For years, the Israel Defense Forces have been dominated by the national-religious sector, which demonstrates a high motivation to serve, especially in combat units. However, in that same demographic there is institutionalized opposition to the military recruitment of women, mainly due to modesty issues. Instead, national-religious women may perform national service as volunteers in hospitals, educational institutions and social-welfare organizations.

This issue has been quietly debated for years. However, it has recently come to public attention through a petition by dozens of national-religious rabbis calling on the head of the national-religious HaBayit HaYehudi party, Education Minister Naftali Bennett, not to fund nongovernmental organizations that encourage religious women to enlist in the IDF. The Education Ministry recently floated an initiative to create and fund such associations.

The petition, signed by prominent rabbis of the national-religious stream, is called “National Service is Preferable.” In its introduction, the petition reads, “The position of the religious Zionist rabbis regarding the issue of the enlistment of women into the [IDF] has always been consistent with the position of the Chief Rabbinate of Israel — that religious girls should not serve in the military.” Simultaneously, 12th-grade girls from religious, gender-segregated high schools signed their own petition and submitted it to Bennett. In the document, they called on the minister to retract his decision to underwrite programs that would encourage women to enlist, which they feel conflicts with the values of religious Zionism and the Torah.

When the State of Israel was first founded and the draft law was passed, Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion agreed to exempt certain groups from military service. The law exempts pregnant and married women as well as unmarried women who practice a religious way of life from mandatory service. This position became the official stance of the Chief Rabbinate. It is also the official position of the national-religious public school system.