A soldier affiliated with the Chabad Lubavitch movement is
facing discipline for insisting on wearing a yalmulka bearing a phrase
associated with Chabad.
The soldier says he has been wearing the same type of
yalmulka, with the same phrase, since enlisting. Recently he was asked to
change it due to an IDF rule prohibiting writing on clothing.
The soldier told his commanders that the phrase has
religious meaning to him, and that he does not plan to switch to a word-free
yalmulka.
A source close to the soldier told Arutz Sheva that several
other soldiers received similar requests, but that this is the first case which
has gone all the way to a military hearing.
A military source told Arutz Sheva that while yalmulkas with
writing on them are technically prohibited by IDF regulations, commanders have
generally refrained from enforcing the regulation when it comes to soldiers
serving with the Netzach Yehuda briga
de, which is geared toward hareidi-religious
soldiers.
Eliyahu Lax, Chairman of the Organization for the Religious
Soldier, said, “This whole story is about a company sergeant-major who went too
far in strict adherence to the letter of the regulations, without using his own
judgment.”
The question of hareidi-religious integration in the IDF has
taken on new meaning in recent months as the government works to draft a new
law relating to hareidi enlistment.
Earlier this year the IDF created written agreements on the
accommodation of hareidi-religious observance.
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