Active-duty and reserve IDF rabbis have written to Defense Minister Israel Katz to protest the planned promotion of Lt. Col. Rabbi Udi Schwartz to a senior post at the rank of colonel. They warn that the appointment could damage the Military Rabbinate and are asking Katz to step in and review how the decision was made.
At the heart of the letter is the argument that senior rabbinate posts require command and combat experience, not only Torah scholarship. "The Military Rabbinate is not only a halachic and staff body. It is an operational military system, required to function in routine and emergency, on the battlefield and at the most complex and sensitive points of military activity," the rabbis wrote.
They noted that the Rabbinate already includes officers who have spent years in the field, accompanying units through wars and operations, carrying command responsibility and at times risking their lives. That experience, they argued, should carry significant weight when the system's senior commanders are chosen.
The signatories stressed that they are not questioning Schwartz personally. "Without casting aspersions on the personal or Torah abilities of this or that candidate, promotion to a senior post without sufficient examination of operational and command experience is liable to harm the trust of those serving in the system, the sense of organizational justice, and the standing of the Military Rabbinate as a professional military body," they wrote.
The rabbis asked Katz to examine the appointment process, the professional criteria that were set and the weight given to operational experience in field rabbinate posts.
"Precisely at a time when the Military Rabbinate carries enormous responsibility and is proving its importance on the battlefield, we have a duty to ensure that its senior commanders are chosen in a professional, objective and equal process," they concluded.
