Soldiers serving in a yeshiva students’ platoon at the Golani Brigade training base have asked the IDF to assign a male fitness instructor to their platoon, saying they are uncomfortable taking part in fitness sessions led by a woman.
According to the soldiers, some of them raised concerns about modesty as early as the first intake in which a female instructor led the sessions. Later, they decided to ask the battalion commander for a change.
The soldiers sent the battlion commander a detailed letter explaining why assigning a male fitness instructor would help them serve meaningfully while maintaining their religious way of life. Later, several soldiers also approached him individually.
A request submitted to the new rabbinical hotline run by Oz Banamer indicated that the issue is not limited to the Golani training base, but also affects military orders governing the assignment of fitness instructors.
Under the current orders, soldiers in a single-gender training setting are eligible to receive instruction from someone of the same sex when the training could involve physical contact, being alone with a member of the opposite sex, or revealing clothing. In contrast, according to those who contacted the hotline, earlier guidelines made broader accommodations for religious soldiers during fitness and firearms training.
"The soldiers really want this. Almost everyone I spoke to said it bothered them," the request to the rabbinical hotline said.
The request said the soldiers were seeking a solution that would allow yeshiva students to serve while maintaining their faith and way of life and emphasized that they had no intention of offending their commanders or creating an argument with the military.
Those who contacted the hotline said they hoped a solution at the Golani training base would pave the way for similar arrangements at other bases and brigades.
The Soldiers’ Wives for the Sanctity of the Camp group criticized what it described as the reversal of a decision to assign a male fitness instructor to the yeshiva students’ platoons at the Golani training base.
"Religious and haredi soldiers should not have to choose between meaningful military service and maintaining their way of life and faith. The military is obligated to allow them to serve in accordance with their values," the group said.
"It is unthinkable that a basic request to observe standards of modesty and maintain a religious way of life should be met with bureaucratic obstacles and shifting decisions."
The group called on the IDF to adopt a policy of assigning male fitness instructors to yeshiva students’ platoons so that religious soldiers can serve while upholding their faith and commitment to Jewish law.
The IDF Spokesperson’s Unit told Arutz Sheva - Israel National News, "The General Staff’s Joint Service Order stipulates that a soldier who leads a religious way of life is entitled to train in a single-gender setting and to be taught by an instructor of the same sex when the training could involve physical contact, being alone with a member of the opposite sex, or revealing clothing."
"A review found that a male fitness instructor has yet to be assigned to the Golani training base because instructor assignments depend on which instructors enlist in each intake. Until a male fitness instructor is assigned, the base will continue to provide training tailored to the soldiers’ needs while strictly complying with the Joint Service Order and preserving the soldiers' way of life. The IDF will continue act to preserve the ways of life of all its service members in accordance with its orders."