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8 | JANUARY 23 • 2020
1942 - 2020
Covering and Connecting
Jewish Detroit Every Week
jn
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How to reach us see page 10
guest column
IDF: Choose Tank Crew Members
Based On Capabilities, Not Gender
A
fter facing various legal pressures,
the IDF’
s new Chief-of-Staff, Aviv
Kochavi, recently decided to reinstate
a pilot program that would test the possibil-
ity of integrating female tank crews into the
Armored Corps. The pilot’
s goal was to train
all-female tank crews and ultimately deploy
them to the Jordanian and Egyptian borders.
Of the 15 women in the pilot, 13 completed
the training, four of whom also became tank
commanders. Although deemed successful
upon completion in 2018, the pilot’
s con-
tinuation was put on hold, as its next phase
would require more funds and resources that
were unable to be allocated. (Haaretz, 2020)
The announcement of the pilot launch
in 2017 was controversial and immediately
became a “hot topic” in the media, as well as
in my social circle. As a former Lone Soldier
who served in the IDF as a tank shooting
instructor, and someone who has fired
tank cannons and taught soldiers shooting
techniques, I felt an enormous amount of
pride. While my friends who served as tank
instructors felt empowered, many voices
across the country were outraged. Aside
from the concerns over immodesty from
ultra-Orthodox leadership, male soldiers and
officials claimed that women lacked the level
of physical fitness needed to fulfil the duties
of a loader or to conduct frequent tank main-
tenance routines.
Most frustrating of all, many claimed that
the integration would lower the morale and
motivation of the male soldiers in the unit,
and that soldiers would feel emasculated
if women could work the job with them.
Despite the great strides that the IDF has
made over the past few decades to include
females in various combat units — such as
accepting women as pilots in the Israeli Air
Forces’
Flight Academy for the past 22 years
(Israeli Air Force, 2017), these reactions were
alarming.
Women have been serving as tank instruc-
tors since 1976. From the get-go, they have
been the most knowledgeable about the tank
and have had to first do or simulate what-
ever it was that they would teach to others.
Today, a male soldier in the Armored Corps
is trained by a female instructor from his first
day on base, through his advanced training,
throughout commander school, and even in
officer school. Alongside his commander, it
is the (female) tank instructor who teaches
him to be a skilled and successful tank crew
member.
When I was selected to be a tank instruc-
tor along with 30 young women in 2013, my
service began with an intensive three-month
basic training. After learning the “101s” of
dozens of technical tank topics, my friends
and I underwent screening in order to be
assigned to the specific profession that
was most fitting to our capabilities. I spent
another nine months training as a simulator
instructor and became fluent in topics such
STEPHANIE HORWITZ SPECIAL TO THE JEWISH NEWS
Stephanie Horwitz
COURTESY OF STEPHANIE HORWITZ
continued on page 10