Calling all Lay Leaders: Rabbi Menachem Katz of the Alef Institute reminds us that there is ONLY ONE WEEK LEFT, from 06 Dec 06, to order your Kosher For Passover MRE’s and supplies from the Defense Logistics Agency. 

Personnel requiring Passover Seder kits and Kosher for Passover meals should immediately contact their unit chaplain, Jewish chaplain or lay leader to advise them of their needs.  Any order should also consider additional incoming personnel who may arrive prior to Passover. 

CLICK HERE for full details on placing an order.

Every service member should be familiar with the DLA pamphlet “Happenings ... Ecclesiastical News for 2005 - 2006” (the 2006 - 2007 edition is not yet available).  This DLA pamphlet contains all the stock numbers for a variety of religious supplies in addition to Passover items paid for by appropriated funds i.e. the military’s money.  Your chaplain should have available to him a copy of this pamphlet.  Please note that the pamphlet contains the names, e-mail addresses and telephone numbers for all the POC’s in the ordering process at DLA. 

Chaplains and lay leaders need to get their Chanukah and more importantly their Passover orders in soon.

If you have not already ordered your Chanukah supplies, download this form and submit it to the JWB ASAP.  Your best bet is to email it to directly.  The requested date is today (the 27th), but better late than never.

This year Passover begins at sundown, Monday, April 2, 2007 and concludes at nightfall on Tuesday, April 10.

It may seem early to be thinking about Passover, but with the quantity of items along with the logistics involved, leaders need to place their orders as soon as possible, especially for those deployed overseas, if you want to ensure they get there on time.

There are two different Passover Seder kits.  The Rabbi/Leader kit (NSN # 9925-01-526-3373) is for persons leading the seder.  The participant kit (NSN # 9925-01-526-3364) is for those attending the seder. Personnel unable to attend a community seder who plan to conduct their own private Seder should order the Rabbi/Leader kit.  Each kit contains all items necessary for two Passover Seders.

Chaplains in the Southwest Asia area of operations should work with Food Service personnel to ensure all Passover supply requests are sent to CW4 Peter Gaber, CFLCC C4.  CW4 Gaber is in Kuwait.  He is responsible for ensuring that SWA Passover supplies are rolled-up and ordered through DLA.  CW4 Gaber’s e-mail address is:

Chaplains in other areas should work with Food Service personnel to ensure all Passover Seder kits are ordered with Ms. Maryann Bonk at DLA.  Ms. Bonk’s e-mail address is :

Ms. Deborah Sinno is available to assist with ordering Passover MRE.  Ms. Sinno’s e-mail address is : 

For further information regarding the kits, you can download the DLA pamphlet here.

Haaretz has an new article on Rabbi Irv Elson (LCdr, USN).  While it is poorly labeled, “It’s hard to get kosher food in the U.S. Marines” it really focuses on what an amazing blessing this man is to the Marines he serves.

I’ve corresponded with Rabbi Elson before, but have yet to have the honor of actually meeting him.  With the way he gets around the Marine Corps, I’m sure it is only a matter of time.  I highly encourage you to read the full article, but here are some excerpts that should explain why I respect him so much:

[Rabbi Elson] tried to persuade the rabbinical students to join the Marines after their ordination. He believes that “every young Jewish man and woman ordained to be rabbis should aspire to serve in the U.S. Marines.”

“Believe me, the challenge to serve in the armed forces in a spiritual capacity, administering to the religious needs of Jewish soldiers, is greater and much more fascinating than the role of a rabbi in a synagogue,” he says.

Wow, that’s quite a statement!  I’m not sure many rabbinical schools would agree with him, but you have to admire his complete dedication to his Marines.  If Chesty Puller was Jewish, Rabbi Elson would be his reincarnate.

Rabbi Elson doesn’t shy away from the action either.  He was attached to a Marine artillery brigade that was part of the initial push into Iraq.

“I decided to enlist as a rabbi to the army instead of looking for a synagogue, because in the army, religion is devoid of politics,” he says. “Among the Jewish soldiers, there is no distinction between Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. I never ask a soldier which stream he belongs to. Every Jew gets equal treatment in the army.”

I couldn’t agree with him more on this point.  When you are putting your life on the line for others (Jewish, Christian, Muslim, or anyone), it seems so petty to argue with a fellow Jew over what movement is real Judaism.  That’s something Rabbi Elson’s civilian counterparts could learn a lot from.

Read the full article HERE.  No really, go read it!

UPDATE: As I had mentioned before, the Haaretz article seems to have misrepresented Rabbi Elson a bit.  Arutz Sheva reports that there is not a kosher food shortage for deployed troops:

Commander Elson told Kosher Today that the only shortage he could remember was short-lived during the initial phases of Operation Freedom. He charged Ha’aretz with grossly misrepresenting the facts, including his rank. “Most soldiers eat in mess halls and easily put together a kosher meal. But for those who are in the arena, like in Fallujah, kosher rations are available,” Elson said. He repeated his praise for the defense establishment for “their sensitivity in meeting the needs of Jewish servicemen.”

I should also mention that there is another great article about Rabbi Elson on The Jewish Week entitled Rabbi Of The Sunni Triangle

Keeping kosher in itself can be challenging for some people.  Add the remoteness of most military bases and isolation from a large Jewish community and the challenge can get quite big.  The following is kind of a personal plea for service members to help out in a very small way.

My wife and I only started keeping strict kosher a few months before we were married.  We had eaten “kosher style” for longer than that, but maintaining a kosher home was something that we both saw as important and used this life-cycle event as a starting point for our new endeavor.

Before that point, I never really gave much thought to food that was actually certified kosher.  Once this started to matter to me, I realized that there are a lot of everyday food items that do have a kosher certification.  Meat and cheese are a whole different story, but snacks, cereals, vegetables, drinks, and just about any other food item is available from a manufacturer that certifies their food as kosher.

Read more...

For those interested in kosher rations, La Briute Meals is offering a special promotion where you buy 7 of their meals and you can get the 8th for free.

We wrote a full review of the meals last month and were quite impressed.  To get the free meal, use coupon code LAB4 when checking out.  The offer expires on September 12th.

One of the most popular topics among Jews in the military is kashrut and more specifically, kosher rations.  Here at Jews in Green, we regularly receive several hits a week from people searching for kosher MREs on Google.  I wrote a brief article on kosher MREs as one of the first stories on Jews in Green, but I’ve come to realize that a much more thorough discussion was required.

So the staff here at Jews in Green (with the help of some active duty taste testers) put the two main offerings for kosher MREs to the test.  Read the full article to see how they matched up, and details on how you can obtain the meals.

A great deal of work went into arranging kosher rations for the military, so I’m going to take a little time to spotlight the efforts and challenges faced in doing so.  If you just want to see the taste test results, click here.

Article contents:

• About the Companies
• The Taste Test
• In Summary
• Ordering Info
• Kashrut Information

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The question of the month for June is, “What is the most unique or bizarre experience you have had keeping kosher in the military?”

Check out the forums to see what others have written or to post your own story.

Abe from Out In Style, an online retailer of camping, military, and law enforcement related products, has been kind enough to offer Jews in Green readers a 10% discount on all orders.

FYI: They sell kosher meals and rations!

Abe is offering this purely as a gift from one Jew to another.  Just follow this link and use coupon code: HH1818 when you check out and you will receive a 10% discount on your order.

I was going through one of my bread cravings the other day (during Passover) and I realized what a great thing this new low-carb craze is to some Jews. These days I keep strict kosher for Passover, but there was a time when that wasn't the case. I've been stationed in a few places where finding kosher for Passover items are next to impossible, so I used to just do my best to eliminate bread and reduce any other prohibited items on Passover. In the Atkins-crazed America we now live in this "method" is a whole lot easier.

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What's better than a nice hot MRE? A kosher one, of course! As most of us know, keeping kosher in the military can be a particular challenge. Add field operations into the equation and it gets even worse.

So what's a good little Jewish boy (or girl) to do? Enter MoM to the rescue. No, not your mother, MoM (My Own Meals). As far as I know, there used to be "regular" kosher MREs in standard packaging (like the current vegetarian ones). Now, a private company has the responsibility of supplying kosher rations to the U.S. military. MoM makes 10 different kosher meals. Each meal contains an entree plus a bag containing a variety of components.

So how do I order them?

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