Bnei David Mechina

Bnei David Mechina (Hebrew: מכינה קדם-צבאית בני דוד, lit. 'Pre-Military Academy of the Sons of David'), also known as the Eli Mechina, is the first pre-military yeshiva academy or mechina founded by Israel. Established in 1988 by rabbis Eli Sadan and Yigal Levinstein, the institution is located in Eli, an Israeli settlement in the occupied West Bank, Palestine.[1][2]

The academy's stated goal is to prepare religious Zionist young men for full and significant service in the IDF,[3] particularly in combat units and officer roles. Bnei David has had a significant impact on the IDF, producing a high number of high-ranking officers and combat soldiers,[4] while also generating public controversy for the views of its leadership about LGBT people, women, and secular Israelis.[5][6][7]

History

Bnei David was founded in 1988 in the Israeli settlement of Eli. At the time of its founding, the training model for religious soldiers was the Hesder program, which combined abbreviated military service with yeshiva study. Founding rabbis Eli Sadan and Yigal Levinstein proposed a new model that would encourage religious soldiers to commit to a full, three-year (or longer) military service, aiming to produce a generation of religious officers who could influence and rise up to the IDF's high command.[8][9]

The academy is located in Eli, an Israeli settlement in central West Bank, north of Ramallah in Palestine. The mechina receives government funding from the Ministry of Education and, as a pre-army academy, is overseen by the Ministry of Defense.[5][7]

Eli was established in 1984 on land Israel expropriated from the Palestinian villages of As-Sawiya[10] and Qaryut.[11]

The ICJ and the international community considers Israeli settlements in the West Bank illegal under international law, as they violate the Fourth Geneva Convention's prohibition on an occupying power transferring its own civilian population into the territory it occupies.[12][13]

Impact of the IDF

Bnei David has been widely noted for its success in achieving its primary goal of producing graduates who move into key positions within the Israeli military. While religious Zionists made up only 2.5% of IDF graduate officer cadets of the infantry in 1990, that number had risen to over 40% by 2024, an increase attributed to the establishment of Bnei David and the mechina movement it founded.[2][14]

In 2012 alumni of the alumni were 4% of infantry recruits, but a disproportionate 25% of the graduates of the officers' track.[4]

Around half of alumni are officers.[6]

Controversies

The mechina and its leadership have been the center of a number controversies for teachings and statements made by its rabbis.

LGBT People

In 2016, co-founder Rabbi Yigal Levinstein, in a recorded lecture, called LGBT people "deviants" and "sick." [15] He stated that "this is a deviant group that has penetrated the army with all its might, and no one dares to open their mouth and speak against them". In a separate lecture, he referred to the gay community as a "disease" that needed to be "eliminated". The remarks drew widespread condemnation, including from then Defense Minister Avigdor Lieberman, who threatened to cut off the academy's state recognition and funding unless Levinstein resigned.[7][16][17]

Women

Both founders and other teachers have made derogatory public statements about women.[18]

In 2017, Rabbi Levinstein disparaged female IDF soldiers, claiming that military service "drives them crazy" and "makes them not Jewish." He further stated, "they become non-Jews" at the end of their IDF service and that "their entire value system is confused."[5][19][20]

Jewish Supremacy

In 2019, Rabbi Eliezer Kashtiel endorsed racism, claiming that non-Jews (gentiles) are "genetically inferior" to Jews, and "We adhere to the theory of racial superiority".[21] He stated that "Gentiles will want to be our slaves. Being a slave to a Jew is the best... They are stupid".[15] In his own defence, Kashtiel claimed that he had been advocating “social responsibility and caring for the weak”.[15]

Rabbi Giora Redler praised Adolf Hitler as “the most correct person there ever was”. “Let’s just start with whether Hitler was right or not,” he told students. “He was the most correct person there ever was, and was correct in every word he said… he was just on the wrong side.”[15][22]

Rabbi Sadan has opposed the withdrawal from Gaza in 2005,[23] compared the 2014 Gaza War to the biblical Samson's battle with the Philistines, which ended in mass killing, rhetoric the article described as implying annihilation.[8][24] In 2024 supported a scorched-earth strategy and forcing the Gazans “to emigrate willingly”.[25]

Secular Jews

Mechina co-founder Rabbi Eli Sadan referred to secularism as a "brain disease" and claimed that the secular judiciary and media were more dangerous to Israel than Hezbollah or Hamas.[26]

Rabbi Giora Redler taught his students that the real genocide against the Jewish people was not the one perpetrated by the Nazis, but rather by “humanism, and the secular culture”.[22]

Alumni

There are some notable alumni of the Bnei David Mechina:

Those alumni who have been killed in combat include: Emmanuel Moreno, Roi Klein, Eliraz Peretz, Hadar Goldin.[29][15]

References

  1. ^ "Bnei David Mechina: Leadership Through Torah". One Israel Fund: Israel Charity Supporting Judea and Samaria. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  2. ^ a b Magid, Jacob (2018-05-02). "Officers and gentlemen? Religious Zionist flagship academy comes under scrutiny". The Times of Israel. ISSN 0040-7909. Archived from the original on 2025-10-06. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  3. ^ "Mechina Bnei David – MATANEL". Matanel Foundation. Retrieved 2025-12-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  4. ^ a b Lebel, Udi (2015-07-03). "Settling the Military: the pre-military academies revolution and the creation of a new security epistemic community – The Militarization of Judea and Samaria". Israel Affairs. 21 (3): 361–390. doi:10.1080/13537121.2015.1036556. ISSN 1353-7121.
  5. ^ a b c "Coalition tensions flare over rabbi who disparaged women in the IDF". The Jerusalem Post. 2017-03-17. ISSN 0792-822X. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  6. ^ a b "Examining the DNA of the Bnei David 'mechina' in Eli". The Jerusalem Post. 2024-11-24. ISSN 0792-822X. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  7. ^ a b c Sharon, Jeremy (2016-07-20). "Analysis: What's next for Rabbi Levenstein and his academy?". The Jerusalem Post. Archived from the original on 2025-01-19. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  8. ^ a b Shani, Ayelett. "For Religious Zionists, Israeli-Palestinian conflict is holy war, scholar says". Haaretz.com. Archived from the original on 2022-10-05. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  9. ^ "Who is Rabbi Eli Sadan?". The Jerusalem Post. 2016-05-05. ISSN 0792-822X. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  10. ^ "As Sawiya village profile" (PDF). ARIJ. pp. 16–17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2017-10-25. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  11. ^ "Qaryut Village Profile" (PDF). ARIJ. p. 17. Archived from the original (PDF) on 2016-03-04. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  12. ^ "Chapter 3: Israeli Settlements and International Law". Amnesty International. 2019-01-30. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  13. ^ "The Geneva Convention". BBC News. 2009-12-10. Retrieved 2025-12-20.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  14. ^ Beaumont, Peter; Kierszenbaum, Quique (2024-07-18). "National religious recruits challenge values of IDF once dominated by secular elite". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  15. ^ a b c d e "i24NEWS". www.i24news.tv. Retrieved 2025-12-20.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  16. ^ Ettinger, Yair; Cohen, Gili (July 21, 2016). "Defense Ministry Summons Anti-gay Rabbi Who Criticized Israeli Army". Haaretz.{{cite news}}: CS1 maint: deprecated archival service (link)
  17. ^ Staff, ToI (2016-07-21). "Defense ministry summons military academy rabbi over anti-gay slurs". The Times of Israel. ISSN 0040-7909. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  18. ^ "Bnei David's real message". The Jerusalem Post. 2018-02-18. ISSN 0792-822X. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  19. ^ "Avigdor Liberman demands controversial rabbi resign from pre-military academy or face defunding". The Jerusalem Post. 2017-03-15. ISSN 0792-822X. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  20. ^ Pileggi, Tamar (2017-03-07). "Homophobic rabbi who mentors soldiers says IDF turns women 'crazy'". The Times of Israel. ISSN 0040-7909. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  21. ^ Sabra, Ali (2024). THE VIOLENCE OF RELIGIOUS POPULISM IN ISRAEL. Uppsala, Sweden: Uppsala University. p. 29.
  22. ^ a b Pileggi, Tamar (2019-04-30). "Embracing racism, rabbis at pre-army yeshiva laud Hitler, urge enslaving Arabs". The Times of Israel. ISSN 0040-7909. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  23. ^ Levy, Yagil (2024-10-18). "A nationalist religious group has swelled the ranks of Israel's military". The Forward. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  24. ^ Roth-Rowland, Natasha (2020-01-02). "How one hilltop became an incubator for Israeli settler violence". +972 Magazine. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  25. ^ "Some religious-Zionists see Gaza as a holy war". The Jerusalem Post. 2024-03-15. ISSN 0792-822X. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  26. ^ כץ, יורם (2025-10-25). "Caution, the State of Halacha is ahead of you! • Chapter 2 • Introduction to Messianism // Opinion Column - Hai Pooh - Haifa and the Surrounding Area News Corporation". חי פֹּה - תאגיד החדשות של חיפה והסביבה. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  27. ^ "In Israel's army, more officers are now religious. What that means". Christian Science Monitor. ISSN 0882-7729. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  28. ^ "Vach's private army: The growing gap between the IDF and rogue commanders | Editorial". Haaretz.com. Jan 2, 2025. Archived from the original on 2025-02-14. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
  29. ^ Nahshoni, Kobi (2010-05-07). "מכינת "בני דוד" בעלי – הדור הבא" ["Bnei David" Preparatory School – The Next Generation]. ynet (in Hebrew). Archived from the original on 2021-06-23. Retrieved 2025-12-20.
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