Arutz Sheva spoke with Lieutenant Shlomo Weizman, a platoon commander in the Haruv reconnaissance unit, who will now preside over his soldier's swearing-in at the Western Wall plaza. But his story begins in the haredi home where he grew up and in the Netzach Yehuda battalion to which he enlisted.
"I started in a haredi home with a Lithuanian education; a small yeshiva, a big yeshiva, and at a certain stage I decided that I saw myself contributing in a different fashion from the way I grew up.I enlisted, entered Netzach Yehuda where I underwent the process of becoming a combat soldier, and from there I went to command. I did two command stints in Netzach Yehuda and then went to the officers' training course."
When Lieutenant Wizman heard about the decision made by his brigade, the Kfir Brigade, to re-establish the Haruv reconnaissance unit he decided that he would participate in its establishment. "I am a great believer in the Kfir Brigade, I think that what they do is very important and its contribution to the security situation today is awesome, and when you open a new unit that is the spearhead of the most significant brigade, it is a great privilege to be part of the establishment, and I had a fierce desire to contribute more."
Still, would not choosing a military route over continuation in the regular haredi track not constitute enough of a contribution?"When I left the yeshiva, it was not a matter of unloading a burden, rather it was because I believed that this was what I wanted to do and I would do it in the best way possible," Weizman says.
"I have an excellent family," he says. When asked to elaborate, he says: "There is a acceptance, there is a discourse, the family situation is very complex, but there is acceptance and we talk things over and learn how to manage."