"I believe it is flawed that the central figures in the ceremony, alongside the unit commander, are the corps rabbi and the unit rabbi. The ceremony is not religious and there is no reason for it to appear religious.…The rabbinate does not have exclusivity over the bible. There is no reason for a rabbi, of all people, to speak at a swearing-in ceremony for the IDF and the state."
Ban Rabbis From Speaking At IDF Induction Ceremonies, Brigadier General Says
Shmarya Rosebberg • FailedMessiah.com
Brig. Gen. Avner Paz-Tzuk, the Israeli army’s chief education officer, says rabbis should be banned from speaking at swearing-in ceremonies for new recruits.
Paz-Tzuk’s position became known when a leaked screenshot of a letter he sent to the head of the IDF’s Manpower Directorate, Maj. Gen. Hagai Topolansky, was posted on the news website rotter.net, the JTA reported.
“I believe it is flawed that the central figures in the ceremony, alongside the unit commander, are the corps rabbi and the unit rabbi. The ceremony is not religious and there is no reason for it to appear religious.…The rabbinate does not have exclusivity over the bible. There is no reason for a rabbi, of all people, to speak at a swearing-in ceremony for the IDF and the state,” Paz-Tzuk reportedly wrote, adding that he recommended canceling all public roles for rabbis at swearing-in ceremonies. Instead, Paz-Tzuk suggested one of the new recruits’ commanders should read from the bible.
While most IDF soldiers are halakhicly Jewish (Jewish under the definition of Orthodox Jewish law), the vast majority are secular. And the IDF also has thousands of soldiers who are descended from Jews but who are themselves not halakhicly Jewish, and it also has tens of thousands of Druze and Christian soldiers and officers.
All IDF rabbis are Orthodox.