On the holiday of Simchat Torah, a religious female soldier was called up to the Torah for an aliyah at a minyan on a naval base.
The minyan is made up of both soldiers from the base as well as residents from the surrounding area.
The gabbai, a local civilian resident asked the female soldier if she wanted to be called up for an aliyah, considering the minhag on Simchat Torah that every person gets an aliyah. The soldier agreed and was called up. Other religious soldiers present, hesder yeshiva soldiers, decided to not make a big deal out of it in order to not embarrass her and they did not walk out. The rationale was that she had already been called up, rather than it being a discussion of should they call her up, and being that it is not a regular aliyah but a customary aliyah of simchat torah that is not necessary anyway, they decided to not protest on the spot.
The rav of the base was not present at the time.
The army's response was that after the incident they clarified what happened and have sharpened the procedures of the base for the future...
(source: Kipa)
I am shocked by this. Both by the calling of a female soldier in a regular minyan, and by the soldiers who stayed in and did not register a protest. I have no problem with womens minyanim, and women at such minyanim get called up to the Torah, turning an Orthodox regular minyan into an egalitarian minyan is improper and should have demanded the protest. It is not like womens singing where the prohibition is not clear and disputed and there are ways to avoid the problem (not listen, sing along quietly, ignore, rely on various leniencies, etc). Turning an orthodox minyan into an egalitarian one, even if the aliyahs on simchat torah are just based on custom, is not something that should be let slide.
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