Military rabbi
In many countries, military rabbis provide religious services to Jewish soldiers. On May 28, 2020, the German Bundestag unanimously decided that the Bundeswehr should introduce military rabbis for the approximately 300 soldiers of the Jewish faith .
history
Field rabbis were rabbis in the pastoral care of the military. Field rabbis were used in the armed forces of Austria-Hungary and the German Empire , among others .
In the German-speaking area, the field rabbinate was first introduced in 1875 for the military chaplaincy of the Austro-Hungarian land forces . The field rabbinate was only introduced in the German army at the beginning of the First World War . The most famous field rabbi of the German Army was Leo Baeck . A total of around thirty German field rabbis from the time of the First World War are known today. The Association of German Jews published a special field Bible. The German field rabbis of the First World War wore the field-gray army uniform with an armband with a red cross. The Star of David was worn on a necklace. For the first time after a break of around 100 years and 75 years after the Holocaust , German-Jewish soldiers can again be looked after by rabbis from 2020 .
armed forces
On April 2, 2019, the Federal Ministry of Defense announced that the German Armed Forces would introduce military rabbis for the approximately 300 Jewish soldiers. To this end, a state treaty should be negotiated between the Federal Republic of Germany and the Central Council of Jews in Germany . The State Treaty was signed during the Jewish Community Day, which took place in Berlin from December 19-22, 2019. After the State Treaty had been signed, it still needed implementation by the legislature. After the Bundestag has decided this, ten rabbis in the Bundeswehr will take on pastoral responsibility as temporary officials . The law provides for 48 posts for the military rabbinate and puts the annual costs at around 4.67 million euros. If necessary, the number can be increased. The selection of rabbis is expected to begin in autumn 2020. Branch offices of the rabbinate are planned in Hamburg and Munich, and later also in Frankfurt / Main and Leipzig.
Israel
The military rabbinate ( Hebrew חיל הרבנות הצבאית Chail HaRabanut HaTzvait ) is a unit of the Israel Defense Forces that provides religious services for Jewish and non-Jewish soldiers and makes decisions in religious and military matters. The military rabbinate is headed by the Chief Military Rabbi, who holds the rank of Brigadier General .
There are military rabbis in every unit or military base who are responsible for conducting or coordinating church services, overseeing the kosher kitchen, and maintaining the synagogue . Active members of the military can ask representatives of the military rabbinate to perform marriage ceremonies and the Brit Mila (circumcision ceremonies ). The unit also oversees the legal and religious confirmation of marriages and divorces of soldiers during their military service.
The military rabbinate is responsible for the burial of soldiers' bodies in accordance with religious regulations, including the identification and autopsy of corpses and the conduct of military burials. The military rabbinate also coordinates the burial of enemy soldiers and the exhuming of corpses in connection with the prisoner exchange .
The military rabbinate was founded in 1948 by Rabbi Schlomo Goren , who headed it until 1968. The current Chief Rabbi is Eyal Karim .
United States
Jacob Fränkel (1808–1887), who immigrated from Germany, became the first official US military rabbi on September 18, 1862 during the American Civil War . During World War I , 250,000 Jewish soldiers served in the American Army . 25 military rabbis looked after these soldiers. During World War II , there were 311 Jewish military rabbis for 550,000 soldiers of the Jewish faith, of which 147 were of the Conservative faith , 96 of Reform Judaism and 68 of the Orthodox faith . 100 military rabbis were deployed during the Korean War . Military rabbis were involved in all of the armed conflicts that followed.
literature
- Sabine Hank, Hermann Simon , Uwe Hank, field rabbi in the German armed forces of the First World War , Berlin 2013, published by the Stiftung Neue Synagoge Berlin - Centrum Judaicum and the Center for Military History and Social Sciences of the Bundeswehr , ISBN 978-3-938485-76- 7 , Writings of the Centrum Judaicum, Vol. 7
- Wilhelm Güde: Rabbi Dr. Alexander Kisch as the kk Landwehr rabbi. At the same time, a small contribution about the beginnings of Jewish military pastoral care in Austria-Hungary . In: Jewish soldiers - Jewish resistance in Germany and France , edited by Michael Berger and Gideon Römer-Hillebrecht, Paderborn, Munich, Vienna, Zurich 2012, pp. 180–196.
- Central Council of Jews in Germany (ed.): Military rabbis in the Bundeswehr. Between tradition and challenge. Berlin / Leipzig: Hentrich & Hentrich 2019. ISBN 978-3-95565-363-7 .
Web links
- Jewish intellectuals in the First World War. (No longer available online.) In: uni-marburg.de. Archived from the original on July 15, 2014 .
- Aron dancer - stations of his life. In: edjewnet.de. (Illustrated website about the German field rabbi Aron Tänzer).
- First World War. In: ernst-vollbehr.de. (Website on the works of the painter Ernst Vollbehr (1876–1960); on the far left the portrait of Bruno Italiener , rabbi in Darmstadt, as a field rabbi in German South West Africa).
Individual evidence
- ↑ a b The way for military rabbis is free , Jüdische Allgemeine, May 28, 2020. Retrieved May 28, 2020.
- ^ First World War Field Rabbi. In: juedisches-lehrhaus-goettingen.de. Retrieved on April 4, 2019 (Field Bible of the Feldrabbis Dr. Italian from Danzig).
- ↑ Plans from the Ministry of Defense: Military rabbis to support the Bundeswehr. In: Spiegel Online . April 2, 2019, accessed April 4, 2019 .
- ^ Military Rabbinate , IDF, Israel Defense Forces. Retrieved April 4, 2019.
- ^ Seymour "Sy" Brody, Rabbis as Chaplains in America's Military: A Tradition of Service, Dedication and Bravery . Retrieved April 5, 2019.