RUTHFULLY YOURS

A rabbi from Brooklyn, N.Y., is suing the Army over its “no-beard” policy, claiming the service violated his religious freedoms when it rejected him because he refuses to shave.

Menachem M. Stern’s lawsuit argues the Army is discriminating against him because it has waived the “no-beard” rule for several Sikhs and a Muslim, but not for him. Advocates hope the case, if successful, will pave the way for more bearded rabbis to become chaplains and minister to historically underserved Jewish soldiers.

“While they’re stalling me, they’re taking in other religions, for instance, Sikhs and Muslims with beards and turbans at the same time,” Stern said. “At that point, my question became, ‘Who says yes and who says no?’ It shows how in a great institution such as the Army, the right hand doesn’t know what the left hand is doing.”

In the suit, filed in federal court in Washington, D.C., on Dec. 8, Stern included his correspondence with the Army from 2009. In it, Stern informed the Army he would not shave. The Army nevertheless granted him a commission as a Reserve first lieutenant, and then it rescinded the offer the next day, citing an “administrative error” and the “no-beard” policy.

“Even if the military thinks regular servicemen should be clean-shaven, clearly chaplains who are teaching religion are in a different category,” said Stern’s Washington attorney, Nathan Lewin. “If a rabbi wears a beard and a beard is after all traditionally associated with the Jewish faith, nobody’s going to take it as being some violation of military discipline. It just means the rabbi, like he puts a yarmulke on his head, is wearing a beard because that’s what’s religiously required of him.”

Stern, an adherent to the ultra-Orthodox Chabad-Lubavitch movement of Hasidism, is suing with the support of the Aleph Institute, a Florida-based endorsing agency for Jewish chaplains that has ties to the Chabad movement. Rabbi Sanford Dresin, director of military programs for the Aleph Institute, said he first tried to convince Army leaders to be more accommodating in light of the service’s low number of Jewish chaplains.

There are only nine rabbis on active duty and none at several major installations including Fort Hood, Texas; Fort Leonard Wood, Mo.; and Joint Base Lewis-McChord, Wash., Dresin said. Army statistics show 1,800 soldiers identified themselves as Jewish in 2009, but Dresin said many more Jewish soldiers who do not report their faith to the Army could be served.

“The Army is not going to crumble here; we’re going to provide for free exercise [of religion], we’re going to provide for Jewish troops out there,” said Dresin, a retired Army chaplain and former chaplaincy personnel official. “I’m a ‘system’ guy. I tried to reach out to everyone, and it’s just out of frustration and desperation that we filed a suit.”

The Army has not responded to the lawsuit, and Army spokesman Tim Beninato said in an e-mail to Army Times that he cannot comment on pending litigation. “The Army places a high value on a Soldier’s right to observe the tenets of his or her respective religious faith,” he said in an e-mailed statement.

Beninato cited Army Regulation 670-1, which bans flashy haircuts and hair dyes, long sideburns and beards, and AR 600-20, which permits soldiers to apply for policy exemptions on religious grounds. Requests for religious accommodation, if denied, may be appealed up the chain of command to the Army’s personnel chief.

“Each request is considered on its own merit and weighs the desire for Soldiers to express themselves religiously in relation to the requirements of the Army,” he said.

In a letter to Dresin, Maj. Gen. Jeffrey L. Arnold, the Army personnel policy chief, said there is no shortage of Jewish chaplains. He cited AR 670-1 and AR 600-20, writing, “Current accession standards … prohibit wearing a beard for all faith groups.”

Col. Scottie R. Lloyd, the personnel director for the chaplain’s section, said in a letter to Stern that the Army is reviewing its grooming policy. Until the review is complete, “we have to wait and see if a policy change may occur,” Lloyd wrote. “I pray this decision comes sooner rather than later for all concerned.”

There is one bearded Jewish chaplain, Reserve Col. Jacob Goldstein, who is allowed under Army regulations because his beard was approved before 1986.

The service has granted at least four exemptions for beards in the last two years. In October 2009, then-acting Army personnel chief Maj. Gen. Gina Farrisee approved requests to grant waivers to two Sikh officers, based on their “individual circumstances,” and to a Muslim intern at Walter Reed Army Medical Center, Washington, D.C.

In November, the Army admitted its first Sikh enlisted soldier in nearly three decades after granting a rare religious exemption for his turban and beard because the military needs his language skills. Spc. Simran Lamba, due to become a combat medic, speaks the Indian languages Hindi and Punjabi.

The Aleph Institute, which the Army authorized to endorse Jewish chaplains in 2006, had been lobbying Army leaders to no avail for more than a year, Dresin said. He and Goldstein met with Army personnel chief Lt. Gen. Thomas P. Bostick at the Pentagon in July to try to win concessions.

Dresin said Army officials told him there is no policy for granting a beard waiver prior to entry into the Army, so Stern should shave his beard, enter the Army and apply for the waiver afterward. To Dresin and Lewin, it’s an infuriating pile of inconsistencies.

“The fact is they allow people to wear beards so long as they come in clean-shaven,” Lewin said. “That makes no sense at all. That is as arbitrary and as stupid a rationale as I have ever heard.”

Dresin said there are good reasons for the Army to accommodate bearded rabbis on its own. For one, if the Army loses in court, it could be saddled with an outcome it may not want, like bearded soldiers all over the Army.

“I explained to the powers that be that if we go into the courts, the courts may rule that not only is this a waiver to be granted to rabbis, but to anyone for religious reasons,” Dresin said. “I tried to work it out amicably and I was being stonewalled.”

If it allowed beards, the Army would have access to large pool of candidates from the Chabad-Lubavitch movement, he said. Dedicated to Jewish outreach and education, Chabad has sent emissaries to open more than 2,600 centers in 60 countries, according to Chabadlive.com.

“We’ve never had a problem with Chabad people willing to go anywhere, certainly downrange, and expose themselves to various dangers,” Dresin said. “That’s one of the main reasons why I’ve tried to obtain this waiver.”

Stern, a 29-year-old naturalized American born in Israel, said he had “a calling” to serve soldiers, who themselves are dedicated to self sacrifice.

“Working with non-Jews on a day-to-day basis brought me the realization that people as a whole, especially those in service, are looking for guidance,” he said. “This was a calling, like a strike of lightning.”

In his application essay, he said he offers the Army the strength of traditions Jews have retained for millennia.

“Although we adapted to the modern world, we still maintain old-world values,” he wrote. “By not trimming my beard I represent the unadulterated view of the holy Torah, the way we believe a person should live.”