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Kennedy Hails ‘devotion’ of Jewish Chaplains in U.S. Services

November 7, 1962
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President Kennedy has hailed the 100th anniversary of the commissioning of the first Jewish Army chaplain in 1862, as an era “marked by the service, devotion and valor of our Jewish chaplains in times of war and peace.”

The statement appears in a book, “Rabbis In Uniform, ” describing the story of the American Jewish military chaplains during the past century, published this week as one of the events of the year-long observance of the centennial. The book was published by the Association of Jewish Chaplains of the Armed Forces, in cooperation with Jonathan David Publishers.

Ex-President Eisenhower also contributed an introductory statement, describing the record of chaplains “of all faiths” as one “in which Americans take great pride. In the struggle for human liberty and human rights in which we are now engaged, ” stated Gen, Eisenhower, “the military chaplain stands forth sharply as a living symbol of those principles and qualities which differentiate our world of freedom from the world of tyranny. “

Jewish chaplains throughout the United States are handling a flood of hardship problems resulting from the personal needs of servicemen and their dependents uprooted by the Cuban crisis, it was reported here today by the Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy and the Armed Forces of the National Jewish Welfare Board.

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