As you surely remember, right before Israel went into Gaza, Vinter wrote a letter to his troops. Vinter wears his faith on his sleeve, and his letter was laced with words of faith - fighting for God, saying the shema before battle, etc. Since then Vinter has spoken publicly about the clouds of glory protecting them, the soldiers in battle all wanting people to learn and pray for them, etc.
Now, on Vinter's instructions, a planned performance of performer Sarit Hadad has been changed. Instead of Sarit Hadad, Moshe Peretz will be performing.
The reason for the change, a last-minute change that will cost the army a bit of money, is because Vinter said he will not allow a woman to perform before his religious soldiers. If Hadad would perform, out of the 500 soldiers of the unit the performance would be for, hundreds are religious and at least many of them would likely feel uncomfortable.
Sarit Hadad's performance would have been free, as she volunteers and donates her performances for soldiers. Moshe Peretz, the replacement, is also volunteering and donating his performance, but the change induced associated logistical changes that incur costs.
sources:ynet and srugim
Obviously a solution needs to be found to the problem of religious soldiers on one hand and the issue of women - soldiers, performers, and other relevant positions - on the other. I am in favor of Vinter's decision. When they book a performance they should take into account the audience. If it is a group of religious soldiers, the performance for their benefit should be on that is to their liking and sensibilities. And if you want more religious people to join and integrate into the army, some flexibility on this will be required.
I especially like that Vinter took care of this in advance and we did not end up with another situation in which the show goes on as planned and soldiers are either uncomfortable or walk out in the middle.
Updated: Even worse, I just read in Yisrael Hayom that the entire story is a fabrication just to "come down" on the religious commander Vinter. Hadad ws not booked and then changed because of Vinter opposing a female performer. It turns out, if the Israel Hayom report is true, Vinter was offered a choice for a performance. He brought the two options to his soldiers nearby to see what they prefer. When they chose Peretz over Hadad, that is what Vinter authorized. Nothing to do with women, nothing to do with religion. Just a preference of his soldiers regarding which performer they preferred. Another point in the report is that Vinter asked about the possibility of a double performance - one by Peretz and another by Hadad, so all soldiers can chose which they preferred to participate in, but the idea fell through for technical reasons.
If true, Vinter is just being picked on for anti-religious reasons. Vinter is a big boy and seems to be able to handle it very well. That doesn't make it alright though. Stop turning everything into a religious war, and my above comments still hold true. If there are so many religious soldiers in his unit, and if that was the reason, why ram a performance they dont really want down their throats - get a performer that they prefer, that they can enjoy, and that won't bother them form a religious perspective!
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