By, Daniel Sugarman
1 min read
ByDaniel Sugarman, Daniel Sugarman
Rabbi Colonel Eyal Karim, who has been nominated as the new Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Defence Forces, is under scrutiny for comments he made about rape during wartime.
In 2012, revelations emerged regarding comments Rabbi Karim had made almost a decade previously, prior to joining the IDF.
At that time, Rabbi Karim answered questions for an Ask the Rabbi column on the national-religious “Kipa” news site. In 2003, he answered a question about how the Torah could justify the rape of non-Jewish women during wartime by explaining the Torah’s reasoning – but failed to say that such a thing was completely forbidden in the modern era.
Rabbi Karim issued a clarification in 2012 regarding his comments, stating that “obviously, in our times, when the world has advanced to a level of morality in which one does not marry captives, one must not perform this act, which is also entirely against the army’s values and orders.”
However, the controversy has been reignited by the announcement that Rabbi Karim has been nominated for the IDF position. The IDF released a statement saying that Rabbi Karim “wishes to clarify that his words were only uttered in response to a theoretical hermeneutical question, certainly not to a practical halachic question.
“Rabbi Karim never wrote, said, or even thought that an IDF soldier is permitted to sexually harm a woman during wartime.”
The senior rabbis for the Masorti, Liberal and Reform movements in Britain have called for Rabbi Karim’s nomination to be “reversed immediately.”
In an open letter to IDF Chief of General Staff Gadi Eizenkot, the rabbis wrote that the remarks “have no place in modern society” and that appointing Rabbi Karim was “a dangerous and regrettable decision”.
Rabbis Jonathan Wittenberg, Laura Janner-Klausner, Alexandra Wright and Richard Jacobi added: “The impact of words so misguided and harmful cannot be washed away by the passing of time.
“As rabbinic leaders we fiercely refute the notion that any part of Jewish law has condoned the use of rape in wartime.
“Rabbi Karim was asked if IDF soldiers are allowed to commit rape during times of war. His answer should have been an unequivocal ‘no.’”