Director of JWB Jewish Chaplains Council
Honored as He Retires from U.S. Navy
New York, NY, October 24, 2007 – After
more than thirty-six years as a naval chaplain, Harold L.
Robinson, the head of the JCC Association’s JWB Jewish
Chaplains Council, received official honors at a ceremony
marking his retirement from the U.S. Navy last month.
Rabbi Robinson, who reached the highest grade
of service possible in the navy for a reserve component member
of the Chaplains Corps, that of Rear Admiral, was lauded with
an 11-gun salute; the lowering of his personal flag; a pass-in-review
by the troops; and inspection of the troops, which included
those from both the Navy and Marine Corps, during the festivities
on Tuesday, September 25 at the U.S. Navy Yard in Washington,
D.C. Flanked by his family – wife, Miriam Gariani, and
the couple’s two grown children, Yair and Dori –
Rabbi Robinson heard his long career praised in remarks by
Rear Adm. Edward Masso and Lt. General Jack Bergman. Afterward,
Masso, the commander of the naval personnel command, presented
Rabbi Robinson with the Distinguished Service Medal, the Navy’s
highest decoration outside of heroism in armed combat, and
ranking just below the Medal of Honor and the Navy Cross.
The medal was “both thrilling and surprising,”
said Rabbi Robinson, who noted that having reached the mandatory
retirement age of 60, he was the last of his generation of
Jewish chaplains, what he called “Vietnam-era rabbis,”
to leave the armed services. “My retirement is significant
because those remaining are much more junior, so there’s
a gap in generations,” he observed. That phenomenon,
he pointed out, mirrors “the gap in American Jewish
communal support for the armed services and the chaplaincy.
We need to raise American Jewish cultural awareness of the
important role played by military chaplains,” he urged.
“We need to make concern for our troops a communal priority
and communal responsibility by sending our rabbis to serve.”
Despite the renewed interest since 9-11, he said, it remains
challenging for Jews in the armed services to maintain a connection
to their heritage.
Rabbi Robinson recalled the opportunities
he has had in the past two years to join the troops in the
Middle East, leading Shavuot services last June in Kuwait,
Iraq and Afghanistan, and leading High Holy Day services last
month aboard ship in the Persian Gulf. “One of the most
important things I get to do during these tours is get out
and meet the sailors,” said Rabbi Robinson, adding,
“I don’t get a lot of time to be a rabbi, so being
able to get back to that core content of who I am was awfully
nice.” The sailors, in turn, were appreciative. “It’s
a huge honor to have him here,” said Yoeman 2nd Class
(SW/AW) Valerie Elliot, a Jewish lay leader on the USS Bonhomme
Richard (LHD 6), one of three naval vessels Rabbi Robinson
boarded. “Our faith is one of the minorities and to
have the highest ranking member [of the Jewish Chaplains Corps]
here for one of our High Holidays is amazing.”
As director of the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council
for roughly eighteen months, Rabbi Robinson noted several
positive changes. “We’ve enhanced communications
through better leveraging of electronic technology. Now all
the chaplains are linked in a Listserv so they can share information
and insights.”
Another improvement has been the launch of
a program to connect local communities with service personnel
abroad and with major bases and installations near them. The
pilot site at the JCC in Chicago “has proven very rewarding
for the JCC and for its ‘adopted’ sailors and
recruits and family members at the Great Lakes Naval Training
Center about an hour north of the city on Lake Michigan,”
said Rabbi Robinson. The JCC has provided Jewish programming
and Shabbat and holiday services on the base. “I am
hopeful that we will be able to expand the program to other
JCCs in the months ahead, so that military personnel and families
who may be feeling isolated and abandoned will consider the
JCC their home and understand what we are doing to care for
their loved ones overseas,” he said. The Chaplains Council
provides religious and cultural resources and spiritual counseling
as well as access to holiday observance for servicemen and
women scattered across 24 time zones on both the northern
and southern hemispheres.
Finally, Rabbi Robinson said, he is planning
exciting additions to the Chaplains Council Annual Conference,
which for the first time will be integrated with the JCCs
of North America Biennial Conference, a gathering of the JCC
Movement’s volunteer leadership, next scheduled to take
place in Miami in spring 2008. It was at the last Biennial,
in May 2006 in Philadelphia, that Rabbi Robinson’s appointment
to the Chaplains Council was formally announced.
###
JCC Association
is the leadership network of, and central agency for the Jewish
Community Center Movement, which is comprised of 350 JCC,
YM-YWHA and camp sites in the U. S. and Canada. JCC Association
offers a wide range of services and resources to strengthen
the capacity of its affiliates to provide educational, cultural,
social, Jewish identity-building, and recreational programs
to enhance the lives of North American Jews of all ages and
backgrounds. Additionally, the movement fosters and strengthens
connections between North American Jews and Israel as well
as with world Jewry. JCC Association is also the U.S. government
accredited agency for serving the religious and social needs
of Jewish military personnel, their families, and patients
in VA hospitals through JWB Jewish Chaplains Council.
Miriam
Rinn
Communications Manager
JCC Association
520 8th Ave., NY, NY 10018
212-786-5092
fax: 212-481-4174
send an e-mail
Back to Press Releases |
Privacy policy | Contact
us | Home
|
