Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

IDF To Allow Female Kosher Supervisors To Work on Military Bases

Following a decision by the Israeli Chief Rabbinate last month to agree to recognize women as kosher supervisors, the Israeli Defense Forces has also agreed to open its doors to allow women supervisors in its own kitchens.

The issue has been a source of contention in Israel, following a lawsuit filed with the High Court of Justice by the Emunah Women’s Organization last summer, which argued that the chief rabbinate should recognize qualified women as mashgichot.

The chief rabbinate backed down early last month, agreeing to certify women.

Brigadier-General Racheli Tevet-Wiesel, an advisor to the IDF Chief of Staff on women’s affairs, reportedly spearheaded the effort within the military, according to Yashiva World, noting that the military follows the lead of the Chief Rabbinate when it comes to religious issues.

The chief rabbi of the IDF spoke out against Emunah’s petition early on, rightly predicting that the decision would eventually force the military to also change its policies, but has not yet commented on the most recent IDF decision.

The move will likely further anger some among the orthodox community, already concerned about gender mixing in the military.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you move on, I wanted to ask you to support the Forward’s award-winning journalism during our High Holiday Monthly Donor Drive.

If you’ve turned to the Forward in the past 12 months to better understand the world around you, we hope you will support us with a gift now. Your support has a direct impact, giving us the resources we need to report from Israel and around the U.S., across college campuses, and wherever there is news of importance to American Jews.

Make a monthly or one-time gift and support Jewish journalism throughout 5785. The first six months of your monthly gift will be matched for twice the investment in independent Jewish journalism. 

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

Join our mission to tell the Jewish story fully and fairly.

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 credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link 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.