It’s that time of year again, when the days are short and the nights long. Yes, there are lights, brightening up the darkness and the cold. But for many Jewish service members stationed on U.S. military bases, especially remote ones, Chanukah can be a difficult time to find representation and connection. With only 70 Jewish chaplains across the entire U.S. military, it’s not always easy for service members to be loud and proud about their Jewish identity.
“Jewish service members often don’t want to ask for things for themselves because they don’t want to stick out,” explained Rabbi Elie Estrin, an Air Force Reserves Chaplain and Military Personnel Liaison for the Aleph Institute. In a military culture that prides itself on uniformity, “they don’t want to be the one with extra needs.”
But now, there’s a slew of young Chabad-Lubavitch Jewish chaplains slowly trying to change that.
Take, for example, Chaplain Levy Pekar, a U.S. Air Force Captain stationed on Kadena Air Base in Okinawa, a small island off the coast of Japan. As a rabbinical student, he walked around handing out Chanukah menorahs and candles, and grew accustomed to approaching strangers and inspiring them to celebrate their Judaism.
“I don’t have the same inhibitions someone else might have,” said Pekar. This, of course, has served him well in his current chaplaincy work in Okinawa, which he estimates is home to around 100 Jews.
“They see me with my yarmulke; they see me with my beard. People who haven’t seen another Jew in years immediately come up to me,” he said. Often, he finds they haven’t even connected to Judaism in years and suddenly, they’re regulars at Shabbat dinner. Come Chanukah, even more people come out of the woodwork.
Standing out is what Chanukah is all about, according to Pekar: “Chanukah is about bringing the light and bringing the pride. It’s about stepping up, and saying I’m a Jew, and I’m proud.”
In the early 1970s, the Rebbe—Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, of righteous memory—launched a worldwide Chanukah awareness campaign, urging more public display and observance of the eight-day holiday. Today, some 15,000 large public menorahs are lit from New York’s Fifth Avenue to Moscow’s Revolution Square, and countless tin menorahs and candles are handed out on city streets from Paris to Buenos Aires. But Chanukah awareness comes in many shapes and forms.
In Japan, Pekar’s plans this year are simple: The community is always changing, and he’s only been stationed there three months out of his three-year assignment. He and his wife, Bassy, expect up to 50 people at their party on Sunday night. They (and their one-and-a-half-year-old daughter, Nesha) also plan to host a candle-lighting every night of the holiday, with traditional oil-filled Chanukah fare to boot, open to all.
‘There Is So Much Opportunity to Do Good’
For Chaplain Michoel Harari, the magic of the holiday is in its authenticity and small moments.
“At the end of the day, there’s lights and colors and things like that, but then there’s emmes (‘truth’),” said Harari. “Chanukah, what’s it all about? We come together like a small family. In my experience, for the Jewish soldiers, nothing compares to them coming over and making latkes from their grandmother’s recipe, and just talking and playing dreidel. The heart is there.”
The smallest actions and words matter most at Harari’s new station at Fort Riley, outside of Junction City, Kan. It’s an isolated area—the nearest grocery store with kosher meat and cheese is in Kansas City, Mo.—but he feels like he makes a bigger impact this way; the only Chabad emissary (shliach), not just for service members but for civilians in the area.
“Here, we’re able to affect thousands of soldiers and their families with just a good word, with Kiddush Hashem,” said the captain, who is attached to the 16th Infantry Regiment. “My kids are able to show people how a Jew walks, how a Jew talks. There is so much opportunity to do good.”
He often remembers what Rabbi Jacob Goldstein, the “original” Chabad chaplain and the man who greatly inspired Harari’s own path, told him, which he heard himself from the Rebbe: “Be there for just one Jew, and it can change whole cities.”
Harari, his wife Mishi and their six children are going all out for Chanukah, attempting to reach every Jewish person they can. They’re hosting a public menorah-lighting and party on Sunday night, and awaiting a mitzvah “tank” that will stop at the base on its way from Los Angeles to show Jewish service members their support. Harari will also attend the public menorah-lighting at the state capital on Monday night with Kansas Gov. Laura Kelly.
No Soldier Should Ever Feel Forgotten
To supplement celebrations on bases, the Aleph Institute sends thousands of boxes with a variety of religious articles to hundreds of bases, according to Gina Amsalem, Aleph’s ordering manager, for holidays and for regular occasions throughout the year.
This time, the customizable boxes are filled with all things Chanukah. As of Dec. 11, Aleph had sent out 979 menorahs, 1,463 boxes of candles, 1,347 dreidels and 1,360 chocolate bars. Bases in the states also get Jewish military calendars, and Aleph even sends copies of the book GPS Guide for the Soul.
“We still have more orders coming through,” said Amsalem. “We will be sending these boxes until the last possible day. We’ll overnight them if we have to ... to make sure no soldier ever feels forgotten.”
And the chaplains work hard to bring awareness to everyday matters, like kashrut and limitations on Shabbat.
“It’s my job as a chaplain, as a rabbi, to inform unit command teams on base of different rules and regulations inside Judaism,” said Harari.
“I’ve only seen support from command teams, from commanders—they wish for their soldiers to be able to serve G‑d the best they possibly can while within the military,” he noted, because “General Marshall said that planes and bombs and tanks win battles, but the spirit of the soldiers is what wins the war.”
The idea rings especially true during Chanukah, he notes: The Maccabees were small; their weapons and fighting style unsophisticated, but they had emunah—“faith.”
In a way, Chanukah is the premier holiday for chaplains, according to Pekar: They’re both about lighting up the darkness. He is the chaplain for the Maintenance Group at Kadena, which consists of about 1,000 airmen, and visits all of them every week, listening to their stresses and worries, and helping them find the light.
“I strive to teach people to find strength within, to be spiritually resilient,” he said. “Chaplains help people through the darkest moments of their lives.”
Estrin agrees; he has seen the joy that holiday celebrations can bring to a soldier, sailor, marine or airman, and says that being successful in the military relies on having a strong spiritual core.
“It’s really, really important to be able to celebrate your Judaism,” said Estrin, who is leading the Chanukah programs at Patrick Air Force Base and the U.S. Southern Command in Florida. “The flag is stronger when someone has the capability to stand up, and is able to express their religion and their humanity.”
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