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The partnership has already borne fruit with efforts being made to translate the the manual into English.
A new initiative will ensure that IDF soldiers on United States soil have immediate access to kosher food, religious materials, and holiday supplies.
When two Israeli Navy crews were stationed in the US earlier this year, a range of kosher-related issues arose.
The chief rabbi of the Israeli Navy, Commander Rabbi Ofir Tubul, was put in contact with the Aleph Institute. Utilizing their network of Jewish chaplains, military organizations, and local Chabad Houses, Aleph was able to assist with the arrangement of kosher food and holiday supplies for the IDF crews.
The Aleph Institute services the unique needs of thousands of Jewish members of the US Armed Forces who are stationed worldwide, providing chaplaincy training, advocacy, religious materials, and more.
Aleph’s military department fields hundreds of calls a month from members of all branches with requests for guidance, advocacy, and aid.
“We have occasionally had the opportunity to service IDF soldiers stationed on American bases for training or joint exercises. We always did our best to serve them, bringing the same professional support and personal care that we strive to bring to every member of the US military,” explains Rabbi Elie Estrin, Aleph’s military liaison.
“But this only happened in an ad hoc manner, due to a lack of any formal collaboration and communication with the IDF. It pained us that there were hundreds of IDF soldiers on US military installations whose needs were not being met because they didn’t know of us and we didn’t know of them.”
Soon afterwards, Rabbi Estrin visited the IDF Chief Rabbinate in Jerusalem to discuss official collaboration.
“Traditional observance of Judaism is extremely important to a significant percentage of IDF soldiers,” says Lt Colonel Rabbi Neriya Rosental, Chief Rabbi of the Israeli Air Force.
“Practically speaking, that means when our troops head to other countries, we have massive logistics issues to overcome regarding kosher food and holiday needs.”
However, Rabbi Estrin points out that the relationship is mutually beneficial.
“We have a tremendous amount to learn from the IDF Chief Rabbinate regarding their deep understanding of unique halachic (Jewish legal) issues in the military, their world-class expertise in casualty identification and care for the deceased, and other such matters that concern the military rabbinate. We look forward to hosting them at our yearly symposium in Miami and learning as much as we can from them.”
The partnership has already borne fruit with efforts being made to translate the IDF’s halachic manual for soldiers, Torat Hamachane, into English.
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