The Critical Shortage of Military Chaplains: One Possible Solution

Abstract

The military is currently experiencing a critical shortage of Chaplains both in deployed units and in the Reserve Forces at home. According to Chaplain (Lt Col) Randall Dolinger, spokesman for the Office of the Army Chief of Chaplains, the military is short by about 520 chaplains, with 80 Regular Army vacancies and 440 openings in the National Guard (NG) and Reserves. He further states that the Army NG shortage is at 40% of their manning requirements. With more NG units being deployed, the shortage of NG Chaplains will become more critical. This further reduces the number of chaplains remaining to minister to nondeployed units and family members. The Jewish Chaplain shortage in the military is at least as severe as that for the general military chaplain force. One group of rabbis who would be willing to serve are from the Chassidic Jewish community. Unfortunately, they cannot serve because of U.S. Army grooming regulations prohibiting facial hair. This article discusses the Jewish chaplain shortage and presents a potential solution for it. The goal is to convince the U.S. Army to provide waivers for beards worn by clergy who are required by religious law and custom to retain their beards. This is not likely to happen simply by urging it on Army Command. What is needed is an approach within the military that demonstrates the value of a Chassidic Rabbi being commissioned and serving as a Chaplain. This approach should be applied in both directions, "bottom-up" as well as "top-down." An example of the "bottom-up" approach is presented. The Maryland State Defense Force (SDF) was asked to consider commissioning Rabbi Chesky Tenenbaum, a Rabbi of the Chabad Lubavitch of Upper Montgomery County, Maryland, as a Chaplain. Rabbi Tenenbaum was commissioned into the Maryland SDF as a Chaplain and was placed on temporary additional duty (TAD) with the Maryland NG. The authors then expanded this successful experiment to other SDF units around the country.

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Document Details

Document Type
Technical Report
Publication Date
Jan 01, 2008
Accession Number
ADA494808

Entities

People

  • Chesky Tenenbaum
  • Martin Hershkowitz

Tags

Communities of Interest

  • Human Systems

DTIC Thesaurus Topics

  • California
  • Chaplains
  • Communities
  • Criminal Justice System
  • Department Of Defense
  • Electronic Mail
  • Families (Human)
  • Homeland Security
  • Maryland
  • Military Personnel
  • Military Reserves
  • National Guard
  • New York
  • Psychological Phenomena And Processes
  • South Carolina
  • Standards
  • United States

Readers

  • Military History of the United States in the 20th Century.
  • Military Mobilization and Reserve Forces Studies.