Tag Archives: chabad lubavitch

Rabbi Elie Estrin Commissioned as Air Force’s Only Bearded Chaplain

Rabbi Elie Estrin (previously discussed here) recently graduated from Officer Training School, officially making him an officer in the Air Force Reserve — and the Air Force’s only chaplain wearing a beard:

During the five week Commissioned Officer Training Course, Rabbi Estrin ate Kosher MRE’s (ready-to-eat meals) and said that staff were fantastic about facilitating his required accommodations, some of which included his adherence to Shabbat and the 25 hour fast of Tisha Be’av, a day which commemorates the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem.

(Chaplain Menachem Stern currently serves in the US Army with a beard.)

Religious beards mark one Read more

Chaplains, Soldiers, Politicians Gather for Sabbath Retreat

The Aleph Institute sponsored its 5th Annual Military Sabbath Retreat and Training Course in Miami, Florida in February.

Billed as an opportunity “to decompress and be strengthened,” in the words of Rabbi Sanford Dresin, the retreat has become a central event for the Aleph Institute, a Chabad-Lubavitch organization that provides for the physical and spiritual needs of Jewish soldiers and prisoners at home and abroad.

Guests included House Speaker John Boehner, recently retired US Army Chief of Chaplains (MajGen) Douglas Carver, and MajGen Jeffrey Jacobs, the PsyOps center Read more

Conflict Between Belief, Regs Prevents Jewish Chaplain

The Wall Street Journal picks up on a story covered here previously:  Rabbi Menachem Stern has been trying to become a US military Chaplain, but is currently unable because he wears a beard as a tenet of his faith.

The 28-year-old rabbi was notified last year that he had been accepted as a chaplain in the Army Reserve. Almost immediately, Army officials contacted him to say the acceptance was a clerical mistake, and that unless he was willing to shave his beard, he couldn’t join.  As a Chabad Lubavitch rabbi, Mr. Stern refused, saying the beard is a tenet of his faith.

Stern is obviously aware of the Army’s previous exceptions allowed, including Chaplain (Col) Jacob Goldstein, who was grandfathered, and Read more