{"id":33271,"date":"2015-08-11T00:30:27","date_gmt":"2015-08-11T03:30:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/?p=33271"},"modified":"2016-11-24T22:51:11","modified_gmt":"2016-11-25T01:51:11","slug":"rabbi-elie-estrin-commissioned-as-air-forces-only-bearded-chaplain","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/2015\/08\/11\/rabbi-elie-estrin-commissioned-as-air-forces-only-bearded-chaplain\/","title":{"rendered":"Rabbi Elie Estrin Commissioned as Air Force&#8217;s Only Bearded Chaplain"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\" aligncenter\" src=\"http:\/\/www.christianfighterpilot.com\/images\/estrin.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"361\" height=\"307\" \/>Rabbi Elie Estrin (previously <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2014\/09\/25\/us-air-force-enlists-first-bearded-rabbi\/\">discussed here<\/a>) recently <a href=\"http:\/\/www.jpost.com\/Diaspora\/Chabad-Rabbi-becomes-first-bearded-officer-in-US-Air-Force-411102\">graduated from Officer Training School<\/a>, officially making him an officer in the Air Force Reserve &#8212; and the Air Force&#8217;s only chaplain wearing a beard:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>During the five week Commissioned Officer Training Course, Rabbi Estrin ate Kosher MRE\u2019s (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\u2019av, a day which commemorates the destruction of the second temple in Jerusalem.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>(Chaplain Menachem Stern currently <a href=\"http:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/2011\/12\/12\/newest-jewish-chaplain-sports-beard\/\">serves in the US Army<\/a> with a beard.)<\/p>\n<p>Religious beards mark one <!--more-->of the most visible signs of religious accommodation in the US military &#8212; and, by extension, one of the most visible symbols of <em>religion<\/em> in the military. The visible and outward expression of faith may be why some oppose the military allowing religious exceptions to uniform standards.\u00a0 For now, Chaplain (Capt) Estrin&#8217;s service is unique, though perhaps one day Sikhs, too, will be able to serve without surrendering the articles of their faith.<\/p>\n<p>An Army chaplain responded hopefully to Estrin&#8217;s announcement:<\/p>\n<blockquote><p>Soon it won&#8217;t be a novelty anymore. At least not until the first female chaplain with a beard wants to join.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<p>Touch\u00e9.<\/p>\n<div class=\"fb-like\" data-share=\"true\" data-show-faces=\"true\" data-size=\"small\" data-action=\"like\" data-layout=\"standard\"><\/div>\n<p><span style=\"font-size: xx-small;\"><strong>ADVERTISEMENT<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n<p><script async src=\"\/\/pagead2.googlesyndication.com\/pagead\/js\/adsbygoogle.js\"><\/script><!-- blogpost --><ins class=\"adsbygoogle\" style=\"display: block;\" data-ad-format=\"auto\" data-ad-slot=\"2728423835\" data-ad-client=\"ca-pub-6450825356098669\"><\/ins><script>\n(adsbygoogle = window.adsbygoogle || []).push({});<\/script><\/p>\n<hr \/>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Rabbi Elie Estrin (previously discussed here) recently graduated from Officer Training School, officially making him an officer in the Air Force Reserve &#8212; and the Air Force&#8217;s only chaplain wearing a beard: During the five week Commissioned Officer Training Course, Rabbi Estrin ate Kosher MRE\u2019s (ready-to-eat meals) and said that staff were fantastic about facilitating his required accommodations, some of [&#8230;]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":33299,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[134,1266,912,5284,4892,39,911,2,2134,2943,17,10,171,59],"class_list":["post-33271","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-government-and-religion","tag-air-force","tag-beard","tag-chabad-lubavitch","tag-chaplain","tag-elie-estrin","tag-jewish","tag-menachem-stern","tag-military","tag-mre","tag-ots","tag-religious-expression","tag-religion","tag-religious-freedom","tag-sikh"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33271","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=33271"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/33271\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/33299"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=33271"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=33271"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/christianfighterpilot.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=33271"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}