At Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, IDF Chief of Staff Meets U.S. Jewish Chaplain

by Yaakov Ort – chabad.org

In Washington D.C. for high-level talks at the Pentagon, Israel Defense Forces Chief of General Staff Lt. Gen. Aviv Kochavi participated Wednesday in a U.S. Armed Forces full honors wreath-laying ceremony at the Tomb of the Unknown Soldier in Arlington, Va.

He was joined there by U.S. Army Chaplain (Capt.) Menachem Stern, a Chabad-Lubavitch rabbi who made history in 2011 when he won a three-year legal battle with the help of the Aleph Institute to become the first bearded rabbi to be allowed to enlist as a chaplain in the U.S. Army since 1977. Stern met with Kochavi in the Memorial Amphitheater Display Room at Arlington National Cemetery.

Since Stern’s landmark case, which has subsequently opened the door for bearded chaplains to serve throughout the U.S. military, there has been a wave of Jewish chaplains who have enlisted to serve in the military.

Stern is currently stationed at Fort Belvoir in Virginia. He is endorsed by Aleph Institute’s military service division, which serves Jewish members of the United States Armed Forces stationed worldwide, and is the nation’s largest provider of religious and educational materials to Jewish military personnel and their families.