Thirty-five soldiers of the chareidi Chetz (Arrow) Company in the paratroopers received the red berets on Thursday at a ceremony held at Ammunition Hill in Jerusalem, the site of the paratroopers’ heroism in the liberation of Jerusalem in the Six-Day War.

Among the new parachutists was Joseph Brickman, a native of Crown Heights, grandson of Colonel Yaakov Goldstein, a former Chief Chaplain in the New York National Army Guard. Rabbi Goldstein came to the ceremony from the United States to congratulate his grandson and his comrades in arms.

Rabbi Goldstein, who served in the US Army for 38 years, decided to enlist after receiving a bracha from the Lubavitcher Rebbe, who was the first in the US army to receive a permit not to shave his beard. Goldstein served in many arenas including Bosnia, South Korea, Afghanistan, Cuba and Iraq.

During the Gulf War Goldstein arrived in Israel with the American delegation, and during the September 11 attacks, Rabbi Goldstein’s unit was among the first to arrive at the epicenter of the disaster in Manhattan. Wherever Rabbi Goldstein served, he saw to the spiritual needs of Jewish soldiers.

“The soldiers of the Chetz Company prove that it is possible to serve in IDF combat brigades without compromising on a chareidi way of life,” said the rabbis of the Netzach Yehuda association, who accompany the chareidi soldiers in Chetz.

(YWN Israel Desk – Jerusalem/Photo Credit: Netzach Yehuda Organization)