Lt. Rabbi, Reporting for Duty, Israeli Native is 1St Woman Naval Academy Rabbi
BY: Richard Greenberg, Associate Editor
While she was on the verge of becoming a freshly minted rabbi, Daniella Kolodny was exploring career options, when a fellow clergy member, who happened to be a Navy chaplain, suggested that she give the military a try.
Kolodny hadn't had much exposure to the armed forces while growing up in Columbia. But she took the plunge, and the rest is military history ‹ literally.
A 2004 graduate of the Jewish Theological Seminary, Kolodny is the only active-duty woman rabbi in the Navy and the first-ever woman rabbi to serve as a chaplain at the U.S. Naval Academy in Annapolis, her current station.
"It's a good thing to be able to serve the Jewish people in the military, because there are not enough rabbis," said Kolodny, who is in her second tour of duty. "When a nation is at war, it's a good time to be a chaplain. People are suffering. And the spiritual questions and concerns are more acute when people are under fire, literally and figuratively."
Kolodny, who demurred on her age, is one of eight chaplains at the Naval Academy, and the only Jewish one. During her three-year active-duty career, her responsibilities have ranged from conducting Jewish services to comforting service members who have been wounded in battle.
"It's a very different thing to provide pastoral care for somebody who is 18, and only two weeks ago was hale and hearty, and was then wounded, and suddenly suffered a loss of bodily functions," she said. Although that individual's spiritual needs may be similar to an elderly or chronically ill patient, she added, the context is radically different, and that counts for plenty.
Kolodny is eminently qualified for the task, according to Rabbi Mychal Springer, an associate dean at the JTS rabbinical school. "She has deep compassion, an ability to hear people on a profound level, a love of religious experience in all its diversity, and a real vision of what it is to take care of people in a time of conflict," said Springer. "The care she has provided for [service members injured in Iraq] is really inspiring."
Kolodny, one of two children, was born in Israel (her parents had made aliyah, or emigrated to the Jewish state), and they relocated in the United States when she was 2. She became a bat mitzvah at Columbia Jewish Congregation.
She graduated from Boston University with a bachelor's degree in international relations, and then attended Pardes Institute in Israel for two years. Immediately prior to attending JTS, she was a programmer and fund-raiser for several years for the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland.
Because of her overwhelmingly civilian-influenced upbringing, her transition to the military was "challenging," as she put it. "I'm not from a military family," she added, although her father, who died when she was young, had been drafted during the Korean War, but did not see combat.
While Kolodny was a student at JTS, she began earning her sea legs by serving as a chaplain candidate ‹ a quasi-internship position ‹ at the Naval Academy and at the Merchant Marine Academy in Kings Point, N.Y.
After graduating from JTS, she was assigned to the National Naval Medical Center in Bethesda, her home base while she was a globe-hopping circuit rabbi from 2004 through April of this year. In that capacity, she led holiday services and otherwise ministered to sailors on ships in the Persian Gulf and at U.S. naval bases in the kingdom of Bahrain and Yokosuka, Japan.
Her experience as a circuit rabbi has proven invaluable at Annapolis, according to Kolodny's boss, Rev. Peter McGeory, senior chaplain at the Naval Academy. "She brings an incredible maturity and depth of understanding of what the midshipmen [academy attendees] are going to be doing" said McGeory, a Roman Catholic. "She is the perfect person to be a military chaplain. We're thrilled to have her, and we wish we had 10 more of her."
(McGeory, incidentally, said there are only eight Jewish chaplains in the entire Navy, "which is absolutely disastrous." All told, there are only 24 active-duty Jewish chaplains in all branches of the service, representing about 1 percent of the pool of military chaplains of all faiths, according to the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council.)
Whether on ship or land, Kolodny's domain is a place where Jews of any kind, not just rabbinic chaplains, are exceedingly rare. According to one account ‹ in the Web site Jews in Green ‹ Jews constitute an estimated 0.3 percent to 0.4 percent of the U.S. military, a tiny fraction of their numbers in the American populace as a whole.
"Some people in the Navy have never met a Jew," Kolodny said. As a result, one of her ad hoc missions is to help acquaint them with the basics of Judaism and to illustrate the special needs of Jewish service personnel. "It's more a matter of explanation and education," she said, noting that most non-Jews she has encountered in the military are receptive to her message. "I've never had any problems," she added. "Everyone I've met really understands freedom of religion."
They also apparently understand the concept of egalitarianism ‹ perhaps better than in the civilian world, she said. Kolodny has yet to be turned down by a sailor or midshipman in favor of a male rabbi.
Another benefit of serving in the military: The mandatory garb and its attendant insignias instantly identifies and contextualizes your fellow soldiers. "You know what to expect from others," Kolodny said. "There's no hiding. You wear what you are on your chest, literally."
In Kolodny's case, one of her unmistakable identifiers is a pin she wears on her collar. It features the Ten Commandments and a Star of David. She will continue wearing it for at least the remainder of her current tour, which ends in three years. And beyond that? "I can't predict the next 20 years," she said. "But it's been a very rewarding job, and as long as I enjoy it, I'll keep on doing it."
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