Rabbis help Jewish recruits, sailors celebrate faith

Of the roughly 40,000 recruits who go through the Great Lakes Naval Station for boot-camp training each year, only a fraction are Jewish.

Some may be observant. Others may have been raised in Jewish homes but no longer regularly follow Jewish traditions. And some may know little of Judaism.

But all of them are welcome at the Friday-night services marking the start of Shabbat, the Jewish sabbath.

The services are part of a program created by the Jewish Community Center of Chicago more than three years ago. It teams Navy chaplains at the North Chicago base with civilian rabbis and laymen to lead services each Shabbat, and for many of the other Jewish holidays.

Rabbi Nina Mizrahi, director of the Jewish Community Center of Chicago's Pritzker Center for Jewish Education, helped create the program. It's important to help Jewish recruits connect with other Jews and to meet their spiritual needs, she said.

“It's quite extraordinary,” Mizrahi said of the weekly services. “This is the most engaged congregation anyone could ask for.”

This week's Shabbat service will fall during Hanukkah, the ancient festival of lights that begins Wednesday and continues through Dec. 9. Although not as historically important as the High Holy Days of Rosh Hashana and Yom Kippur, Hanukkah's arrival will mean some special activities during this week's Shabbat service.

“In the past we've brought dreidels and gelt,” Mizrahi said, referring to the traditional Hanukkah tops and gold foil-covered chocolates. “It's festive.”

Lt. Aaron Kleinman, a Navy chaplain and rabbi at Great Lakes who works with Mizrahi, said Hanukkah “gets short shrift” in the Jewish community because it's not a biblical holiday. But at Great Lakes, it's definitely a reason for Jewish personnel to come together celebrate, he said.

“The holidays really give you a hook ... because this is what their childhood memories are of,” said Kleinman, a U.S. Naval Academy graduate and former combat pilot who became a chaplain in 2008.

“They remember the dreidel. They remember the menorah lights,” Kleinman added. “These are the memories that really hook and connect them to their people.”

Celebrating its centennial next year, Great Lakes is the only boot camp for U.S. Navy recruits. But it's also home to schools and other programs for thousands of active-duty Navy personnel.

Great Lakes doesn't track the religious affiliations of the sailors or recruits stationed there, nor of the civilians or contractors who work there, so it's not known exactly how many of the roughly 20,800 personnel on the base are Jewish, Great Lakes spokesman John L. Sheppard said.

Mizrahi estimated the figure among recruits at 1 percent.

The Shabbat and holiday services are held at nondenominational base chapels.

From 15 to 35 congregants attend special services for the recruits each week, Mizrahi estimated.

For the active-duty personnel on the other side of the base, Shabbat services typically attract three or four worshippers, Kleinman said. Attendance jumps to 20 or 30 for the holidays.

The services are conducted in English and Hebrew. They differ depending on who is leading the service.

Just as sabbath services can serve as an oasis for religious civilians, so can the Shabbat gatherings for the recruits.

“Shabbat becomes, for them, something very important and humanizing,” said Mizrahi, of Northbrook. “They have these two hours away from marching and people barking orders at them.”

Many non-Jewish recruits attend Shabbat and holiday services at Great Lakes, too, Mizrahi said.

“They don't come to missionize,” she said. “They love the experience. They love Shabbat.”

The services for active-duty personnel don't attract as many non-Jews, said Kleinman, one of only nine rabbis on active duty with the Navy. Sailors have more liberty than recruits, he said, and more choices for their free time.

Kleinman and Mizrahi hope the services help establish the sense of community that's integral to the Jewish faith.

“The services give them a chance ... to connect and maintain their Jewish identities,” Kleinman said. “Look around the base. There's not really a lot (of things) that are religious or Jewish.”

Over the next eight nights, Jewish sailors will light a menorah in a public area at the base's command building.

They'll also enjoy doughnuts from a kosher shop in Chicago. Doughnuts are a traditional Hanukkah snack because the oil used to cook them symbolizes the oil used to light the menorah at the Holy Temple in Jerusalem centuries ago.

On the other side of the base, the rabbis will lead participating recruits in traditional Hanukkah songs in addition to the dreidel games and candle lighting.

Singing religious songs might not seem very Navy-like, but Mizrahi thinks it fits.

“Hanukkah is essentially the story of religious freedom, freedom to be who you are,” she said. “It reminds us of the preciousness of the rights and freedoms guaranteed by the Constitution.”