ByYONAH JEREMY BOBJUNE 11, 2026 15:32With 13 new yeshivot Hesder on Thursday joining 12 prior institutions, there are now 25 this week that have banned their orthodox religious zionist male students from joining the tank corps in protest of an IDF pilot program to try to integrate women into the corps.According to the IDF, the program is only a pilot, and it is unclear whether it will lead to the permanent placement of women in the tank corps.Further, the pilot program involves establishing women-only tank units, such that neither secular nor religious men would be serving with women within the same tank or unit, the primary concern of the religious zionist institutions that are protesting.From their perspective, it is improper modesty and could lead to problematic mingling between men and women in such a small, secluded space if men and women were to serve in the same tank or tank units.Traditionally, religious zionist Hesder graduates serve in male-only units, and usually in units that are overwhelmingly only hesder students or at least men from orthodox backgrounds.Israeli tank manoeuvres, on the Israeli side of the Israel-Lebanon border in northern Israel, November 6, 2025. (credit: REUTERS/SHIR TOREM)The IDF appreciates the hesder program because virtually all of its students, though they serve less time than other Israeli societal sectors, serve in combat units, and many go on to become mid- and high-level officers.IDF pushes to integrate women into combatBut the IDF was ordered by the High Court of Justice on April 13 that it was under a legal duty to implement, as far as possible, equal opportunity for women and men in access to combat roles, including beginning its long-delayed pilot integration of women into the tank corps by the November 2026 draft cycle.Moreover, given that the government has failed to integrate haredim into the IDF both before and since October 7, 2023, and the IDF has lost up to around 25,000 soldiers to physical or emotional harm in recent years, leaving a massive gap in human resources, the IDF has been pushing hard to fill combat roles with women.One woman was recently accepted into the elite Sayeret Matkal special forces, and women have taken on relatively new ground-combat command roles as brigade and battalion commanders, and even as a missile boat commander.Despite the IDF putting out a public response on Wednesday, noting its various ways it is still protecting hesder students from serving with women in tank units, the number of institutions barring their students nearly doubled on Thursday.That said, two-thirds of the Hesder yeshivot had not yet pulled out.Some may be waiting to see how the pilot program pans out and whether the IDF keeps its promise to maintain separate tank units for women, whereas artillery and infantry units now have mixed male and female units.Follow us on Google