2008 Woodie Awards
Israeli General Meets with Yeshiva Admin
Maj. Gen. Stern Speaks about Hesder Units
Elyasaf Schwartz
Issue date: 2/15/05 Section: News
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On January 31, Yeshiva hosted Maj. Gen. Stern during a meeting with students and administrators organized by Rabbi Robert Hirt, Senior Advisor to President Richard M. Joel. The group spoke at length about the Maj. Gen.'s unique status as the highest ranking religious officer in the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF).
Since the establishment of the IDF in 1948, the upper echelons of the army have usually been dominated by secular Israelis. Recently, however, the army has seen a surge in the number of religious soldiers choosing to attend Officer School, and currently, more than 40 percent of Israel's officers are religious. While that statistic generally manifests itself in the lower officer ranks, a trend is also developing where religious officers, such as Maj. Gen. Stern, can be found in higher ranks. Currently, Maj. Gen. Stern is the highest ranking religious soldier in the IDF, one rank below Chief of Staff Moshe Ya'alon, and serves as the IDF's Chief of Personnel.
Rabbi Hirt described Maj. Gen. Stern's visit as a venue to "to expose leaders in Jewish life to our Yeshiva University community and to provide opportunity for our people to meet people who are impacting on Jewish life."
Boldly beginning his remarks in English, Maj. Gen. Stern offered the proverbial joke of Jewish public speaking but switched to Hebrew halfway through after the group confirmed their Hebrew comprehension. Among the issues addressed, Maj. Gen. Stern spoke of the continual moral dilemmas he faces as a high ranking officer. Often, operations thwarting terrorist attacks mean inevitable civilian casualties, and Maj. Gen Stern spoke candidly about the difficulties in making such decisions when lives are on the line. Each operation is carefully weighed, he assured the group.
Maj. General Stern has found himself amidst controversy in recent weeks relating to the dismantling of hesder units in the Israeli army. Hesder is a five year program where religious soldiers can combine military service and Torah study. Currently, religious soldiers enlisting through hesder usually form their own platoons or companies for at least 10 months of their army service. Maj. Gen. Stern released a plan to disband those units in an attempt to strengthen the national identity, rather than divide it by separating religious and secular soldiers.