Within Harms Way; A Chaplain’s Tale

Afghanistan is a country torn by war; yet it’s a vast land filled with natural beauty that has been untouched by modern development. In a mountainous area of Afghanistan, an area that is fraught with danger on every corner, it’s also a strong hold for the insurgency and Taliban. It’s on these rocky and dangerous hills that we find a lonely Jewish captain who is also an Intel officer and is serving with his unit in protecting the local roads that are crucial to the supply route for the US armed forces stationed in Afghanistan.

This story takes place during the holiday of Pesach; and in honor of the holiday Chaplain Colonel Rabbi Ira Kronenberg was stationed in Bagram Airbase to conduct and host Jewish activities, during the intermediate days Rabbi Kronenberg gets a request to go visit a Jewish soldier serving in the mountainous region, he gladly agrees.

Rabbi Kronenberg describes the journey as long, enduring and dangerous; for one could not just drive up to the destined location; rather they would need to take multiple vehicles including a Blackhawk to get there safely. Once he arrived Rabbi Kronenberg learned that the young captain had requested to leave his unit in order to spend the holiday with other Jews in Bagram, however his request was denied because the captains commanding officer informed him of his unique role in keeping the unit safe, and beside the challenge it would take to transport the soldier to and from his unit.

Nonetheless, the commanding officer said that he would ensure that the chaplain would visit the captain prior to his departure home, and now Rabbi Kronenberg is sitting and discussing with the young captain about the holiday, their families etc. While they were exchanging stories the young captain informed Rabbi Kronenberg that today is his father’s Yarziet and requested that Rabbi Kronenberg help him observe the necessary customs of a Yarziet.

Its stories like these and many others that touch and inspire not only the lives of members of the armed services and their families, but in fact touch many including random strangers. The idea of self sacrifice is not only seen within the men and women of the armed forces but the chaplains as well. These men of faith; whom instead of spending the holidays at home with their family leave all of this behind to provide and care for the Jews of the armed forces, in making sure they have the services and essentials they need for the holiday.

I asked Rabbi Kronenberg what made a man who grew up in queens and spent most of his life in a Yeshiva environment to leave this comfort zone for the military, he answered that to understand his reasoning one must first understand his background.

Rabbi Kronenberg was born to his parents who met in Europe post World War Two; his father had spent the war in the Siberian camps while his mother worked for the army and was stationed in Paris at the time where she met her future husband. They were married July 4th; her dress was made out of a parachute as there was no spare cloth available to make one. His mother also being fluent in Yiddish helped many refugees to connect with their relatives in the states by using the APO mail system, as that was the only mail courier service that operated at the time.

When his parents first came to the states they lived in Brownsville Brooklyn but eventually they settled in Queens. Rabbi Kronenberg attended Yeshiva Dov Revel for elementary and Yeshiva University for high school and college where he graduated as a math major as well as pursuing his Semicah. At the time Rabbi Kronenberg had no intention of becoming a rabbi, however, it was the idea of giving back to the community that attracted him to military in the first place. While at YU he learned of the great need for Jewish chaplains in the military, this was during the height of the Vietnam War in which many Jewish kids were being drafted, combined with his mothers background made him volunteer for the army.

Rabbi Kronenberg had his last rabbinical test on June 30th 1972 and was scheduled to attend the chaplain’s school which was at the time in Fort Hamilton on July 9th. For the July 4th weekend he went upstate where he met his future wife; they dated all summer and became engaged right before he would leave to his mission in Fort Riley Kansas.

It was during his time at the chaplain school that he credits as an eye opening experience; for at the time there were nine rabbis with over a hundred non Jewish chaplains, it was here that Rabbi Kronenberg had his first major interaction with a non Jew. Rabbi Kronenberg pointed out that as a chaplain your mission is not only to serve members of your own faith but to be available and provide to anyone seeking assistance.

One such example; Rabbi Kronenberg recounts was when they went to Fort Dix New Jersey and a young Pakistani soldier who was training with the US army came to see him, the reason, his imam back home told him and his colleagues not to eat any of the local food until they spoke with a rabbi. It was stories like these or the hardship of finding kosher food as well as the struggle of being alone with no friends or family that turn away many able and talented rabbis from joining. Yet, the idea of respect and admiration the army provided when it came to religious matters helped make things a bit easier.

To understand this point Rabbi Kronenberg recounted the following story:

Part of the mission of being a chaplain is to go along when the army informs a family of the passing of a loved one; one Friday night the unit headed to a home to notify the family of the passing of their son, being that is was Shabbos Rabbi Kronenberg was unable to go, when the unit reached the house they found candles lit and notified the family that if they wanted to talk with a rabbi they could do so as the army had one on staff in which they agreed. When Rabbi Kronenberg met with them they requested one thing; that no autopsy should be done on their son.

Now although the army was very accommodating to ones religious belief does not mean there aren’t times that protocol and religion collide, and this was one such case. Since as a regulation any soldier killed overseas in action is checked upon returning to the US in making sure the cause of the death and that all lethal objects are removed from the body prior to burial.

Before agreeing with doing the autopsy Rabbi Kronenberg contacted Rabbi Zohn from Queens; Rabbi Zohn had helped create a list of times when an autopsy would be necessary with the DA’s office, so Rabbi Zohn faxed over this list and directions of when conducting an autopsy what should be done according to Jewish law; Rabbi Kronenberg agreed to the autopsy only if the doctor conducting the autopsy would follow his guidelines in which he agreed.

Rabbi Kronenberg describes the respect and sincerity of the way the doctor conducting the autopsy, “he did each move slowly and respectfully.” Rabbi Kronenberg said that he has never seen such tolerance and fortitude of the autopsy staff in doing their best in following both religious and army protocol at the same time.

Upon finishing his three year active duty commitment Rabbi Kronenberg joined the reserves; I asked him why the switch, he said this was due because of the challenges he faced during that time period which were difficult, combined with the fact of raising a Jewish Frum family would be even tougher. I asked him what hardships he faced while serving in the reserves; he said mainly avoiding drills on shabbos.

However, in one scenario his unit was conducting a major exercise in For Polk Louisiana; the exercise was based on a hospital being in a war zone, each soldier was given equipment to wear that would light up when they were shot. One of these simulations was being done on shabbos; so Rabbi Kronenberg asked the general in charge for permission to abstain, the general agreed but told Rabbi Kronenberg that he would need to stay in his tent and wasn’t allowed to leave even for the bathroom, mind you that the temperature was 103 degrees that day.

When the drill ended and everyone assembled for the report on how everyone performed was when the general turned to Rabbi Kronenberg and said how impressed he was with Rabbi Kronenberg for his dedication to his religion, and that next time he could stay with the general.

In October of 2001 Rabbi Kronenberg completed thirty years of service and was due to retire; however, he received a call from the chief of chaplains office asking if he would stay on, so he joined the GSU unit at Fort Dix which also houses a federal prison.

This facility unfortunately houses many Jews; Rabbi Kronenberg has been instrumental in working with the Aleph Institute in providing Jewish programs and having young Jewish rabbis visit the prison for the holidays and other special services. Rabbi Kronenberg continued serving until the mandatory retirement age of sixty, during the last five years he was deployed five times to both Afghanistan and Iraq.

Looking back Rabbi Kronenberg said that it was his experience in the army that he was exposed to the reality and ability to work with others who were at times not Jewish in helping him fulfill his obligations as a Jew. During one of his visits to Afghanistan he learnt that because of the heat that Arvot (willow branch) that were being sent to him from the Aleph Institute would not last more than a day, so to avoid this another Jewish chaplain with the help of a fellow chaplain who was priest had arranged for an Arvot three to be planted and tended to by a local Afghani.

One point that both myself and Rabbi Kronenberg were unable to answer was why would a girl who grew up surrounded by the Jewish community and had all her needs met from having easy access to kosher food, family and friends would agree to follow her husband in moving to Kansas as well as dealing with the separation for the holidays.

The answer was that there was none; he notes that his ability to succeed while serving in the army was due to his wife, who stood steadily in caring for both her husband and their family. As they say behind every successful man stands an even more successful woman.

Rabbi Kronenberg made one final remark before we concluded our talk; that throughout his years of service he has seen two types of Jewish kids who join the army, one were kids who had no formal knowledge or background in Judaism while the second group of kids came from solid Frum backgrounds but have lost their way, many of them who have been rebelling on the outside prior to joining the army were all of a sudden faced with the idea of conforming and following a certain norm, so their rebellion comes in the form of going to services etc.

Rabbi Kronenberg believes that the chaplaincy to be crucial in helping both of these types of kids in finding their way back home, for by igniting one small flame in a room full of darkness can distil much darkness.