The 100th anniversary of the commissioning of the first Jewish chaplain in the American armed forces was celebrated here today at the opening session of the biennial, two-day convention of the Association of Jewish Chaplains of the Armed Forces.
The convention opened at the memorial chapel of the United States Merchant Marine Academy, in suburban Great Neck. The Jewish chaplains marked the centennial of the appointment, on September 18, 1862, of Rev. Jacob Frankel, of Philadelphia, following President Lincoln’s signing of a bill passed by Congress, authorizing the appointment as an army chaplain of any “regularly ordained minister of some religious denomination.” Until that Act became law, 100 years ago, only regularly ordained ministers of “some Christian denomination” were eligible to the chaplaincy.
A feature of the opening of the convention today was the presentation of a Torah scroll to the Marine Academy’s memorial chapel by Captain Joshua L. Goldberg, retired Navy chaplain. The Torah was accepted on behalf of the Academy by Rear Admiral Gordon McClintock, superintendent of the academy, and the school’s chaplain, Rabbi Hirsch E.L. Freund.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
