| Military Rabbinate | |
|---|---|
![The Military Rabbinate Corps Emblem[1]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aRabbinate-logo.jpg){kind=logo} | |
| Active | 1948 |
| Country | Israel |
| Allegiance | Israeli Defense Force |
| Type | Religious services |
| Commanders | |
| Current commander | Brigadier General Eyal Krim |
| Notable commanders | RabbiShlomo Goren |
TheMilitary Rabbinate (Hebrew:חיל הרבנות הצבאית,Heil HaRabanut HaTzvait) is acorps in theIsrael Defense Forces that providesreligious services to soldiers, primarily toJews, but also including non-Jews, and makes decisions on issues of religion and military affairs. The Military Rabbinate is headed by the Chief Military Rabbi, who is ranked aBrigadier General. The current Chief Military Rabbi isEyal Krim.[2]
The Military Rabbinate constitutes the body responsible for religious institutions in the military. In everyunit ormilitary base, there are Military Rabbinate soldiers assigned responsibility for assuring religious services, in particular,Kashrut of the kitchen and the maintenance of thesynagogue and its inventory. Actively serving soldiers can request from the Rabbinate representatives to perform marriage ceremonies as well as theBrit milah.
The Military Rabbinate is responsible for treating the bodies ofsoldiers from theHalakha standpoint, including the identification and post-mortem treatment of bodies, and conducting militaryfunerals. The Military Rabbinate also attends to the burial of enemy soldiers and theexhuming in conjunction with prisoner exchanges. Prior to the establishment ofZAKA, it was also responsible for treating the victims ofsuicide attacks. More recently, it was placed in charge of dismantling thecemetery inGush Katif during theGaza disengagement plan.
The Military Rabbinate was founded in 1948 by RabbiShlomo Goren, who headed it until 1968. Until 2000, the Chief Military Rabbi tended to remain in their positions for a considerable period of time. After Rabbi Goren, from 1968 to 1977, the Chief Military Rabbi was RabbiMordechai Piron. From 1977 to 2000, the position was held by RabbiGad Navon. From 2000 to 2006, the Chief Military Rabbi was RabbiIsrael Weiss.
Weiss introduced many changes into the Rabbinate, including giving soldiers much more access to the unit and increasing the Rabbinate's dealings with the religious soldiers. Weiss was the chief rabbi during the2005 disengagement from Gaza and was in charge of disinterring 48 graves from theGush Katif cemetery.[3] For that role, he has been criticized and attacked by opponents of the disengagement.[4]
Succeeding him, Brigadier-General Rontzki began his service in the rabbinate on March 27, 2006. The appointment was recommended by the then-Chief of Staff,Dan Halutz, and approved by the then-Minister of Defense,Shaul Mofaz.
This new appointment was seen as a direct consequence of the controversial remarks by Israel Weiss wherein he appeared to have agreed with the formerChiefAshkenazi National Authority of Religious Services Rabbi,Avraham Shapira, who called on soldiers who are religious Jews to disobey orders to forcefully removesettlers from theGaza Strip during the Gaza disengagement plan. While Israel Weiss retracted and apologized for the "slip up", the event drew a great deal of controversy in military circles, and in Israel in general.[5]
According to Israeli left-wing human rights groupYesh Din, during the2009 Gaza conflict, the military rabbinate distributed a religious booklet that warned against showing mercy to enemies.[6] The publications compared modern-day Palestinians to the BiblicalPhilistines, and denied the historical existence of a Palestinian national identity.[7] According to Yesh Din, the booklet could have been interpreted by soldiers as a call to act outside the confines of the international laws of warfare.[6]
AHaaretz editorial described the booklets as "sermons that preach, in the name of ostensibly religious values, the killing of civilians", and which "opposes all the combat values formulated in the IDF throughout the generations". The booklet includes sermons written by religious Zionist leaderShlomo Aviner.[8] It also accuses the material of fostering an atmosphere in which extremist sermons byYitzhak Ginsburg praisingBaruch Goldstein (described as "chauvinist and racist incitement") can be disseminated.[8]
Following a series of inquiries, both in theKnesset and within the IDF, it was determined that the distribution of the alleged booklets took place in a few isolated incidents, by non-military personnel, without proper supervision of Military Rabbinate representatives.[9] Following this incident, guidelines were set to ensure the authority of both the Military Rabbinate and theEducation and Youth Corps within the IDF.
In November 2016, the High Court of Israel delayed the appointment of Eyal Krim as chief military rabbi, demanding that he clarify a number of statements he had made in the past.[10] These allegedly included that Jewish soldiers were permitted to rape non-Jewish women in wartime, that women should not be allowed to testify in court due to their "sentimental" nature, and that captured terrorists should be killed.[10] The comments were published over a decade ago. Responding to the accusations, Krim said that the Torah permits intercourse with a non-Jewish woman during wartime under certain conditions, but his statements were strictly theoretical and dealt with a specific biblical passage. At the time of his appointment, he told the IDF Personnel Directorate that "there is no license in times of peace or war to sexually assault women".[11]
![Military Rabbinate Corps pin[12]](/mt/?noimg=&dark=on&url=https%3a%2f%2fen.wikipedia.org%2fwiki%2fFile%3aMilitary_Rabbinate_corps_pin.png)
ChiefMilitary Rabbis  | ||
|---|---|---|
| ||
| International | |
|---|---|
| National | |
