MK Lobbies to Reinstate IDF Torah Class

A member of the Knesset has asked Israel’s army chief to reinstate a popular weekly Torah class that was recently disbanded without any reason given, Arutz Sheva reported on Sunday.

MK Navah Boker (Likud) wrote to IDF Chief of Staff Gadi Eizenkot seeking to reverse a decision made in October by General Aharon Haliva, head of the IDF’s Technological and Logistics Directorate, who has in the past been quoted making openly hostile remarks against religious soldiers.

The Torah class in question was given at Ir HaBahadim, a cluster of training bases near Yerucham, which serves as a transit point for many IDF soldiers returning to duty on Sunday, after Shabbos at home. While waiting for connecting transportation, soldiers were given the opportunity to learn Torah, and many did so.

Boker wrote that the class “strengthened soldiers and motivated them to continue serving, and called on the soldiers to fulfill their duties with joy, a sense of mission and responsibility towards the people and the State of Israel”.

“I see this as very important and it contributes to our soldiers morale,” Boker continued, adding that she “does not see how this Torah class could possibly have any negative effects.”

“In light of the soldiers’ wishes, I ask you to reconsider the decision of Major General Aharon Haliva,” Boker concluded.

In 2010, several Knesset members called for Haliva’s dismissal after he said that he despises soldiers in the Hesder track, which combines military service with yeshivah study, saying that “I hate and cannot stand this track.”