Rabbi Yoel Schwartz was among those who founded the Nahal Hareidi (Netzach Yehuda) battalion, which opened the IDF to hareidi-religious soldiers by providing an environment suited to their religious lifestyle.
Now Rabbi Schwartz has issued a warning to the IDF: if army leaders do not keep their promises to hareidi soldiers, it will be impossible to enlist hareidi Jews.
[promised]
Hareidi communities live with separation of the genders, particularly among young single men and women. One thing hareidi rabbis have insisted on regarding hareidi units in the IDF is that the units remain for men only, and that the men be allowed to perform their duties without close interaction with female soldiers.
Religious Zionist soldiers and their rabbis complain about the same problem, exacerbated in recent years when separate units for Hesder religious Zionist soldiers were all
The religious-Zionist Hesder soldiers have also faced more conflict over their religious principles in recent years, due to the abolishing of most separate units for ‘Hesderniks’, as they are called, and feminist groups’ insistence on allowing girls to serve in any capacity – even out in the field where conditions make separation difficult
Pinhas, Yavneel Posted
In the early years of even Nahal Haredi, it was a unit mixed with non-religious soldiers and religious. Thats how it started. And the women came to the base to visit their bfs. I have friends, who served then, who used to be religious, at least they were before they went to the early Nahal Haredi. Lets be honest about religious soldiers, national religious soldiers with their grilfriends.