 OCTOBER 10 • 2019 | 37

I

n a first, special-needs 
soldiers who volunteer in 
the IDF will soon be able 
to combine Torah study with 
army service, just as many 
regular religious soldiers do in 
a five-year Hesder program, 
according to Israel Hayom.
The new system will begin in 
November, within the frame-
work of a program that allows 
special-needs men and women 
aged 18-25 to do meaningful 
service in the army. Called 
Olim Darga, which is a play on 
words that connotes rising in 
the ranks as well as going the 
extra mile, it was created by 
Shalva, the Israel Association 
for the Care and Inclusion 
of Persons with Disabilities, 
in conjunction with Israel’
s 
Ministry of Social Services 
and the Jerusalem College of 
Technology (JCT).
Participants will live in 
Shalva’
s dorm facilities in 
Jerusalem while commuting to 
their army bases every morn-
ing. In the afternoons, they will 
take part in religious studies at 
JCT, whose students combine 
Torah learning with various 
technological degrees such as 
engineering and computers.
In addition, they will learn 
how to live independently, 
receiving practical life lessons 
and job training. The course 
is expected to last three years, 
said the report, with two-
and-a-half years dedicated to 

the combined army/Torah 
track, and half-a-year-working 
toward being able to become 
successful, regular members of 
society after their army service 
is complete.
“We don’
t settle for an 
attempt to find cosmetic 
solutions or to say, ‘
We tried 
but failed,
’
” said Shalva CEO 
Yochanan Samuels. “We go 
more in-depth, and search for 
collaborative solutions that take 
a long view and require strate-
gic thinking in order to change 
the face of society.
”
Samuels gave a nod to the 
Shalva Band, the organization’
s 
group of musical individuals 
with physical or mental disabil-
ities, which took Israel by storm 
when it competed on an Israeli 
TV talent show, The Rising 
Star, and gained international 
acclaim when it made a special 
appearance at the Eurovision 
Song Contest in May.
“The band changed [peo-
ple’
s] view and [acceptance 
of] inclusion of people with 
disabilities, and we intend to 
do the same in the area of the 
draft and army service as well,
” 
he said.
The Olim Darga program 
will join the “Special in 
Uniform” project founded by 
Lt. Col. (Ret.) Ariel Almog in 
2008, which integrates young 
people with cerebral palsy and 
autism as well as intellectual 
disabilities into the IDF. 

IDF Special-Needs 
Soldiers to Study Torah
Disabled soldiers will be able to learn 
Torah as well as serve in the army.

BATYA JERENBERG WORLD ISRAEL NEWS

Eretz
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Military brass 
and rabbis at a 
Hesder yeshivah 

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