IDF deputy chief of staff Maj.-Gen. Amir Baram told haredi (ultra-Orthodox) fighters that the army would work to preserve their way of life, during a visit to the Hasmonean Brigade base.
Baram visited the base to light the candle on the second night of Hanukkah on Thursday alongside the brigade commander, Maj.-Gen. Avinoam Emunah.
He told the brigade’s haredi fighters the army will preserve the haredi lifestyle of the soldiers there. “There is no contradiction between devout Judaism and combat, courage, and battle,” he said.
The new brigade takes its name from the Hasmonean Dynasty, which began after the Jews threw off their oppressors during the Maccabean Revolt, which is commemorated on Hanukkah.
The first wave of combat soldiers arrived at the brigade’s newly upgraded training base in December, Israel Hayom reported. The training base is to be situated in the Jordan Valley and is undergoing a $46 million transformation in order to house four new synagogues and specialized religious infrastructure.
The plan is for the first haredi infantry battalion to be ready for combat by November 2025, Israel Hayom added.
The deputy chief of staff toured the new infrastructure and spoke to staff to ascertain the base’s readiness to receive the first haredi fighters, the IDF said.
First Haredi brigade
“You have been given a great opportunity, a great privilege, to be the first to establish a haredi brigade in the IDF, “ Baram said. “We intend for it to remain haredi, to preserve their way of life, so they can enlist as haredim and leave as haredim.”
He added that having haredi fighters was “an operational and societal necessity today.”
“We have prepared here, at the new brigade base, all the conditions to maintain a Jewish, haredi, and combat unit simultaneously,” he concluded.