'Religious' pilot brings Reform Movement to IAF

'Religious' pilot brings Reform Movement to IAF
By MEGAN JACOBS

Only one member of the Israel Air Force's Wing Order 155 graduating
class is "religious" - and 22-year-old Lt. Amitai does not fit the image
of the typical Orthodox Israeli.
"Following his own strand of Judaism, which seeks a "spiritual
experience," he tried not to just "let the holidays fly by," but instead
make them special and give them meaning. Celebrating and understanding
traditions, he said, were more important than prayer.
Amitai is the son of an American mother and a Polish-born father who
"met in Israel, married in New York and made aliya practically the next
day." His father served in the IDF in an antiaircraft unit.
Amitai grew up in a Reform home in Jerusalem. Before enlisting, he
studied for a year in the Reform Movement's Machinah Leadership Program
in Jaffa. The program incorporates volunteering with religious and
nonreligious study, together with some military preparatory work. It
includes the study of Jewish texts to learn how one might deal with
moral dilemmas that may arise.
"The idea is to learn a lot and mature a lot," Amitai said. Though the
IDF does not directly offer the courses, he said, it grants permission
for those who are accepted into such courses, because statistically,
"many officers and combat units come out of them."
I'm a conservative, religious Reform Jew," he said. "I'm observant in my
own way, trying to understand Halacha, make it more modern and relevant
for me."
Surrounded by nonreligious soldiers, most of whom were not familiar with
the Reform Movement, Amitai found that "they liked it when a little
Judaism came in."
Amitai has not found it difficult to blend his form of religiosity with
his military service.
"It's a Jewish army, and I joined the army because of my Jewish values,"
he said. "My religion enriches, not restricts, my life."
Amitai, who is not a Shabbat observer by Orthodox standards, is not
fazed by the prospect of flying or participating in missions on Shabbat.
A militaristic sense of discipline even plays a role in his Judaism.
"I decided seven years ago, as a philosophical decision, to do something
hard that I don't understand," he said about keeping kosher. "It's
always a dilemma of how much freedom I allow myself."
Amitai said his sense of discipline and Jewish appreciation of
scholarship carried him through the grueling three-year course involving
ground- and air-combat training to become a navigator in an elite IAF
unit, while simultaneously obtaining a degree in political science from
Ben-Gurion University of the Negev.
"My moral values, who I am, these are things that are not necessarily
connected to being Jewish," he said. "But like it or not, I am Jewish,
and I use the richness of Judaism to deepen and enrich those morals."
"Most people don't know Reform, and it's been interesting to meet people
who are very religious or not in the army and challenge their values and
mine," Amitai said. "Hopefully, they know it better after they know me."