West Point's Jews

Jewish choir at West Point sings for the President. 

Review of Jews who were honored for service in WWI

Apparently some may have been slighted and given lesser awards because of their religion, like other minorities. A review is now authorized. Story here.  

Joint US-Israel military exercise

Sadly, I am not a part of this.

Added 1/5/12. Army Times story here. 

Jewish Marines

Article here (behind paywall). 

Torah moving

The Ben Ish Chai's torah is being moved from Iraq to Israel. Story here. 

Uriah P. Levy's statue

Interesting article about the US Navy's first Jewish Commodore, apparently the man who ended flogging on Navy Ships. 

Army allows another Chaplain to wear a beard

Story here. Surprisingly the Army cited the lack of chaplains as the reason.  

New chaplain

Joint base Andrews' newest Jewish Chaplain. Story here.  

Canadian Jewish war vets

JTA has a news item about the creation of a memorial for Jewish Canadian war veterans.

Jewish Chaplains Memorial Dedicated at Arlington

Memorial for Jewish chaplains was dedicated at Arlington. Story here and here.

Soldier to Rabbi: the Joshua Knoble story

Joshus Knobel's unusual path from West Point to the Rabbinate. Story here.

This isn't good

The last few Jews in Iraq outed by wikileaks.

Daniel Agami

JTA has a nice tribute to Daniel Agami.

Shaya Getzel's stories

Shaya Getzel, of Confessions of a Koifer blog has two pieces (here and here) which I found very much worth reading about his experiences as a former Chasid in the US Army. I found quite a few things about his military experiences that really resonated as true. I hope I get to meet him one day. Judging from his spodik in the it gets besser video, we seem to share a hassidic lineage.

The story of Chaplain Alexander Goode

The story of Ch. Alexander Goode and the Dorchester that was sunk by a German U-boat in 1943.

Chaplain's insignia

Here is an interesting article by former Navy chaplain, Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff, about changing the chaplain insignia to make it more uniform across the different religions and faiths.

New Book

A new book, Contending with Catastrophe, was just released. It contains a number of articles with Jewish responses to 9/11. I am somewhat curious to read it. I enjoyed David Shatz's original article published not long after 9/11 and I believe it is reprinted in this volume. What I did find interesting is that the site claims that there is a prayer for American soldiers stationed around the world that was composed after 9/11 in the volume. Is it this one? Is there not an older prayer?

Targeting Military and Jews

It was just released that a man who was recently sentenced to life in prison for shooting two people at a Army recruiting station also targeted Jews in his hometown. Story here.

aaaawwwww

Isn't this a nice story!

Remembering the Jewish fallen

JTA's collection of stories here.

JWV PA News

Story here.

Jewish Floridian deploying to A-stan

This medical professional signed up for a special program, open to medical professionals, to be part of the military. He participated in the Aleph conference in Florida a couple of months back. He is a really nice guy, and we should all wish him well.

The role of the soldier in Jewish history month

"President Obama emphasized Jewish military service in his proclamation naming May as Jewish American History Month." JTS Story here.

Bill to honor Jewish Chaplains

A story about honoring Jewish Chaplains at Arlington.

Obituary for a Jewish WWII vet

WWII vet who took part in the liberation of Nordhausen passed away. Obituary here.

Beards in the Army

Kirsten Gillibrand weighs in, in favor of beards in the Army. The OU is pleased.

Jewish survivor of the Bataan death march

. . . dies at age 92. Obituary here.

Jewish voices on war

I came across this interesting review of this book about Jewish voices on war and national security. Notably, the review points out that there is an essay in the book by Joe Kashnow, and ordinary Jewish soldier (featured here) who wrote a moving piece.

Jewish war veterans

The Jewish Telegraphic Agency has noted the passing of a number of Jewish war veterans (and a tap-dancer).

Rabbi at Chaplain conference

A Chabad rabbi will be the speaker at a senior chaplains conference. Story here.

Shabbaton

Here is the write-up of the Aleph institute shabbaton. I will have a more detailed report soon. Overall though, it was a really interesting weekend. I met some great people and heard some great talks.

Update: some photos here.

Canadian Jewish Air Force guy

The guy in this story in the Canadian Air Force is having problems both with the Canadian Forces and with the Israeli government. However, I am told there is a significant back story to this whose details are missing from the Ha'aretz piece.

Our fallen

The Forward has a great set of profiles of Jews who were KIA in the recent conflicts in Iraq and Afgahanistan. Here are the profiles and the accompanying editorial.

Jewish Chaplains at Arlington

Surprisingly, this issue, of memorializing Jewish chaplains at Arlington did not come up in the weekend I spend with a whole lot of Jewish chaplains.

In Miami

The Army has sent me to Miami to attend the Aleph Institute Military training conference and Shabbaton. It promises to be an interesting event. I'll keep you posted.

Another Jewish chaplain deploying

. . . . this one from the New York National Guard.

Protecting two countries

Looks like I was not only helping the US, but also protecting Israel.

Iraqi Jewish Documents

It seems that the Iraqis are not giving up on trying to get back the Jewish documents found in their museums. Their rationale, incredibly, is

Iraqis must know that we are a diverse people, with different traditions, different religions, and we need to accept this diversity . . . [and] that Baghdad was always multiethnic.

Perhaps they can request it from the Israeli ambassador to Iraq. Oh, wait, they haven't quite accepted that much diversity yet.