Inside the IDF Photo Essay: Training With Nachal Hareidi

Israel National News ^ | June 23, 2005

[Alouette]

The Nachal Hareidi unit, made up of hareidi-religious yeshiva students and new immigrants, trains in the beautiful wilderness of Israel's Jordan Valley.

A member of the Nachal Hareidi unit "Netzah Yehuda" wakes up with a smile during a training exercise in the field.

Soldiers wearing prayer shawls and phylacteries while praying the morning service in the field prior to resuming their training.

The "Netzach Yehuda" ("Eternity of Judah") unit includes many young men who made Aliyah (immigrated to Israel) in order to join the IDF.

The Nachal Hareidi unit's soldiers are religious yeshiva students who continue to study Torah and pray together as a unit while in the IDF.

The "Netzach Yehuda" unit has captured scores of wanted terrorists and is reknowned for its extremely high level of motivation.

During training, soldiers spend long periods of time out in the field learning survival skills and improving their stamina.

The Jordan Valley is colored a lush green during the winter months, turning golden with the coming of summer.

The standards of Kosher certification of the food in Nachal Hareidi, and the all-male setting are designed to enable Hareidi-religious Jews to join the IDF.

Night exercises, followed by the evening prayer.

Nachal Hareidi soldier with Gilad Mountains in the background.

Just another day in the Aliyah revolution.

(Photos courtesy of IDF spokesman)

[Alouette]

See my profile page for another Nachal Haredi

FRmail me to be added or removed from this Judaic/pro-Israel ping list.

WARNING: This is a high volume ping list

[hlmencken3]

Rabbi Yoel Schwartz, is the founder and Chief Rabbi of Nachal Hacharedi. He has also authored 200 books on Jewish law and thought (mostly technical and mostly in Hebrew), is a leading authority on Noahide law, and is one of the more esteemed members of the would-be Sanhedrin that is so closely followed on FR.

[SevenofNine]

This is going sound rude that one IDF soldier remind me of Counting crow lead singer LOL!

[lilylangtree]

Thanks for sharing the pics and info.

[Alex Marko]

Fact is, most of the IDF and israeli citizens oppose the settlements.

[wideawake]

The bespectacled gentleman looks more rasta than frum. What is that headgear he's wearing?

[Alouette]

That is a sharpshooter's camo cap.

[wideawake]

Cool! Thanks.

[Convert from ECUSA]

Great pictures, Alouette! Pinging to friends!

[Bella_Bru]

Thanks for the pics and the ping!

[bruin66]

Second picture - I've never seen a prayer shawl and a .50 caliber machine gun in the same pic.

[dervish]

Fact is you are wrong.

Aside from this unit which was supposed to be Haredi,ie Hasidim, the IDF is made up of many Orthodox Units of soldiers many of whom live in so-called settlements. The Orthodox Units called Hesder (aka Kippot Serugot - knitted skullcaps in contrast to the black ones worn by Chasidim) make up a large percentage of the officers and combat units. They are considered among the best units in the IDF. And they live on and support the settlements.

xxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxxx

"National religious" troops

Fissures between "secular" and religious" Jews have always constituted an integral feature of Israel's society. That divide has during the past decade become still more salient and has influenced the IDF.

The military service pattern of religious Israeli Jews displays a striking dichotomy which generally parallels their affiliation to, respectively, the "ultra-orthodox" (haredi) and "national-religious" communities. Haredim tend to exercise their right to avoid the draft in increasingly higher numbers. Males apply for lengthy deferments by adducing evidence that they have registered for full-time study in a religious seminary (yeshiva). Haredim are estimated to comprise some 8 percent of the total population. Their proportion in the IDF is very much lower and declining. They now account for almost one third of all Jewish male non-enlistees.(41)

Whilst haredi religious Jews are thus under-represented in the IDF, "national religious" citizens (a category which encompasses both Ashkenazim and Sephardim, and which altogether now accounts for some 15 percent of the overall population) are becoming an increasingly prominent part of the Force, and indeed often a distinctive segment within it. One reason lies in the proliferation of company-sized fighting formations composed almost entirely of conscripts who combine a shortened period of military service with a five-year program of study in national-religious seminaries.(42) Another is the growing tendency of "national religious" recruits to enlist in combat services, where they now assume the role previously assumed by members of kibbutzim (whose representation in fighting units has dramatically declined).(43)

The possible implications of that transformation arouse conflicting emotions. The affirmative attitude toward military service displayed by so many national religious troops is welcomed, since it provides the IDF with high-quality and highly-motivated manpower. At the same time, however, their concentration in combat units also gives rise to some anxiety on grounds that it might foster insubordination for religious and ideological reasons.

The rate of national religious recruits to the sayarot now far exceeds their proportion in the conscript population (perhaps by a ratio of 3:1). At a rough estimate,(44) some 30 percent of all IDF fighting servicemen now wear a kippah serugah; as many as 60 percent of those in the first class of NCO infantry courses between 1994 and 1995 graduated from the national religious high-school system; the relevant figure in the infantry officers' training school was 100 percent. Similarly, between 1995 and 1996 alone, the percentage of national religious graduates of the pilot training program almost doubled (from 6 to 10 percent; whereas the proportion of kibbutz members dropped from 19 to 12 percent).(45)

Thus far, more senior ranks in the IDF hierarchy have remained largely immune to this development. Beneath the rank of rav-aluf (lieutenant-general, reserved exclusively for the Chief of Staff), the most senior notches in the IDF hierarchy are aluf (major-general, of which there are usually about 20) and tat-aluf (brigadier-general, of which there are currently 35). With the exception of IDF Chief Rabbis, no national religious Jew has ever been appointed aluf; and only four are currently listed as tat aluf (of whom two hold field commands).

http://www.jinsa.org/articles/articles.html/function/view/categoryid/154/documentid/451/history/3,2360,654,154,451

For decades, the hesder ("arrangement") seminaries have allowed observant young men to serve in combat units while continuing their rabbinical studies. Many of the schools, some of which are in the Judea and Samaria, have become centers of opposition to the pullout, which includes dismantling all 21 settlements in Gaza as well as four in northern Samaria.


http://web.israelinsider.com/Articles/Politics/4876.htm

[dervish]

• Alert Soldiers Foil Suicide Attack at Jordan Valley Checkpoint - Margot Dudkevitch
Alert soldiers of the Nahal Haredi unit thwarted a suicide bomb attack after spotting a terrorist wearing a coat approaching their checkpoint at the Bekaot junction in the Jordan Valley on Saturday afternoon. The soldiers became suspicious of his dress and behavior and called out to him to halt. When he ignored them, a warning shot was fired in the air. The terrorist then blew himself up about 30 meters from the soldiers, wounding the checkpoint commander lightly and three Palestinian civilian bystanders. "The alertness and swift response of the soldiers prevented an attack that could have had grave results," said Jordan Valley district commander Col. Roni Belkin. (Jerusalem Post)

http://www.dailyalert.org/archive/2004-05/2004-05-24.html

[SJackson]

If you'd like to be on or off this middle east/political ping list, please FR mail me.

[SJackson]

Fact is, most of the IDF and israeli citizens oppose the settlements.

Sure, that's why they elected Sharon after all, 66% of the vote, instead of Barak

And above both flags, there will be the flag of Zionism, the flag of national honor, immigration and settlement. The government, which I shall set up will strive to strengthen and consolidate united Jerusalem, the capital of Israel, and the eternal capital of the Jewish people; to which we always turn, saying, "If I forget thee, oh Jerusalem, may my right hand forget it's coming. May my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth if I do not remember you, if I do not make Jerusalem the chief of my joys."

[priceofreedom]

what a wonderful set of pictures....very inspirational toda raba for posting shalom

[Salem]

Bump on this important thread, and thanks for posting these. I can use some of these.

The Hebrew Army reborn. Just think, centuries ago—centuries—there were Jews just like this standing the same lines on the same ground for exactly the same purposes and reasons.

That is Olde School.  

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[Salem]

"I've never seen a prayer shawl and a .50 caliber machine gun in the same pic."

How about a prayer shawl and an Israeli Merkava Mk 4?