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July 14, 2000/11 Tammuz 5760, Vol. 52, No.44
Rabbi moves up in military ranks
LEISAH NAMM
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 Rabbi Bonnie Koppell serves as grand marshal for a 1999 Veteran's Day Parade in Mesa. With her, from left, are her daughters Sarah and Jessie. |
Twenty-two years ago, Koppell was the first woman to take the oath of office as a second lieutenant, chaplain candidate of the U.S. Army Reserve.
She then advanced through the ranks of first lieutenant, captain and major. In March, she earned her silver oak leaf and was promoted to lieutenant colonel.
She will celebrate her promotion with a lecture on "War and Peace in the Jewish Tradition," 8 p.m. Friday, July 28, at the synagogue, 3400 N. Dobson Road.
Koppell is the only female rabbi in the U.S. Army Reserve, says Rabbi Nathan Landman, deputy director of the Jewish Welfare Board, an agency that sponsors and certifies Jewish chaplains in the armed forces.
The only other Jewish female chaplain is on full-time active duty in the Navy, he says. There are 43 male rabbis in the three branches of the military.
As an Army chaplain, Koppell counsels Army personnel, provides help with personal problems and does "pastoral sort of things." Her longest assignment was nine years at the 164th Corps Support Group in Mesa, where she was assistant group chaplain and then group chaplain. The CSG's duty is to take care of soldiers' needs, she says.
CSG assignments took her to California, Louisiana and Korea, and because she was with a field unit, she usually lived in a tent.
"One of the fascinating, wonderful things about being in the Army is the opportunity to see how the Army goes into a place where there's nothing.
"It was endlessly fascinating to me when I was going into the field. You go to a place - it's pristine, it's nothing. And you get there and this world springs up and is created and you live in this world that is a universe unto itself."
Koppell travels this portable world with an Army-issue portable ark - a metal box hard enough to endure a helicopter jump. Inside is a small Torah, inscribed on paper rather than the customary parchment. The ark is equipped with a yad (pointer for the reader), velvet curtains, velvet pieces that dress the Torah and compartments for a kiddush cup, wine and candlesticks.
In February, she started an assignment as mobilization chaplain at Fort Huachuca in Sierra Vista, where she will spend two weeks each summer and 12 days throughout the year.
Although her previous unit accommodated her "special needs" as wife, mother and congregational rabbi, the schedule was often arduous, she says. "I would go to drill in the morning, sign in, do services, come back to Sunday school and then go back."
She says her new job is a better fit with her other lives.
Koppell and her husband, David Rubenstein, have two daughters, Jessie, 14 and Sarah, 11. She has been spiritual leader at Temple Beth Sholom for 13 years.
Although the media often portrays the military culture as "fraught with discrimination," the "Army has a very low tolerance for any kind of back talk or sexual harassment," Koppell says. She says that as a woman chaplain, she has never experienced a negative response.
"If they have any reaction to it, they better keep it to themselves," she says.
Among Koppell's duties as chaplain is to meet the religious needs of her soldiers. "As a Jewish chaplain, the whole 'service' thing is pretty awkward," she says. "There are very few Jewish soldiers, so very little time do I feel like a rabbi. I act as a chaplain; that's more of a generic role."
She generally works with Protestant clergy, who lead the Sunday morning services.
She recalls a time when one wasn't available and she had to conduct the Sunday morning service herself. For this, she put together "a prayer service that was not specifically Christian or Jewish, more of a generic prayer service." She distributed Army hymnals to Christian soldiers so that they could sing hymns. But mainly, she drew from sources like the psalms, "which are common to both our liturgies."
She has never been asked to perform Christian rituals such as last rites, but says she is prepared to do so.
Another of her duties is to help soldiers fulfill religious dietary requirements. The Army is a very "pork-heavy" institution, she says. "They will serve pork for breakfast, lunch and dinner."
"There are actually kosher/halal MREs (meals ready-to-eat) that the military has developed (to meet Jewish and Muslim dietary requirements). And they're kind of in high demand because they're much lower fat and tastier.
"They have a shelf life of one year. The general (military) MRE has a shelf life of four years, so that gives you an idea of the quality - it's a little closer to food."
She finds her Army role as "always a challenge. I find it a very emotionally challenging event whenever I spend any duration of time in the Army because it is another world and it calls on such different skills than I have in my everyday life."