Jewish Chaplain Visits Cherry Point

In the previous article, Sgt Heesch asked, “Where have all the rabbis gone?” I may not know where they all are, but I have tracked down one of them.

With all my experience with this site and in the Marine Corps, I had never really met a Jewish Chaplain… until this past month! I hadn’t been at Cherry Point for all that long and while getting set up as the Jewish lay leader on base, my unit chaplain mentioned there would be a Navy Reserve Jewish Chaplain “fresh out of chaplain school” coming to drill at Cherry Point.

There was a little bit of mystery about who exactly was coming and when, but it turned out to be Lieutenant Melinda Zalma of Temple Beth Mordecai in Perth, Amboy, NJ. Rabbi Zalma was not exactly “fresh out of chaplain school” either. She has led High Holiday services in Yokosuka, Japan and Guantanamo Bay, Cuba. One article about her visit to Cuba relates her experience there:

About 15 or 16 soldiers and their families attended Rosh Hashana services followed by a potluck vegetarian dinner. They also feasted on 15 loaves of hallah brought by Zalma from Gertel’s Bakery on the Lower East Side. During the visit, she said, one of the Jewish soldiers made an interesting observation.

“He told me being around Islamic extremists has made him want to be more religiously Jewish because he wanted his children to see that religion can also be a positive force,” she said.

Before becoming a Navy chaplain, Rabbi Zalma studied electrical engineering at Northwestern University. “I really started thinking about becoming a rabbi in college,” she said. “I decided my senior year that I wanted to become a rabbi. It just all seemed to fit.” So Zalma set aside engineering and began studying to become a rabbi. She took two years to study in Israel before attending the Jewish Theological Seminary.

While attending JTS, Zalma went back to Israel for another year of study, and in 1999 decided to become a Navy chaplain. “It’s really a privilege to be a rabbi and to be a chaplain,” she said. “At some point I want to do at least one active duty tour.”

My wife and I had the pleasure of sharing a weeknight dinner with the rabbi and a Shabbat dinner before she left. Aside from the great experience of interacting with a real, live Jewish chaplain, we all enjoyed the company of such an interesting and warm woman.

If you want to read more about Rabbi Zalma, take a look at the articles below:

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