Spring Valley, NY - After Protest, Coast Guard Lets Members Wear Yarmulkes
Spring Valley, NY - In the face of protests on behalf of a chasidic Jew in Rockland County, the Coast Guard has changed its uniform policy to allow service members to wear yarmulkes while on duty.
A tire technician and pilot from Spring Valley, Jack Rosenberg, 35, tried to sign up with a Coast Guard Auxiliary unit in New Jersey last year but was stymied after he told superiors that his religion requires him to wear a yarmulke.
After receiving complaints from Senator Kerry, a Democrat of Massachusetts, and Assemblyman Dov Hikind, a Democrat of Brooklyn, the Coast Guard relented. The commandant of the Coast Guard, Admiral Thad Allen, sent a letter to Mr. Kerry last month outlining a more permissive policy. The admiral said the changes were the result of "a thorough review" his agency conducted.
Mr. Hikind said the would-be Coast Guard search-and-rescue pilot was delighted by the agency's change of heart. "He is extremely, extremely happy," Mr. Hikind said. "This is a guy who's very determined, very nationalistic, very strong in his feelings about America. He felt, ‘Hey, I want to serve my country but I'm also a religious Jew.'"
The new rules for Coast Guard service members are tighter. They prohibit headgear bearing any writing and permit only items capable of fitting under a uniform cap. The gear also must be black or the same color as the wearer's hair. Those restrictions make it unlikely that the new policy for Coast Guard personnel would accommodate headscarves worn by Muslim women and turbans donned by Sikhs.
"I'm not going to say point-blank everything now is kosher and you can do anything that has a religious connection to it," Mr. Hikind said.
posted by VOS IZ NEIAS @ 8/08/2006 10:19:00 AM
1 Comments:
At 10:45 PM,
Anonymous said…
An Orthodox Jewish organization lauded the U.S. Coast Guard’s reversal of an earlier decision banning religious headgear on duty.
Agudath Israel of America had pressed the matter with the Coast Guard and its parent agency, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.
The policy, which prevented an Orthodox man from wearing his yarmulke on duty, was overturned last week.
“We are heartened by the Coast Guard’s decision, which was both the right and reasonable thing to do,” Rabbi Abba Cohen, Agudah’s Washington director and counsel, said in a statement Monday. “National security concerns are vital, but Congress has made clear that religious practices cannot simply be dismissed out of hand — that the critical point is whether observance in a given case interferes with duties.”
Agudah learned of the decision last week through the offices of Sen. John Kerry (D-Mass.), who has championed the rights of the religious in the workplace.
The Orthodox Union also praised the Coast Guard decision.
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