US Army Chaplain Helps Troops Celebrate Rosh Hashanah
Chaplain (Maj) Andrew Shulman recently celebrated Rosh Hashanah with US Army troops in Vicenza, Italy:
Celebrating religious events — exercising religious liberty — is Read more
Tag Archives: rosh hashana
Military Religious Freedom in the Arctic
A fascinating story at the Boston Globe recalls the steps taken to ensure the religious freedom of deployed US Sailors — in 1956:
Elihu Schimmel…was responsible for the medical care of men on dozens of ships. Often he had to be transported — by helicopter, by launch, by seaplane — from the Lindenwald to another vessel to see a patient.
But with Rosh Hashana (the Jewish New Year) and Yom Kippur (the Day of Atonement) just around the corner, Schimmel was wondering whether a few men could be moved in the other direction. Specifically, a few Jewish men: enough to assemble a minyan, a quorum of 10, so that services could be held on the most sacred days of the Jewish year.
Schimmel figured he had nothing to lose by asking — and both Read more
Chaplain Trains for Combat
US military chaplains aren’t just sitting in offices or behind lecterns. And when their units train for combat, they go with them, because they, too, need to exercise how they will operate in the combat environment:
Allied Spirit is a series of combat exercises centered on battlefield realism and international cooperation. But the authentic nature of the U.S. Army Europe training isn’t confined to combat arms personnel…
Too often, the role of chaplains Read more
US Military Celebrates Jewish High Holy Days in Afghanistan
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
US Military Jews Celebrate High Holy Days in Afghanistan
The Jewish Daily Forward notes that Jewish American military members are able to celebrate their religious holidays even while deployed to a combat zone — in a country with an official Islamic constitution, no less.
Rabbi Jacob Goldstein will lead Yom Kippur services this year dressed not in the black fedora of his Lubavitch Hasidic sect, but in full battle gear at a Combat Operating Base in eastern Afghanistan. Read more