He sports a full-length beard, is 52 years old, and spent 20 years as a computer programmer. And last week, Chabad-Lubavitch Lazer Danzinger became only the second rabbi since World War II to join the ranks of the Canadian armed forces as a chaplain and officer.

He heads to boot camp next month to be trained as a captain with the 25th Service Battalion of the 32nd Canadian Brigade headquartered in Toronto. He’ll be the brigade’s first rabbi in more than 60 years.

“I am the first Jewish chaplain ever in the Canadian Forces whose parents were Holocaust survivors,” he says. “Naturally, the poignancy of this historical event impresses upon me the awesome responsibility of my position.”

“Following my sense of obligation to serve in places where I was needed, I became a part-time Jewish chaplain at York Central Hospital and for the Correctional Service of Canada,” he explains. “And after recently completing a clinical pastoral education course given by the head chaplain of the University Health Network, I am confident that I can fulfill the Canadian Force’s chaplaincy mission of ‘ministering to my own, facilitating worship for others and caring for all.”

“I am thrilled to welcome Rabbi Danzinger to the battalion,” says Lt. Col. Andrew Zalvin, the rabbi’s commanding officer. He joins “a team that’s uniquely qualified to serve the spiritual needs of a unit that may be the most culturally diverse in all of the Canadian Army.”

(Source: Chabad.org)