre-army academy head apologizes for sexist remarks about female soldiers

A controversial Israeli rabbi and head of a pre-army academy in the West Bank who made disparaging and sexist remarks against female IDF soldiers earlier this month has apologized for his comments, which had earned him a summons by Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman.

Liberman had called for the resignation of Rabbi Yigal Levinstein after a video emerged of him saying military service drives female soldiers “crazy,” makes them unattractive, and strips them of their Jewishness.

In a letter to students and graduates of the prominent pre-army religious preparatory program in Eli, Levinstein said that while some of his comments were “taken out of context,” the tone was “inappropriate” and that it “wasn’t right to denigrate” the female soldiers.

“I was wrong,” he wrote, even as he defended the idea behind his comments, saying that “women have been taken hostage by the feminist movement.”

Levinstein said he felt it was his duty to prepare his students for the reality of the IDF.

The hesder yeshiva program enables Orthodox soldiers to combine their mandatory IDF service with time spent studying religious texts in the yeshivas. Only officially recognized yeshivas are allowed to offer this program.

The military has in recent years been increasing the integration of female soldiers in combat units, most recently allowing women to serve in the Armored Corps for the first time in the nation’s history. The move raised hackles in the religious community who consider males serving in close proximity to women immodest.

Levinstein’s comments drew a harsh backlash and Liberman had threatened to withdraw accreditation from the rabbi’s academy if he didn’t resign.

He had been reprimanded for making sexist and homophobic statements in the past.

Last week, Channel 2 reported that IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eisenkot has promised to increase gender segregation in the military in a bid to calm tensions with religious leaders surrounding the role of women in the army.

According to the report, Eisenkot promised a delegation of Zionist religious rabbis that by the end of 2017, male and female soldiers would not share sleeping quarters at guard posts and that any unisex bathrooms would be abolished. He also promised to separate male and female battalions at the IDF’s officer training base.

The IDF chief further said that new positions offered to women would necessitate the approval of the army’s Manpower Directorate.

In response to the report, the IDF issued a statement insisting the IDF chief had made no changes to policy, and was simply seeking to enforce existing regulations.

“Orders regarding joint service were not drawn up in the last few days, and some of them have no ties to religion,” the IDF said adding that the issues “have been a part of the army’s orders for years.”