Religious cadets axed from officers course

The four left an IDF event in which female soldiers were singing and refused to return.

By JEREMY SHARON
Four officer cadets have been dismissed from the army’s officers course for leaving an IDF event on Monday in which female soldiers were singing and refusing to return.
In total, nine religious soldiers left the hall when the singing began because they did not want to infringe Jewish law that prohibits men from listening to women singing in person.
The soldiers did not heed the instructions of their unit commander to return to the event until after the female soldiers had finished their performance, despite being warned that failure to do so would be considered to be refusing an order.
After a consultation between their brigade commander, senior army officers and military rabbis, it was decided that if the soldiers in question did not apologize they would be expelled from the officers course. On Wednesday, five of the soldiers did submit an apology but four refused to so and were subsequently dismissed.
Rabbi Haim Druckman, chairman of Bnei Akiva Yeshivot and head of Ohr Etzion Yeshiva, condemned the decision, saying that the event had nothing at all to do with military matters and that it was outrageous to remove the cadets from the course for this reason.
Speaking to Arutz Sheva, he stated that nowhere in army regulations does there appear an order requiring that soldiers listen to women singing, and that there is nothing about women singing that would relevant to whether or not they are fit to be an IDF officer.