Rabbi Michael Gisser officially became a Chaplain in the US Army Reserve on Veteran’s Day. Why Veteran’s Day?
“I wouldn’t be here if not for the U.S. Army and the Allied forces,” said Gisser, the associate chaplain for Jewish life at Wake Forest University…
His father, a native of Lodz, Poland, was a prisoner in Read more
The Jewish publication JTA documents the story of Joshua Knobel, a former Army officer now completing training to become a Rabbi — and maybe an Army Chaplain.
When West Point’s Jewish chaplain left the academy during Joshua Knobel’s freshman year, Knobel filled in for him, running Jewish prayer services at the military school’s chapel.
In the years following his 2001 graduation, Knobel led services Read more
Senior Airman John Harris is a Messianic Jew who was deployed to the Middle East, but he still wanted to celebrate Sukkot. With the help of the deployed chaplains, including a Rabbi at a completely different base, he was able to get the support he needed.
“I spoke with the Chapel staff here and they put me in contact with a rabbi at (Joint Base Balad),” said Harris…
“It has been an unexpected joy for me to be able to Read more
Michael Weinstein recently highlighted an article by ally Bruce Wilson entitled “Rick Perry Event Pastor Predicts Coming “Prison Camps” For Jews.” Weinstein prefaced it with (emphasis original)
This is the level of religious fundamentalism that threatens our country’s future, and I will NEVER stop fighting it!
The tone was somewhat unusual, given the topic had nothing to do with the military, which is Weinstein’s self-proclaimed forte. In fact, there’s no public connection to the MRFF at all, save the personal association between the author and Weinstein’s group. Weinstein’s critical sensationalism on the topic was a display of rank hypocrisy as well, for Weinstein has similarly predicted a dire future for Jews at the hands of American Christians:
In Plan A, evangelical Christians with a smile on their face will ask you to please, please, please accept their biblical worldview of Jesus. The problem with that is, inevitably, Plan A morphs into Plan B. They stop asking so nicely, and then you have the Holocaust, the pogroms, the Inquisition… Read more
The Council of American-Islamic Relations (CAIR) has said US Army JROTC uniform policies are discriminatory after Demin Zawity, a freshman at Ravenwood High School in Brentwood, TN, was told she could not wear her Islamic headscarf while in the Army uniform.
There’s no reason for them to have a policy that excludes people such as Zawity, said Gadeir Abbas, a CAIR staff attorney. It paves the way to encourage all faiths to participate, he added.
While noble-sounding, Abbas’ statement was ignorant. JROTC programs are designed to be nearly identical to their ROTC and operational military equivalents — including following generally the same uniform rules. In this case, the JROTC rule accurately reflects US military policy (to which there have been some notable exceptions).
Abbas also made a misleading and potentially incendiary statement: Read more
As noted last week, Arlington National Cemetery’s Jewish Chaplains’ Memorial was added to Chaplains’ Hill and dedicated yesterday. Despite the claims of some military atheists, speakers at the event noted there are chaplains on the front lines of America’s battles, serving the troops who serve their country:
“The 14 men we honor today were rabbis in uniform,” said Maj. Gen. Cecil Richardson, the Air Force chief of chaplains. “These men did much more than preach sermons. … They walked where warriors walked, and that is what made them military chaplains. Read more
The Jewish Chaplains Memorial that will join the others at Chaplain’s Hill in Arlington will be dedicated in a ceremony next Monday, 24 October.
The memorial is a bronze plaque with the names of the 14 Jewish Chaplains who died while on duty from 1943 to 1974; at the top are two lions bracketing the Jewish chaplains’ insignia, which is two tablets with a Star of David on top.
As a point of trivia, none of the chaplains memorialized Read more
A military news release notes the celebration of the Jewish High Holy days by US servicemembers at Camp Leatherneck, Afghanistan. As previously noted, four Jewish Chaplains have fanned out across Afghanistan to ensure the right to free exercise of military servicemembers even while they are deployed to a combat area in response to their country’s call.
The ongoing celebrations recognize the period between Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, and Jewish servicemembers can even celebrate by erecting traditional (if somewhat modernized) Jewish Sukkahs. Given the locale, the religious exercise of Read more