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ABOUT
US
CHAPLINES ARCHIVE
BECOME
A CHAPLAIN
JWB
IN THE NEWS
Military
Chaplaincy Scholarship (PDF)
JWB PHOTO ARCHIVE
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.
Chaplines
Spring 2007
click to download PDF
Contact
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
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Answering the Call
Commencement exercises at the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, NY included two graduates entering service in the U.S. Armed Forces. Steve Rein, left, is accepting a commission in the USAF (reserve component) and will serve as assistant rabbi at Park Avenue Synagogue. Josh Sherwin, right, is accepting a commission in the USN (active component) beginning in the fall. JWB Jewish Chaplains Council Director, Rabbi Harold L. Robinson (RADM CHC USN Ret.), center, attended to welcome them as rabbinic colleagues.
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We Honor and Remember
May 22, 2009 / 28 Iyar 5769
Our Torah portion this week, Parshat Bamidbar, starts off the book of Numbers by personalizing an otherwise bureaucratic endeavor. At the beginning of the portion, a census is taken of the Israelite community, counting all those who would be eligible to fight and conquer the Promised Land. While these young men numbered over six hundred thousand (603,550, to be exact), they were also named by both the proper names of their chieftains and their tribes. They weren’t anonymous souls marching off to defend their people, but rather, children and grandchildren, brothers and fathers, who lived in relationship to one another.
As we observe Memorial Day this coming Monday in the U.S., we are given another opportunity to breathe life into the memories of those who have fought and fallen on our behalf. How do we remember them? Do we remember them principally by the wars they fell in, the battles they fought? How much more so can we give honor to their names when we also remember them by the people they loved and the passions that drove them? Maybe, just maybe, this remembering will bring redemption.
It is with great sorrow and respect that we remember the names — and lives — of all members of the U.S. Armed Forces who have fallen since Memorial Day 2008.
In particular, we remember two Jewish service members who lost their lives in the past year.
1LT Daniel Farkas, 42, of the New York National Guard died in Kabul on July 4, 2008. Daniel was a Brooklyn native, and a New York Police Department lieutenant assigned to the 112th Precinct in Queens. He was an active member of the Shomrim Society, a fraternal organization of Jewish police officers. After the Sept. 11 terror attacks, he volunteered to dig up remains at the smoldering pit and later went to New Orleans to assist in the rebuilding project following Hurricane Katrina.
Air Force 1st Lt. Roslyn Schulte, 25, was killed by a roadside bomb in Kabul, Afghanistan on May 20, 2009. A 2006 graduate of the United States Air Force Academy, Roslyn majored in political science, interned for former Sen. Alan Allard, R-Colo., became a group commander — one of the academy’s highest positions — and captained the lacrosse team. After graduation she went into military intelligence, and arrived in Afghanistan in February, where she worked with Afghan military officials, teaching them how to gather and interpret intelligence.
May the memories of Daniel Farkas and Roslyn Schulte be for a blessing, and may their families be comforted among the mourners of Zion and Jerusalem. We honor their sacrifice.
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| JWB Deputy Director on the Radio: History of Jews in U.S. Armed Forces
 Rabbi Barry Baron, deputy director of JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, recently appeared on the SIRIUS radio program “Rabbi Wechsler Teaches.” Listen to the program below.
Rabbi Barry Baron on "Rabbi Wechsler Teaches" MP3 Clip
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Troops Celebrate Passover Far from Home with Help from JWB
 4/20/09 New York, NY April 20, 2009: Fifty Jewish military personnel celebrated a Seder in what had been one of Saddam Hussein’s palaces in Baghdad. Three Jewish soldiers shared a Seder meal in a forward operating base in Afghanistan. Wherever they were, whether the surroundings were sumptuous or spare, Jews serving in the armed forces used supplies sent by JCC Association’s JWB Jewish Chaplains Council to mark the Israelites’ liberation from slavery. “The most important part of Passover is telling the story of Moses, so we took turns reading about the Exodus from Egypt,” said U. S. Army Captain Isaac Greenberg, a JWB Jewish lay leader in Afghanistan. “After that we finished our service and began our feast; including gefilte fish, pickles, horseradish, macaroons, and wine. What else do you need? We had an amazing time.”>> go to complete story |
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JWB Sends Torah to Iraq
Welcomed by Jewish Air Force Chaplain
 NEW YORKs, NY, MARCH 26, 2009 – A beautifully refurbished Torah scroll recently arrived at Balad Joint Air Base in Iraq, sent to Chaplain Sarah Schechter by JCC Association’s JWB Jewish Chaplains Council. Service men and women at the base proudly carried the Torah in procession to Gilbert Memorial Chapel, where it will add immeasurably to the spiritual richness of religious service. Congregation B’nai Israel of Rockville, Maryland generously donated the Torah to JWB when they purchased a new one. This is the second trip to the Middle East for this Torah; it previously visited the Persian Gulf for the High Holidays in 2007 on board the aircraft carrier Enterprise and the amphibious assault ships USS Kearsarge and the USS Bonhomme Richard. >> go to complete story |
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JCC Association's JWB Jewish Chaplains Council Readies Seder Kits for Troops in Remote and Battle-Torn Regions
NEW YORKs, NY, MARCH 20, 2009 – Passover, the most widely celebrated of all festivals on the Jewish calendar, begins this year at sundown on Wednesday, April 8. While Jews worldwide gather around Seder tables, the holiday can be a trying time for thousands of U.S. soldiers, sailors and airmen and women unable to join their families and loved ones. Reaching out to these isolated Jews stationed at bases at home and overseas, JCC Association, through the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, has prepared its annual spring shipment of individual Seder kits and finalized travel arrangements for the military chaplains who will spend an entire month abroad, leading communal Seders and alleviating the loneliness, particularly acute during holiday seasons, that accompanies active combat duty. >> go to complete story |
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| Jewish
Military Chaplains Wanted
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 |
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