Tel-Chai Nation

In this case, a female officer actually called on said ladies to stop singing for the sake of Haredi soldiers, and led to yet another situation that only draws attention away from more challenging issues:

Hundreds demonstrated outside a military base Sunday after last week a group of female recruits were asked to stop singing due to the nearby presence of religious soldiers, who consider it immodest to hear women singing.

Recruits were reportedly asked by a female commander to stop singing along to music and refrain from playing songs by female singers while doing kitchen duty.

The IDF later explained that the request stemmed from sensitivity to religious soldiers rather than discrimination against female ones.

Excuses are unbecoming. I hope the "religious" soldiers - presumably Haredi - and the army are happy at all the trouble they've caused over petty issues they're more than capable of putting up with and even accepting/embracing as legitimate. That part about "modesty" makes no sense, and never has, yet that's the pathetic defense such men keep resorting to. It's certainly got the potential to alienate more women from Judaism, women who could've made perfect representatives, and instead, they're bound to be driven away, with the worst part being many of the menfolk and their apologists who're guilty of alienating are unlikely to care an iota.

Some of the commentors said, for example:

I consider myself Orthodox but even after over 20 years participating in shuls etc., I have yet to understand why religious Jewish men are so sensitive to women's singing. I was raised Reform and we often had worship leaders who were women. None of the men, including my dad, ever seemed to have a problem with this. None of the men I knew, most of them goys, ever voiced a problem with women's voices. I was shocked to learn this was a "thing" as an adult. Young men have to have been taught such sensitivity while growing up. Maybe it's time Orthodox parents and rabbis stopped making a thing of this and stopped brainwashing men to have fears that are totally unnatural. Now we know that the enemy has a new way to weaken Haredi soldiers. Great. Maybe they shouldn't serve in the IDF after all. Grow up guys.

And:

It seems that much study of religious matters have a morbid impact on many student. Nowhere in the Scriptures is written that women's singing is immoral.

One more reason why this incident is such a PR embarrassment. The IDF has committed the unpardonable error of not making clear to religious soldiers, Haredi or otherwise, that they have to get used to certain things outside the bubble societies they grew up in. Those religious soldiers who've led to this situation will have to be confronted about it sooner or later and a demand made they apologize.

Labels: communications, haredi corruption, Israel, Judaism, military, misogyny, Moonbattery