Women of Valor: The Garin Program and the Israel Defense Forces

Mediating mechanisms between the Religious-Zionist (or "national-religious") sector of Israeli society and the Israel Defense Forces (IDF) have been discussed in scholarly publications. The focus of this essay is Jewish female soldiers from this social segment who choose to be drafted through the garin program conducted in three midrashot. The program combines traditional Jewish religious study in midrashot, women's study academies (batei midrash) with full military service, usually in the IDF's education corps. The garin program and the midrashot they originate from serve as mediating structures, assisting students during their military service. This essay describes the garin program. It also discusses why young religious women opt to join the IDF through such a program and what advantages this course of service offers to both recruits and the IDF. In its conclusion, the article notes that the garin program may be indicative of two phenomena worth further investigation: 1) the IDF as still embodying the consociational form that was once more evident in Israeli politics and 2) the growing "civilization" of the IDF rather than militarization of Israeli society.