Lawmaker Plans to Introduce Measure to Prohibit the Military from Banning the Wearing of Yarmulkas

Rep. Charles Schumer (D.N.Y.) said Wednesday he plans to introduce legislation prohibiting the military from banning the wearing of yarmulkas.

Schumer, a member of the House Judiciary Committee, was acting in response to a 5-4 decision by the Supreme Court Tuesday upholding the right of the Air Force to prohibit an Orthodox Jewish captain, Simcha Goldman, from wearing a yarmulka. The ruling climaxed close to five years of litigation by Goldman and his attorney from the National Commission on Law and Public Affairs (COLPA).

“I do not believe that rigid military regulations should be interpreted to supersede basic constitutional rights, especially when they need not conflict, “Schumer said. The Congressman, who represents a Brooklyn district in which a large number of Orthodox Jews live, noted that a yarmulka is essentially unobtrusive.

“If the military is concerned about regulations and standard uniforms, then let them design a yarmulka that Jews who so desire can wear,” Schumer said. “All that is required is a simple covering of the head.” He added that “wearing of the yarmulka while in uniform certainly hasn’t undermined the effectiveness of the Israeli army.”

In a related development, Dennis Rapps, executive director and general counsel of COLPA, said the organization would try to put together a coalition of various religious minorities to work towards a legislative resolution of the yarmulka issue.

Congress, said Rapps, should study whether it accepts the military’s position that ” a member of a religious minority has to sacrifice a practice of his or her faith because the military arbitrarily (states) that it will undermine the individual’s ability to perform his or her military mission.”

Rapps stressed that he did not hold that every religious practice has to be accommodated. It would have to be evaluated whether or not it compromises the performance of military duties. But if it does not– and in the case of the yarmulka, not one of the courts which had heard the case thought it did– “why should the military have untrammeled discretion” to veto it?

“How can we accept that?” Rapps continued. “Why should someone have to sacrifice religious practices to participate fully in American life? This runs counter to our concept of a pluralistic society.”