Prominent Israeli Rabbis Forbid Mixed-Gender Combat Units

The Orthodox rabbis said that according to Orthodox Judaism, men and women should not have physical contact. “There are a number of combat units in the army, including mixed units, in which we have yet to find a solution to how to implement the required separation. That’s why today it’s not permissible to serve in them,” the rabbis including prominent Israeli-American rabbi Shlomo Riskin. The position paper comes after Israel’s Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman called on a Rabbi Yigal Levenstein, the head of a pre-military academy in the West Bank, to resign after he ridiculed female combat soldiers. The position paper said they believe that Orthodox Jewish women can and should serve in the Israeli army, but not in mixed combat units. The rabbis are associated with the more liberal stream of the religious Zionist movement.