Our 4th Beirut Veteran we are honored to have aboard:
Rabbi Arnold E. Resnicoff is a retired U.S. Navy Chaplain, former National Director of Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, former Special Assistant to the Secretary and Chief of Staff of the U.S. Air Force for Values and Vision (with the military equivalent rank of Brigadier General), and former Command Chaplain for the U.S. European Command. His Naval career began in the rivers of Vietnam followed by Naval Intelligence in Europe before rabbinical school and ordination, then returning to the Navy as a chaplain. Part of a small group of Vietnam veterans that worked to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial, he delivered the closing prayer at its dedication, and launched an ultimately successful campaign to convince the Department of Defense to participate in the U.S. National Days of Remembrance of the Victims of the Holocaust. On October 23, 1983, he was present in Beirut, Lebanon during the terrorist attack that took the lives of 241 American military personnel. His report of the attack and its aftermath was read by President Ronald Reagan as a keynote speech to a convention attended by 20,000 Southern Baptists. Rabbi Resnicoff spoke frequently on the need to overturn the military Don’t-Ask-Don’t-Tell policy, at venues including the annual Ethics and Military Leadership conferences at the U.S. Naval War College — a conference he helped create, and throughout his career was a strong supporter of LGBTQ rights, delivering the prayer at the 2010 presidential repeal ceremony for DADT. His younger brother Joel, a noted artist, lost his life to AIDS in 1986. His website is www.resnicoff.net