Learn
more about our chaplains in the field. Each month, we
will feature a different chaplain serving our Jewish men and
women in the U.S. Armed Forces.
Rabbi Harold L. Robinson
director, JWB Jewish Chaplains Council
212-786-5119 send an e-mail
Rabbi Barry R. Baron
deputy director, JWB Jewish Chaplains Council
212-786-5137 send an e-mail
Torahs for Our Troops
There are more than 10,000 Jewish Americans serving on active duty in the United States military right now.
To help our fellow Jews observe Shabbat and Jewish holidays, to bring them comfort and community, Jewish military chaplains are assigned to visit them aboard ships and in the field. These chaplains have asked JWB Jewish Chaplains Council to provide them with small, lightweight but fully kosher Torah scrolls to accompany them from site to site, as they move around ships and the combat theater. JWB has commissioned the writing of six Torah scrolls to ensure that our troops have access to a Torah when a chaplain visits them.
For Jews, writing or helping to write a Torah is an important mitzvah. JWB is giving people the opportunity to fulfill this religious obligation by contributing toward the completion of these new Torahs, as well as a way to thank those men and women who serve in the armed forces. “This is a project that we hope will be supported by the entire Jewish community across the spectrum of Jewish life in America,” said Noreen Gordon Sablotsky, chair of the JCC Association Committee on Services to Jewish Military Personnel.
At the JCC Association board meeting in September, Chairman Alan Solow inscribed the very first letter of the first Torah to be written. Participants at the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America in Washington, D.C. as well as the Union for Reform Judaism Biennial had an opportunity to inscribe letters, words, etc. The Torah is scheduled to appear at the 2010 JCCs of North America Biennial in Atlanta, and the Conservative Movement conventions, as well as other national gatherings.
For more information about this critical project, or if you would like to arrange for the Torah to come to your community please contact Ziva Davidovich at zivad@jcca.orgor 212.786.5099. Donations can be made online or sent to JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, 520 Eighth Avenue, New York, NY 10018
Who will bring God to the troops and the troops to God? That
is the role of a military chaplain, especially during wartime.
Noncombatants, chaplains enter the service as officers, usually
first lieutenants. They are trained to respond to a variety
of situations and serve all over the world, ministering to
a diverse group of people. Being a rabbi in the U.S.
Armed Forces is one of the most interesting and stimulating
ministries imaginable. “My years as a chaplain in the
U.S. Navy and Marine Corps at the start of the Vietnam War
were foundational to the fulfillment I derived throughout
my rabbinate,” said Rabbi William Lebeau of the Jewish
Theological Seminary.
The
JWB Jewish Chaplains Council is a living example of the richness
and vitality of Jewish pluralism. It brings together the various
streams of religious Jewry, while respecting their diversity.
The overall record of co-operation between all Jewish Chaplains
in strengthening the identity of all Jews they serve, regardless
of orientation, is one of the Council's proudest achievements.
The
Council energetically recruits rabbis through visits to various
seminaries, attendance at rabbinical conferences, and notices
in professional newsletters. Follow-up support is provided
through a continuing pastoral relationship with rabbis in
the field.
The
military Jewish chaplaincy offers a unique challenge to the
young rabbi who aspires to serve "K'lal Yisrael"
in a special environment: the Armed Forces of the United States.
Jews who volunteer for the military represent the entire spectrum
of Jewish identity, from the most assimilated to the most
traditionally observant. Since they often find themselves
isolated from contact with Jewish communities because of the
global mission of the service of which they are a part, the
presence of a rabbi in uniform can make all the difference
between their developing patterns of personal Jewish commitment
or the abandonment of their heritage.
For more information, contact Rabbi Harold L. Robinson, director,
JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, 212-786-5119 or send
an e-mail
