At the start of this month, November 2022, the IDF’s first female paratrooper, Yocheved Kashi died at the age of 93. Kashi was the first woman to pass the IDF’s paratroopers’ course.
Yocheved’s parents moved from Russia to Iran and settled in the city of Mashad, where their daughter was born. In 1932, when she was three years old, the family moved to Eretz Yisrael and settled in Tel Aviv.
In 1946, Yocheved joined the Haganah, took part in the defense of Hatikva neighborhood and fought in the War of Independence. In May 1948, she joined the Women’s Brigade of the IDF and served as a training instructor for the unit. In 1949, she completed an officer’s course and moved to the south of Israel. A year later, Yocheved was transferred to the army’s parachutist school on the Tel Nof base where she commanded the Parachute Folding unit.
Keen to advance in her military career, Yocheved Kashi made a formal request to take part in the parachutist course but was rejected based on her gender. The commander of the Women’s Brigade at the time, Shoshana Werner told Kashi that parachuting was a man’s career, wasn’t suitable for women, and refused to give her approval.
The medical officer of the Paratroopers Unit even claimed that parachuting could be harmful to a woman’s body and affect her chances of falling pregnant and giving birth.
By persevering and giving examples of other countries with female paratroopers such as the US, never mind the existence of brave predecessors such as Hannah Senesh, Kashi managed to convince Yehuda Harari, commander of the parachutist school, to seek permission for her to take part in the course.
Harari finally got permission from the higher military echelons with one condition – that Kashi would not be the only woman to take part in the course. Another soldier with excellent qualities, Menucha Fidel from Moshav Chugla, volunteered to join the course with Kashi. Both women passed with flying colors, including five jumps which earned them the ‘parachutist insignia’.
They also took part in the paratrooper demonstration at the Ramat Gan stadium during the closing ceremony of the third Maccabiah Games. Kashi continued jumping until she completed the required 12 jumps to earn her the ‘parachutist wings’.
Yocheved Kashi remained in the military until 1952 until her discharge at the rank of second lieutenant.
After she left the army, Yocheved married the artist, Zvi Milstein. Despite the dire warnings, she also managed to give birth to their son, Uri! The couple moved to France after Milstein was offered a scholarship to study in the country. He died in 2020, and Yocheved Kashi passed away at a nursing home in Normandy on November 3rd.
In recent weeks, it was announced that the IDF is to deploy an all-female tank crew after a two-year trial was deemed a success. Women like Yocheved Kashi and Alice Miller (who opened the way for the first female pilots in the IAF) are considered true pioneers of women’s rights in the IDF and Israeli society in general, and many female recruiters aspire to walk their paths.
Today, soldiers visit the Women of Valor Center in Nitzanim, considered an important site for identifying with female soldiers. The center is under the umbrella of the Society for the Preservation of Israel Heritage Sites (SPIHS), a JNF-USA affiliate, and tells of the heroic deeds of Mira Ben-Ari and other female fighters at Kibbutz Nitzanim during the War of Independence.
