a(D0= OO 0<<= OO
Fighting in National Armies 99
In the American armed forces matters were different. The American Revolutionary army(1775-1781) had Protestant chaplains, independently provided by each unit. This pattern continued in the succeeding wars till the Civil War (1861-1865) when Catholic chaplains were also provided. Jewish soldiers served in each of these wars, but as the Jewish population was small, there were few Jewish soldiers. As each military unit elected its own officers and chaplains, an occasional Jew was also chosen.”
As many Jews served as soldiers in the American Civil War , the question of a Jewish chaplain arose. Rev. Arnold Fischel became a volunteer chaplain in the northern army while lobbying with the help of the Jewish community for an official Jewish chaplaincy. In 1862 Rabbi Jacob Frankel became the first of three Jewish military chaplains appointed by President Lincoln.” They became an official part of the military establishment.
In World War I the Jewish Welfare Board became the endorsing agency for American Jewish chaplains. In 1917 it published an abridged prayer book under the direction of three rabbis representing the Orthodox , Reform , and Conservative groups. Rabbi Elkan Voorsanger became the first American Jewish chaplain assigned to a combat unit in November of 1917. Twenty-six rabbis served as chaplains in the American army. In World War II the same general pattern prevailed; a new prayer book including a Reform service was published in 1941. Three hundred and eleven Jewish chaplains served in the various branches of the American armed forces and more than 700,000 copies of the military prayer book were distributed. With the beginning of the Korean War the three major rabbinic groups imposed a draft upon themselves to assure a steady supply of military chaplains and this continued to 1966. Jewish military chaplains regularly serve in the American armed forces to the present.”*Like their Protestant and Catholic counterparts, Jewish chaplains in the American military forces have been trained to serve all soldiers with ethical issues in emergencies with religious matters.