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.

Another Orthodox Chaplain is deploying

. . . this time a haredi from Lakewood. Story here.

The Kombatica

I remember seeing one soldier always wearing one of these on Speicher, though I have no idea who he is, and there was a SGT "R" who always wore one on Balad.

They used to be hard to get, but most chaplains and chapels had some. Now they are available from Shaina Agami, whose brother SPC Danny Agami was killed in Iraq.

They are authorized under 670-1 1-7 b.(2)(a).

Succot in Kuwait

CPT Jonathan Gross' story about Succot in Kuwait.

. . . and prisoners

I really appreciate all the work they did for me and many other Jewish soldiers when I was deployed. Apparently they work with prisoners too.

Torahs for the military

The Army is looking for Torahs. I know that there is one in JBB and the Jewish Chaplain in Baghdad had one. I wonder how many others there are in theater.

In NY

As many of you know by now, I am back home in NY. The deployment is over. I will still continue to post stuff here that I and I think some of you who read this might find interesting, and some stuff that I didn't post during the year for one reason or another.

Thanks for all your support over the year.