Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Fast Forward

Israel Won’t Sanction Yeshiva Over Leader’s Comments On Female Soldiers

JERUSALEM (JTA) — Israel’s Defense Ministry said it would not remove recognition from a pre-military yeshiva in the West Bank over comments by its leader that disparaged female soldiers.

The ministry made the announcement Wednesday after Israel’s attorney general, Avichai Mandelblit, said that the defense minister lacks the authority to withdraw recognition of the yeshiva’s programs, Ynet reported.

Defense Minister Avigdor Liberman threatened to withdraw recognition of the the yeshiva, the Bnei David academy, after its leader, Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, said military service made women “crazy.” Liberman had summoned Levinstein for a meeting, which the rabbi said he would not attend.

Levinstein has been under fire since he told several hundred students earlier this month that military service warps women’s priorities.

“They draft them. They go in Jewish and they’re not Jewish when they come out — not in terms of genetics. Their whole system of values becomes confused, their priorities – home, career. They’ll make them all crazy. Agreeing to this is forbidden,” Levinstein said.

Om Tuesday, Levinstein said in a letter to his students and supporters of the yeshiva that the tone of his comments was “inappropriate,” though he also said that some of his comments were taken out of context. He also defended his point saying his point, saying “women have been taken hostage by the feminist movement.”

Levinstein reportedly has been criticized for the remarks by his students, their parents and donors to the yeshiva.

A message from our Publisher & CEO Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism so that we can be prepared for whatever news 2025 brings.

At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.

Readers like you make it all possible. Support our work by becoming a Forward Member and connect with our journalism and your community.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:

  • Credit the Forward
  • Retain our pixel
  • Preserve our canonical link in Google search
  • Add a noindex tag in Google search

See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.