Newsletter
Newsletter Support JNS

IDF starts new department for interested female soldiers: Army Kashrut

The female kosher supervisors will undergo a military course for two-and-a-half weeks before taking up positions in kitchens and food-preparation facilities in army units.

IDF reserve soldiers seen making food in a staging area near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on July 20, 2014, during Israel's “Operation Protective Edge.” Photo by Moshe Shai/Flash90.
IDF reserve soldiers seen making food in a staging area near the border with Gaza in southern Israel on July 20, 2014, during Israel’s “Operation Protective Edge.” Photo by Moshe Shai/Flash90.

Women enlisting in the Israel Defense Forces will now have a new department available in which they can fulfill their years of service: Army Kashrut.

For the first time, women will be able to fill positions as kosher food supervisors at IDF bases, according to Galei Tzahal on Thursday.

The first group of applicants is expected to be put into position in two weeks.

The decision to go ahead with the plan was given by head of the Personnel Directorate, Maj. Gen. Moti Almoz, 14 years after the IDF initially decided to open the department to female soldiers.

The military rabbinate had put the brakes on the move, but the Personnel Directorate has now ordered the military rabbinate to implement the decision and enlist recruits.

The female supervisors will undergo a special military kashrut course for two-and-a-half weeks before taking up positions in kitchens and food-preparation facilities in numerous army units.

Mari Leavitt, a Democratic state representative, told JNS that the public university “used extremely poor judgment” by inviting Piker and erred by not including mention of Piker’s “dangerous rhetoric” in the initial event announcement.
“I’m seeing what’s going on in New York,” Stav Cohen, founder of the Israeli nonprofit Frontline Advocates, told JNS. “I fear for my speakers’ lives.”
The “Associated Press” called the race for Lt. Gov. Peggy Flanagan about two hours after polls closed.
State Assembly member Francesca Hong, who has accused Israel of “genocide,” lost the Democratic primary after polls suggested that she held a double-digit lead.