Col. Anat Hershkovitz - the first woman to command the 'Hoshen' center

(lives here with the IDF) - Col. Anat Hershkovitz from Kiryat Ata received a rank from the Chief of Staff and will be the first IDA to command the Hoshan Center.

A rank acceptance ceremony led by the Chief of Staff took place yesterday (Monday 13/2/23) in which a rank was awarded to Col. Anat Hershkovitz. Anat was promoted from the rank of lieutenant colonel to the rank of colonel and will be appointed in the coming weeks to the position of commander of the Hoshan Center as the first woman in the position.

The 'Hoshen' center is the network and communications unit of the IDF, under the Lotem unit in the ICT and Defense Division of the SVR (network environment). Hoshen is a technological operational unit which forms the backbone of the establishment of the digital space and enables the establishment of an operational digital infrastructure.

Changed course

Anat was born and raised in Kiryat Ata, she was the captain of the Israeli volleyball team before being drafted, and because of this she was recruited on the basis of an 'outstanding athlete' for an office position. After several months in the position, she realized that she wanted to change her course in order to contribute more. This is how she arrived at a dedicated track to become an operational officer in the combat axis of the ICT Corps. Among her varied positions, she served as the 143rd division commander, the commander of the Itanim battalion in the Hoshan unit, the 210th division's ICT chief - when she was the first regular division ICT chief - and an operations reviewer in the cyber defense and ICT division.

Anat performed her role over the years with excellence and dedication, and will now be the eighth lieutenant in the IT and cyber defense division.

In her speech she told about her unique path:

"I grew up in Kiryat Ata as a volleyball athlete. When I was drafted into the IDF, I was the captain of the Israeli volleyball team, and my future in the field was still ahead of me. On the day of the recruitment, I was assigned a position that would allow me to continue playing professional volleyball as an outstanding athlete. I was assigned as a clerk in the Department of Rehabilitation of the Disabled of the Ministry of Defense in Haifa. In my role, I was in charge of sorting the victims' claims. Every day I would come to the office, and be required to open the envelopes (then there were no emails yet...) containing the victims' letters detailing the severity of their injuries. My task was to classify them according to the type of injury. From letter to letter, the need burned in me to understand what this strange madness is that causes those people to sacrifice their souls and bodies for it. The road from there to changing the placement was short, I was a curious girl who decided to go out and investigate the issue. One clear day, with a bag on my back, in a one-sided move - I informed my parents and the volleyball team that I was going to be an officer in the IDF and that later I would invite them to a ceremony. At that time I still had no idea what ceremony it was. From there, the rest is history."