Avichai Rontzki

Avichai Rontzki ( born October 10, 1951 in Haifa, Israel ) is an Israeli general and since 2007 head of the Militärrabbinats the Israeli armed forces.

Life and work

He comes from a non-religious family and attended the Hebrew Reali School in Haifa, which is set up as a private school. In 1969, his military career began in the special unit Schajetet 13 However, he soon changed the unit and went to the command awareness Sajeret Shaked, with which he participated in the 1973 Yom Kippur War. In these seventies began his religious contemplation and he studied at the schools of Machon Meir and Mercaz HaRav.Weiterhin he worked as a social worker for street children in Jerusalem. In 1980 he participated in the construction of religious Talmudic studies in Elon Moreh. From 1984 he was involved in the founding of the settlement of Itamar, south of Nablus, the liegt.Dort he established a yeshiva and was speaker and rabbi of the town.

The acquired religious knowledge he puts in a four-volume writing down as a halacha - leader under the title Hitzim K'yad Gibor for the Israeli armed forces. Militarily, he continued to serve in the Army Reserve and was promoted to commander of the regional Samaria Brigade. When he assumed the position of Chief of the Militärrabinats in 2006, he strengthened it increased the influence of the rabbis in the military units and increased their numbers in a few years to the Vielfache.Vor especially at the level of battalion their number, where previously only a few Rabbi had. In the formation of the Jewish Awareness Department was expanded, the organized religious influence especially in the combat units of the IDF erhöhte.Er the establishment of Torah classes in prisons and led members of the Israeli intelligence to Hebron, where they with Rabbi Dov Lior met. These actions should primarily serve the views of the Israeli settlers in the soldiers verbreiten.Ein express his solidarity with the settlers, he also saw that a settler who was accused of the violation and murder of Palestinians, his imprisonment in the house spent by Rotzki. In October 2008, he addressed a letter to the management of the Militärrabinats, in which he demanded that Israeli soldiers are familiar with the Jewish roots and values ​​müssten.Er also attempted to bring to the Israeli army station Galei Tzahal to on the Sabbath adjust the transmit mode and only to fulfill the duty service, as the instructions for the army vorsahen.Er also acted more and more with the soldiers in active service in the infantry instead of in the office of the Hakirya.

Operation Cast Lead

During Operation Cast Lead he was both in the operational missions with the soldiers as well as in the hospitals with the wounded soldiers in the country. He created a font for the soldiers and the operational commanders of the operation on Torastudien for soldiers and officers, which contained the text of a font of Rabbi Shlomo Aviner. Rotzki also opposed the ministry of women in the military units, because that would be impractical and would violate the conditions of the struggle. He also recalled that only a few women wanted to serve the full military service as the male soldiers doubted. He also argued that a religious female officer would come into Militärrabbinat to meet the needs of religious soldiers, which has not been observed.

Critical voices

The left-most human rights group Yesh Din appealed to the Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak to replace Rotzki as Chief Rabbi for his role in Operation Cast Blei.Ophir Pines - Paz called for an immediate investigation into the activities of the Militärrabinats. He expressed his concern, saying that the Militärrabinat would exceed its powers only to offer religious services. The activities would cause the soldiers of the Israel Defense Forces saw themselves as religious representatives in an aggressive manner. The Militärrabinat would would bring in the religion of the soldiers through the back door and thus compromising the ability of the Israeli armed forces for their tasks.

This criticism turned against the core point of Rotzkis efforts to build on old religious traditions. He wants to introduce the establishment of a cohen meschuach milchama again. This person was an ancient Hebrew chaplain, who was in the fight with the soldiers on the battlefield and they called with religious fervor for battle. Especially the religious theories of Aviner, the Rontzki has been distributed to all the other Israeli soldiers during Operation Cast Lead, attracted the attention of many observers. These words reminded Aviners intensively on the brochure, the Rontzki at his taking office in 2006 under the title of your camp be holy and spread from the book of Deuteronomy ( 23:15) came from.