Chaplains– clergy attached to a secular institution including hospitals, prisons, embassies, schools, labor unions, police departments, fire departments, universities, intelligence agencies, airports, and military services - play a unique and meaningful role in the American landscape. These are ordained clergy who minister to members of the chaplain’s particular faith, to facilitate ministry to those of other faiths, and to care for all – including those who claim no religious faith. 

The first episode of this multi-episode series about chaplaincy in America beings with Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff discussing his career as a chaplain in the United States Navy, which intersected with important and meaningful events in the nation’s history.

Season 3, Episode 31: American Chaplaincy – Part 1

Guest Bio

Arnold E. Resnicoff was born in Washington, DC and attended Dartmouth College where he studied drama. Arnie then served a tour in Vietnam, including as part of "Operation Game Warden," the campaign to keep the rivers free of Viet Cong infiltrators. After the war he became a rabbi then a chaplain in the U.S. Navy, serving in that position for twenty-five years. Chaplain Resnicoff was part of the small group of veterans who worked to create the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, DC, delivering the closing prayer at its 1982 dedication. He was in Beirut on that fateful day when the Marine barracks were bombed on October 23rd 1983. His eyewitness report, written at the request of the White House, was read in full by President Ronald Reagan as a keynote speech to the 20,000 attendees of Jerry Falwell's "Baptist Fundamentalism '84" convention. Arnie was the first Jewish chaplain to attend the Naval War College, and the first chaplain of any faith to teach a course there (or at any military war college), "Faith and Force: Religion, War, and Peace." He served as Command Chaplain for the US European Command, the "top chaplain" for US chaplains of all faiths in all branches of the armed forces in all of Europe and most of Africa. Arnie has offered more prayers to open sessions of the House and Senate as guest chaplain than any other rabbi in history. After retirement from the Navy, he served as National Director for Interreligious Affairs for the American Jewish Committee, and Special Assistant for Values and Vision to the Secretary and Chief-of-Staff of the U.S. Air Force, a position that carried with it the military equivalent rank of brigadier general. 

http://www.resnicoff.net/

Rabbi Resnicoff’s 1982 prayer at the dedication of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial in Washington, D.C.

Rabbi Resnicoff’s report (and speech) to the White House about the Marine barracks bombing in 1983.

Podcast Support

Scholarly support provided by Dr. Lauren Turek, Associate Professor of History at Trinity University in San Antonio, Texas.

Technical audio and video assistance provided by Dr. Randall Stephens, a Professor of American and British Studies at the University of Oslo.

Religion in the American Experience is a podcast of the National Museum of American Religion, which tells the story of what religion has done to America and what America has done to religion.