Objective coverage of church-state and religious liberty developments, with extensive links to primary sources.
Tuesday, September 16, 2014
Air Force Grants Its First Religious Accommodation For Jewish Chaplain To Wear Beard
J Space News reports that last Wednesday the U.S. Air Force for the first time granted a religious accommodation under a January 2014 revised Department of Defense directive (see prior posting) to commission a bearded rabbi as a chaplain. Rabbi Elie Estrin, director of a Chabad House at the University of Washington, was sworn in at McCord Air Force Base in Seattle. In 2011 the Army commissioned a rabbi after litigation over whether he should receive an accommodation for wearing a beard. (See prior posting.)