When Integrations Collide: Women, Haredim, and the Future of the IDF

Our training took place within the combat battalions of the Home Front Command—the Search and Rescue Brigade (SAR)—at the Home Front Command base in Ramla. A brief visit to the base was enough to reveal a simple fact: many of the soldiers serving there were women.

Their presence throughout the various units on the base was one of the reasons for the strict boundaries placed around our small Shlav Bet company. As a Haredi framework, the principle of separation between men and women was treated as inviolable. We were not permitted to move about in the mixed areas of the base.

Even so, the question of women’s integration into the IDF surfaced from time to time during our service. I will not address here the broader debate over women serving in the IDF, especially in combat roles. That question has been discussed extensively elsewhere, both from an operational perspective and from a religious-Torah one. It is not my subject here.

Instead, what interests me is the potential tension between two parallel developments: the expanding integration of women into the army and the growing effort to integrate Haredim.

The Integration of Female Soldiers

The rate of female enlistment in Israel remains high—over fifty percent. From the earliest days of the IDF, and even within the underground organizations that preceded it, women played a meaningful role in Israel’s security efforts. In recent years, the IDF has gone further, placing particular emphasis on integrating women into combat battalions and operational units including the Combat Engineering Corps, the Artillery Corps, and the Home Front Command.

Nowhere is this more visible than in the Home Front Command itself. Its combat battalions—the Search and Rescue Brigade—are mixed units with a substantial female presence. During a conversation with one soldier, in the middle of a squad commanders’ course, I heard about the high standards maintained by the female soldiers in these battalions.

“They’re not below the level of the boys,” he told me. “The physical expectations placed upon them are largely the same. In stretcher-carrying drills, the boys usually carry most of the weight,” he explained. “But otherwise there’s no real difference.”

This does not mean the service is easy. Far from it. The difficulty becomes especially evident during the “acts” of field week—above all the exhausting crawling exercises. The girls may stop halfway, sometimes crying out from sheer exhaustion and frustration. Yet in the end, they complete the task.

Women in these battalions also rise to command positions. An exceptional example is Lieutenant Colonel Yarden Shukrun, today the commander of the brigade’s training school and formerly the commander of Battalion Shachar. During our training, she delivered a lecture describing the battalions’ extensive activity in routine operations and in wartime. She also spoke briefly about her own life—including the fact that she is the mother of three children—and about the fighting on October 7 and throughout the war that followed.

Women today are deeply integrated into the IDF. Their presence is not marginal but structural, and it is likely to grow stronger with time.

It was one of the most powerful lectures we heard.

Shukrun saved many lives—both those of soldiers under her command, particularly during an encounter with terrorists at Camp Urim, and those of civilians in Ofakim, where she fought for three days to help clear the city. When asked whether she feared psychological harm after witnessing such terrible scenes, she answered simply: “I’m not the story. I have a mission that is bigger than me.”

Encounters like these left a clear impression. Women today are deeply integrated into the IDF. Their presence is not marginal but structural, and it is likely to grow stronger with time.

Yet that very success raises a question.

The Challenge of Shared Service

From time to time, I met soldiers in the base synagogue—naturally, religious soldiers. One afternoon, during the lunch break, I struck up a conversation with a religious soldier serving in one of the mixed battalions. Out of curiosity, I asked him about his experience, particularly as a religious soldier serving alongside female soldiers his own age.

He answered candidly. Of course, he would have preferred to serve in a religious, gender-separate framework. But he had enlisted in the army as a secular soldier and began a process of strengthening his religious faith during his service. That was what led him to the search-and-rescue battalions.

Was it easy? Certainly not, he said. Not at all. Yet he manages.

In fact, he suggested that the combat framework eases the challenge somewhat. It does not present the girls at their best, nor does it create the kind of atmosphere that encourages intimacy.

“It’s harder for the jobniks sitting in an air-conditioned office,” he remarked.

Beyond that, he added almost matter-of-factly, sexual contact between soldiers is strictly forbidden. His company commander had made it clear that violations of the rules would be punished severely.

In retrospect, I somewhat regretted the conversation. At that moment, one of the commanders—perhaps that very company commander—appeared suddenly in the synagogue and ordered my interlocutor to return immediately to his unit, before he had even managed to pray Mincha. Still, the exchange offered a glimpse into the daily reality of mixed service.

Another encounter during the training highlighted the challenge from a different angle. Colonel Shlomi Ben-Yair, commander of the Search and Rescue Brigade and one of its founders, spoke with us about the development of the battalions. He had actively promoted the recruitment of women into the brigade, and with considerable success. Over the years, the proportion of women in combat battalions rose to roughly seventy percent.

The process, he explained, had been long and difficult. In its early stages, most recruits dropped out. Gradually, the system improved, finally reaching the impressive results seen today.

Even under strict discipline—and even with considerable investment in training and education—problems inevitably arise

In his view, a similar process could unfold regarding the integration of Haredim.

Yet, he also acknowledged the obvious difficulty inherent in mixed service: young men and women serving together in the same battalions and companies. Even under strict discipline—and even with considerable investment in training and education—problems inevitably arise.

For Haredi soldiers, those “problems” require a different solution: gender-separate service.

Haredi Recruitment and Women’s Recruitment: An Inherent Tension

I encountered this tension firsthand during my time as a board member of the Netzah Yehuda association.

In the past, as we learned in meetings with senior IDF officials, the army’s priorities were fairly clear. Integrating women into as many units as possible was seen as an important goal. Integrating Haredim, by contrast, was often viewed as a complicated administrative challenge. In accordance with government policy, Haredim were recruited in limited numbers, but their integration was not treated as a central priority.

This approach shaped more than recruitment figures. It also affected how seriously the army enforced the conditions of Haredi service, including the principle of gender-separate frameworks. Despite the goodwill of some commanders, numerous breakdowns occurred.

Since October 7, however, the situation has begun to change.

The army has come to recognize the urgent need for Haredi soldiers. That recognition demands a new response to the tension between Haredi integration and the expanding presence of women in combat units. Within a short time, the Chashmonaim Brigade was established—the first fully Haredi brigade. Unlike earlier Haredi units embedded within broader frameworks (including Netzah Yehuda within the Kfir Brigade), this structure allows for genuinely gender-separate service.

Recently, the Chief of Staff signed new directives governing the integration of Haredim into the IDF. In certain tracks, women will not be permitted to enter the base at all, and soldiers will be shielded more broadly from exposure to women. For the Haredi public—and especially for those seeking meaningful integration—this represents an important development. These directives had been awaited for nearly two years. Without them, it would have been difficult to build trust with an army that had not always delivered on its promises in this area.

On the other hand, women’s organizations have expressed concern that these new directives—and the broader integration of Haredim—could harm women’s status in the IDF.

The tension, in other words, is real. Women are an integral part of the army. At the same time, it is increasingly clear that Haredi society will also be called upon to share the burden of military service.

Balancing these two realities will not be simple.

Haredi Integration: Under What Conditions?

The tension surrounding women’s service in the IDF is not unique to the Haredi question. Religious Zionism has grappled with it for many years. The Artillery Corps provides a telling example. When women were integrated into artillery units, the number of gender-separate frameworks declined sharply. In response, the Hesder yeshivot stopped sending students to those units. The result was a manpower shortage, particularly within the reserve system.

The entry of Haredi society into the military equation—a community for whom military service is far from self-evident—will inevitably affect the existing balance.

Israel needs Haredim in the IDF. We, the Haredim, must recognize this reality and act accordingly.

At the same time, the IDF must respect the Haredi way of life and avoid policies that undermine the possibility of meaningful and lasting integration. Women are an inseparable part of the army. Yet their integration should not come at the cost of preventing deep Haredi participation.

Yet to sensitive Haredi ears, the invitation sounds as though it includes a quiet addendum: but only on our terms.

One might imagine the invitation of Israeli society to the Haredim as a letter:

Dear Haredim, please join us in the great project of the State of Israel.
Signed: Israeli society.

Yet to sensitive Haredi ears, the invitation sounds as though it includes a quiet addendum: but only on our terms.

Dispelling that impression—through goodwill, listening, and mutual respect—is essential. The question of mixed service—controversial even within the religious-Zionist world—will ultimately reveal how genuine that invitation really is.

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In the picture: Lt. Col. Yarden Shukrun, then commander of Battalion “Shachar” of the Search and Rescue Brigade, during the ground maneuver in northern Gaza, November 2023. Credit: IDF Spokesperson.