Military Rabbinate

Military Rabbinate
Active	1948
Country	Israel
Allegiance	Israeli Defense Force
Type	Religious services
Commanders
Current commander	Brigadier General   Eyal Karim
Notable commanders	Rabbi Shlomo Goren

The Military Rabbinate (Hebrew: חיל הרבנות הצבאית, Heil HaRabanut HaTzvait) is a corps in the Israel Defense Forces that provides religious services to soldiers, primarily to Jews but also including non-Jews, and makes decisions on issues of religion and military affairs. The Military Rabbinate is headed by the Chief Military Rabbi, who is ranked a Brigadier General. The current Chief Military Rabbi is Eyal Karim.

The Military Rabbinate constitutes the body responsible for religious institutions in the military. In every unit or military base there are Military Rabbinate soldiers assigned responsibility for assuring religious services, and in particular, the Kashrut of the kitchen and the maintenance of the synagogue and its inventory. Actively serving soldiers can request from the Rabbinate representatives to perform marriage ceremonies as well as the brit mila.

The Military Rabbinate is responsible for treating the bodies of soldiers from the Halakha standpoint, including the identification and post-mortem treatment of bodies, and conducting military funerals. In the past decade, the use of Integrated Automated Fingerprint Identification System was implemented, setting the IDF at the cutting edge of fingerprint identification technology. The Military Rabbinate also attends to the burial of enemy soldiers and the exhuming in conjunction with prisoner exchanges. Prior to the establishment of ZAKA, it was also responsible for treating the victims of suicide attacks. More recently, it was placed in charge of dismantling of the cemetery in Gush Katif during the Gaza disengagement plan.

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