Where Have All The Rabbis Gone?
Where have all the Rabbis gone? This is the question asked by so many military congregations outside of the United States. The need for more Rabbis within the military chaplainry is clearly evident. In the entire United States Navy, which supports both the Navy and the Marine Corps, there are only six Rabbis. Now, the exact number of Jews is a matter for the demographers to figure out; however, on a small island in the middle of the Pacific the lack of a Rabbi is very evident.
The island of Okinawa is located between the Japanese mainland and the island nation of Taiwan. Okinawa is a Japanese Prefecture with a large US military population whose primary mission is to keep North Korea on a leash and fight terror in Southeast Asia. Within this population, it is a fairly conservative estimate to say that there are at least a hundred Jews on the island.
The Jewish Community of Okinawa; is led by a Military Lay Leader who not only has the responsibility of leading the congregation, but also has to maintain his normal daily military duties. This does not allow the amount of dedication required of someone who is to provide guidance and support to the spiritual and moral well-being of the Jews of Okinawa.
This raises another issue: How qualified is the Lay Leader to serve in his particular position? Granted, the appointment has to be approved by a Rabbi; but with little in-depth training, and lack of thorough Jewish study how can one expect a community to thrive when the leader is not capable of teaching or guiding his congregants as well as one who is a professional at doing so?
During the period between 1945 and 2003 there was a Rabbi on the island of Okinawa. Since 2003, when the last Rabbi changed his duty station, the Navy has not provided one. Some say that the Navy should move a Rabbi from the US to Okinawa. There are many arguments for this, including the fact that the military congregation is the only Jewish presence on the island. Unlike the military congregations back in the States who can go to civilian synagogues out in town, the Jews of Okinawa do not have that option.
On the other hand, the personnel system for the Navy centers most of the Chaplains in areas that have large numbers of deployable units, as the Chaplains still have to support commands with their duties as the commander’s advisor on morals and ethics; so, many of the congregants end up blaming the Navy for the lack of a Rabbi when we must look at the real problem.
The real problem is the recruitment of Rabbis. Recently the Navy Chaplains Corps passed a regulation allowing Cantors to become Chaplains, which opens up the eligibility pool for the chaplainry. To the author’s knowledge no one has raised their hand yet to come serve their country and those who fight the fight.
What causes this lack of interest? Lack of commitment to one’s nation, or is it fear of going to a war zone, is it a general societal/cultural undercurrent of anti-military feelings? From discussions with some recent graduates of the Hebrew Union College the sentiments on campus are anti-war and anti-military. Regardless of the student sentiment at HUC there are other Yeshivas out there, as well as Rabbis who have already been ordained. Hopefully someone reading this will see the need for more Rabbis and take that step to become a Chaplain.
Becoming a Chaplain is easy if one is already ordained. An interested Rabbi needs only to contact the Jewish Welfare Board or the Aleph Institute. Both of these organizations are Jewish Ecclesiastical Granting Authorities for the Department of Defense. After acceptance into a particular service and a short training program on military rules and regulations, one is sent to his or her first command. Also, for those that have yet to complete their ordination, there are scholarships available through the Jewish Welfare Board.
Granted, it is a difficult life, but it is definitely rewarding. Serving one’s country and one’s fellow man, making an impact on the lives of Jews and non-Jews alike is not only an honor, but it also a mitzvah.
This article was originally published in the Philadelphia Jewish Voice
How can I find a list of the Rabbis currently serving in the Navy Chaplin Corps?
Although this story is a year old, since you’ve moved it onto the new “Esssentials” page I thought I’d take the opportunity to comment.
I’m a graduate of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion serving as an active duty chaplain in the Air Force. I graduated, was ordained and entered the Air Force chaplaincy just over 11 years ago. We weren’t at war then, but when I applied to their rabbinic program in 1991, we were in the middle of Desert Storm and nobody suggested that, as an active duty serviceman (I was in the Navy at the time) I would not be welcome at HUC-JIR. During my five years at the school, nobody I encountered ever suggested that the military chaplaincy (everyone knew where I wanted to go with my rabbinate) was not an appropriate avenue of service for a rabbi. At times while serving as an active duty chaplain, I’ve tried to recruit rabbinic students from HUC-JIR as well as ordained rabbis, have managed to recruit two rabbis (one HUC-JIR grad, one JTS grad) over the years, and more to whom I spoke expressed interest but were too old or otherwise not commissionable.
There are really two large impediments to recruiting more rabbis, and anti-military sentiment at HUC-JIR is not one of them.
The first is that, for most rabbinical students, there are so many interesting alternative career paths that the military chaplaincy simply is seldom on a student’s radarscope. Of course congregational work is the primary interest of most students; certainly that’s the case at HUC-JIR, where the suggestion is planted even before a student matriculates the that congregational rabbinate is “where it’s at,” where one can have the most impact on the most Jews in the most profound way. Beyond that, Hillel and college chaplaincy work, and various organizational and teaching-type positions take front and center in the rabbi-to-be’s consciousness. The military, if one take notice of it at all, seems a distant and uninteresting alternative. Why? This brings me to the second big reason rabbis are hard to recruit…
The second reason is the perception that there are very few Jews in the military service. Since men and women study for the rabbinate to make a difference for Jews, of course they want to be where there are a lot of Jews. But since many Jews don’t know a Jew who is in the military…there is a perception that there aren’t many out there. And unfortunately, there IS some corrolation between the perception and the reality. The Jews who ARE out there in the military, are sometimes difficult to find. Let me give you an example.
Earlier this summer, a base far from my own, a base that has not had a rabbi assigned in anyone’s memory, decided to do something good for the Jews and paid for me to come TDY to conduct a Shabbaton. This was no cheap trip by the time we paid for the commercial airfare, lodging and per diem. Although the local Jewish lay leader could identify some eight Jews on base (which meant there would be more when counting spouses…even if the spouses were not all Jewish, presumably we could have fashioned a program that would have been meaningful for them). Guess what? Only one of them, apart from the lay leader, cared to participate at all. None of the rest even RSVP’d or showed up.
Folks, I know I’m ‘preaching to the choir’ (to borrow an expression from our neighbors) on this; if you’re perusing this website, you probably are not the Jew who doesn’t show up on the rare occasion when a Jewish activity is offered. I’m guessing that you’re the one who does show up, and you were probably the lay leader who made it happen. But since the article on which I’m commenting has to do with the shortage of rabbis in the military, I feel compelled to point out that it’s not some anti-military conspiracy at HUC-JIR that’s keeping rabbis out of the military chaplaincy. It’s the difficulty in finding, and reaching out to the Jews that there are, that keeps the rabbis away and frustrates those who DO join up. So what can you do?
The lay members of the congregations in the military must be more (dare I use the term?) ‘evangelical’ about reaching out to other Jews. You run into the inactive Jews all the time. Okay, sometimes you’re not going to get them to come no matter what. But you’ve got to keep trying! When you meet other Jews and there are activities on base, urge them to attend and participate. Twist arms! When you can get a visiting rabbi, start a conversation with the other Jews on base as to what s/he can do to serve the group when visiting.
TO borrow a line from a movie, “If you build it (a congregation), they (the rabbis) will come!”
Thanks for all you do…
Don Levy
Ramstein, Germany
Just a short note to point out that in the Army, Jewish chaplains are assigned to units, and take care of all their soldiers. Jewish chaplains are only running Jewish programs and services part time, and mostly on their own time. That’s not what most people going into the rabbinate want or expect to do with their life.