Religious Zionist Israeli girls aim to study Torah and be soldiers at the same time...
A hesder yeshiva idea for girls, too

(Thu., June 10, 2004 Sivan 21, 5764)
By Yair Sheleg
yairs@haaretz.co.il

http://www.haaretz.com/hasen/spages/437363.html

Yasmin Magen, a graduate of the Amit Renanim religious high school in Ra'anana, wanted to continue her advanced Torah studies, but at the same time it was very important to her to serve in the army, "in a position in which I would not have dilemmas of conscience as a religious girl." For this reason Magen chose the Hadas program, which combines learning with military service.

Tehila Weinstein of Efrat, a graduate of the Kfar Etzion girls ulpana (high school), decided to continue her Torah studies at Midreshet Lindenbaum in Jerusalem, and was also seeking a track that would enable her to do service in the army. She, too, found her way to the Hadas program.

On the other hand, Orit Kadari of Beit El was not at all sure she wanted to serve in the army. "In my community, military service for girls is not commonly accepted, and not at the ulpana in Ofra, where I studied," says Kadari. "But when Rabbi Ohad came to visit the ulpana and presented the program, it sparked my interest," she said, referring to Rabbi Ohad Tahar-Lev, head of the program for Israeli girls at Midreshet Lindenbaum.

For the last few years the feminist revolution has been affecting religious Zionism. One expression of this is the adherence of many girls to advanced Torah studies, and another is a tendency by many of them - now about one third of the graduates of national-religious education - to favor military service over national service in the civilian sector. What is less well-known is that for the past six years some of these religious girls have been combining these two tracks, in a kind of "hesder for girls" framework.

The Hadas program at Midreshet Lindenbaum was the first of its kind, and when it was being organized the army offered the idea to other midrashot. Thus the midrasha on Kibbutz Ein Hanatziv opened a similar track.

Community opposition; family support

The reactions to the track chosen by the three girls was in keeping with the Jewish identity perceptions of their environments, their families and the educational institutions. Thus Kadari, who lives in a community with a national-Orthodox character, faced the most opposition from her community.

"Many people approached me, telling me that what I was doing was forbidden by Jewish law, that there was no significant role for girls in the army," relates Kadari. "My family is actually quite open [to new ideas], and did not make problems for me. My teachers also trusted my decision. Most of the pressure came from my former classmates and contemporaries. Until the moment I announced that I was going to the army, I was very active with the teenage groups of the Bnei Akiva youth group in Beit El. After my announcement, I suddenly felt that I was not being asked so much to lead activities."

Weinstein says that among her friends, many of whom do regular army service, her choice neither raised eyebrows nor caused her problems.

"At the ulpana, they actually liked the idea that if I was going to the army, it was better that I was going via the midrasha."

Magen says it was not the army part of the program that was a problem for her family, but rather the Torah studies.

"To my family it was clear that I would go to the army," she says, "and they felt that the midrasha would interfere with my military service. In retrospect, once they noticed the positive changes in me, they have become big fans of the place."

The program lasts 32 months, 24 of which are spent in the army in two sessions, and the remaining eight or nine months are a study period. Still, many of the girls, including the three interviewed for this article, continued to study at the midrasha even after their official discharge from the army.

In the first four years of the program, all the girls were assigned to the education corps as non-commissioned education officers, while for the past two years a track has been opened for these girls in the intelligence corps.

All told some 160 girls have completed the program over the last six years, from eight girls the first year to 30 in the present cycle, and about 40 applicants have been accepted to the program for next year. The girls that follow the officers track - about 30 percent of the program's participants - sign up for an additional nine months in the career army.

Tahar-Lev stresses that the program has no intentions of allowing the girls to serve in combat units.

"The army would actually really like this, but it is of course not realistic," says Tahar-Lev. "If we were to agree, we would be destroying the quiet legitimization that exists today in the religious public regarding the program."

Tahar-Lev adds that an air force track is being considered, but for auxiliary positions and not for pilots or navigators. This track would be dependent on the integration of several girls at the same base, to make it easier for them to maintain the religious atmosphere, similar to the conditions provided for male soldiers in the hesder programs.

Ulpanot hesitant

Since many religious girls already serve in the army, the establishing of a hesder-type yeshiva is hardly an innovative idea, but the main progress is in the establishment's legitimization of the girls' service.

Tahar-Lev explains that the recognition of the program puts an end to the stigma of serving in the army versus civilian national service. Many ulpanot are still hesitant about inviting representatives of the program to market it to the students, but even so, the response is much greater than it was six years ago.

As with the hesder programs, the combined army/study program is designed to make it easier for the midrasha to maintain contact with the girls. Teachers from the midrasha come to the army bases where the girls are serving every two weeks to give Torah classes, to hear from the girls and to help them with any difficulties. This contact gives the girls the advantage of institutional backing that other female soldiers do not have. This can leave an opening for jealousy from the other girls, but Tahar-Lev says he avoids interfering in professional military matters such as assignments except in cases where the girl is in severe emotional distress.

"There was one girl from a bereaved family whose commanding officer was not sufficiently sensitive in assigning her to a particular position, so we intervened," relates Tahar-Lev. "I do not see any problem with this type of intervention."

The girls themselves realize that they could be seen as receiving special treatment, and were therefore happy when their military service was extended from 20 months to 24 months, like all other female soldiers.

Graduates of the program are happy with their choice, and do not feel their religious lifestyle was harmed, although the girls interviewed for this article are not a representative sample as they belong to the group that continued their Torah studies after completing army service, meaning that they have high standards of religious observance.

"There are some girls whose level of observance declined during their services," admits Magen, "but not the majority. When I compare myself to the girls who did national service, I see that praying and attending classes are less important to them. Their religious observance is practiced on the whole through inertia. We are doing things much more through choice."

Tahar-Lev adds that the greatest thing the girls get from their army service is the ability to look at reality as it is.

"In my view," he says, "that in itself puts them on a higher religious level than how they lived before. They have more awareness, appreciation and respect for the real Torah world - not the Torah establishment. Of course there are ups and downs during their service. That happens to all of us. But I also know that they get up from their falls and rise to a higher level.

"Our girls have served in Intelligence alongside hesder boys, and more than once have demanded that they get up in time for [morning] prayers, so that the girls can pray with a quorum, too."

Rabbi Riskin's contribution to the feminist revolution

Midreshet Lindenbaum for post-high school girls is part of the network of Modern Orthodox institutions known as Or Torah Stone, a network founded by the chief rabbi of Efrat, Rabbi Shlomo Riskin, when he immigrated from New York 20 years ago.

The network includes yeshiva high schools and ulpanot in Gush Etzion and Jerusalem, a training program for female rabbinical pleaders, the Yad Laisha association which grants legal aid to agunot (women denied divorce because their husbands have not been found or whose husbands refuse to give them a divorce), and a program for training community rabbis.

Riskin himself is among the most liberal Orthodox rabbis in this area, although his positions do not always satisfy the new feminists. A few years ago he approved the convening of prayer quorums of women in Efrat, and integrated women into the local religious council as kashrut supervisors. The line he will not cross is the ordination of women rabbis, "at least in everything concerning prayer quorums including both men and women, due to the halakhic (Jewish legal) restrictions against women reading from the Torah or being cantors at a service attended by men also."

Still, he sees no problem with women giving halakhic rulings or even serving as religious court judges.
- posted by Izak @ 5:02 AM