This brand-new post calls on Resnicoff to help build a climate of religious tolerance at the United States Air Force Academy. It was created as the result of a panel that investigated complaints that some Christians at the Academy had harassed Jewish cadets and those of other faiths.
The panel report, released six days prior to Rabbi Resnicoff’s appointment, found no “overt” discrimination, but urged that new guidelines should be set up on what kinds of remarks on religion were permissible. One chaplain was accused of telling non-Christian cadets that they would burn in hell, for example.
Such comments would no longer be allowed, Resnicoff told the New York Times. “When it comes to anything that puts another person down, then it is not even a religious question anymore,” he said. “You cannot show disrespect to another person.”
Council President Joel Rosenthal congratulated Rabbi Resnicoff on his appointment. “He is a man of great integrity and courage, whose years with the military make him particularly suited for this post. His work in promoting religious pluralism is exemplary. The health and strength of our democratic society depends on leaders like Arnold Resnicoff who tap into the moral resources of our religious faiths by encouraging tolerance and steering us toward common moral purposes.”
Resnicoff, a former National Director of Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, is a retired Navy officer. He started his career as a line officer in Vietnam and later became command chaplain for the U.S. European Command. He earned the Defense Superior Service Medal and the Chapel of Four Chaplains Hall of Heroes Gold Medallion.
For more information on Rabbi Resnicoff, including links to many of his articles, please see Rabbi Resnicoff's Home Page.
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