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.)