Rabbi David E. Lapp Retires
After Quarter-Century at Helm of JWB Jewish Chaplains Council
JCC Association, US Armed Forces Present
Honors for Distinguished Careers in Military and Jewish Communal
Service
NEW YORK, NY, FEBRUARY 1, 2006 – The
long, distinguished career of Rabbi David E. Lapp, is coming
to a close amid tributes and fanfare marking his retirement
as director of the Jewish Chaplains Council of the Jewish
Welfare Board. The board, which certifies Jewish chaplains
for the US armed services and Veterans Administration and
responds to the Judaic needs of Jewish service personnel worldwide,
operates under the auspices of JCC Association, a New York-based
nonprofit agency.
“It’s hard to imagine the chaplaincy without Rabbi
Lapp,” said Chaplain Brigadier General Cecil Richardson
of the United States Air Force, a sentiment widely shared
by those who attended a cocktail reception in the rabbi’s
honor on Sunday, January 8th during the quarterly meeting
of the board of directors of JCC Association. Lapp, who attained
the level of lieutenant colonel in the US Army before leaving
active field duty 25 years ago to become JWB’s lead
professional, was feted by colleagues for his nearly half-century
of service, a career that took him around the globe ministering
to American military personnel and mentoring chaplains of
every religious faith. The formalities included presentations
by JCC Association President Allan Finkelstein, Rabbi Philip
Silverstein, chairman of the JWB Jewish Chaplains Council,
and along with Richardson, other high ranking officials of
the armed services.
In presenting Rabbi Lapp with a wooden havdallah set, Finkelstein
said, “In our tradition, fragrance often represents
good deeds. The spice box is, therefore, emblematic of all
the good you have done in the last quarter of a century through
your work with us. The candle and the light of its fire is
a metaphor for Torah. You burn with Torah and it radiates
through everything you say and do. And finally, the wine that
goes into the kiddush cup is usually a good, sweet kosher
wine, and ultimately, you are a good, sweet friend, colleague
and teacher.”
The accolades continued at a meeting of the entire JCC Association
staff on Thursday, January 26th. At the morning gathering,
Chaplain Lowell S. Kronick, associate director of the National
Chaplain Service, presented Rabbi Lapp with a plaque on behalf
of the department of veteran affairs. He added: “Rabbi
Lapp is a great friend of the VA chaplain service, helping
those who have been discharged from the armed forces and are
facing illness and disability to make sense of the meaning
and purpose in life.”
Alan Mann, JCC Association executive vice-president of the
JCC and community services department, read a congratulatory
Congressional Proclamation from the Honorable Nita M. Lowey,
after which he said, “Rabbi Lapp is the best example
of a person who cares about the people he works with, about
his family and about his adopted country. He feels deeply
about his Jewish commitment and his commitment to the United
States and has always fulfilled these commitments throughout
his professional life.” A Senate Proclamation is expected
to be delivered in the upcoming weeks.
Lapp responded to the outpouring of praise with customary
grace and eloquence. In one speech, he paraphrased rabbinic
commentaries on the patriarch Jacob’s long life, telling
the crowd that he truly began living when he came to the United
States from his native Austria. Although only nine-years-old,
he knew he had found a country where diversity was accepted,
a national value reflected no more so than in the American
military. “Each member of the armed forces deserves
and receives respect, no matter the faith,” he said.
Saluting his colleagues in the chaplaincy, he added, “I
think for young men and women serving their country, this
is the best time of their lives to be influenced by what religion
is all about. The military allows and encourages them to get
to know themselves through better understanding of their faith.
Many are being rotated into critical areas of combat; they’re
not just playing around, and they’re very conscious
of whether they’ll be returning at all or returning
in the same condition. They have a lot of time to ponder,
and military chaplains have an opportunity reach out to them.”
In recalling his work with soldiers returning from Vietnam
who had suffered crippling wounds, Rabbi Lapp noted that the
VA is the largest provider of healthcare in the world, serving
hundreds of thousands of retired military personnel through
162 hospitals nationwide. “There is no other country
that takes care of those it has sent into harm’s way,”
he said, in the same way.
Career Highlights and Reflections
From a span of more than 14 deployments, both overseas and
stateside, Lapp singled out his assignment as assistant chaplain
on the army base in Munich, Germany from 1960-63 as having
special meaning for a Jewish immigrant from Eastern Europe.
There, he provided programming and met the spiritual needs
of the sizeable Jewish congregation of about 500 Jewish service
personnel in Munich, Augsburg and Northern Italy and was also
responsible for serving inmates at the stockade (military
prison) at Dachau. “I left Austria in 1940, and Dachau
was already known as concentration camp for Jews, communists
and others, so to be going back there 20 years later was something
very unique, at least in my book.”
Another interesting tour, Lapp recalled, was the year he spent
as a deputy 1 field force chaplain in Vietnam, from 1966-67,
at the height of the hostilities. “I traveled every
day in a chopper to meet all over the country with small groups
of 5, 10, 20 people at a time, to have a [worship] service
and talk to them; It meant a lot to me to see these young
men and to be able to help them in this type of crisis, because
when you’re in an area where you never knew who the
enemy really is – he could be dressed in civilian clothes
[by day] and at night be a Vietcong – it was very scary
for them. They were never sure they would return from combat.”
While it was difficult to pinpoint a single highlight of his
quarter-century at JWB, Lapp did take particular pride in
the publication of a Jewish prayer book for the US military
that makes no distinction between denominations. “The
English readings were taken from Gates of Prayer, the Reform
siddur, and the Hebrew prayers were taken from the machzor
by Birnbaum, which is Orthodox. The book published by the
JWB is still the only prayer book used by the military for
Shabbat and weekday services.”
Among the significant changes he has witnessed in military
life over the decades, Lapp noted that there are fewer Jews
serving today, a fact he attributed to the elimination of
the draft. “Not too many Jews want to make a career
in combat by enlisting voluntarily. Many Jews that do enter
the military come in as officers. [Additionally], many more
are married today than in the past, because they are older
and seeking vocational training in a second career.”
Regarding religious life, Lapp applauds what he considers
a change for the better. He believes that the military chaplaincy
is more pluralistic and tolerant now than at any other time
in its history. “There is not as much separation between
Jews, Catholics and Protestants because there is a much better
understanding of each others’ theologies [today] than
we had 30 years ago when each chaplain served only his own
faith. In the last 20 years or so, every chaplain serves everyone.
We are not addressed as ‘Father,’ ‘Reverend’
or ‘Rabbi.’ A chaplain has responsibility for
everyone [of any religion] who comes into his office or whom
he approaches to offer pastoral care.”
Rabbi David E. Lapp – Biography
Rabbi David Lapp was born in Vienna, Austria
in 1931, emigrating with his family in 1940. He was educated
at Yeshiva University, first earning a bachelor’s of
arts in political science in 1954, followed by ordination
from the Rabbi Isaac Elchanan Theological Seminary in 1957.
He later earned an MS in religious education from YU, in 1972.
His formal military education includes completion of both
basic and advanced courses in chaplaincy and graduation from
the Command and General Staff College at Ft. Leavenworth,
KS (1969) and the Army War College in Carlisle, PA (1974).
His career in the military commenced shortly
after his rabbinic ordination when, in 1958, he was commissioned
in the Army Chaplain Corps. Ten years after his first overseas
assignment to Munich, Germany, he returned there with the
unique honor of being the first Jew ever to be assigned as
a division chaplain with supervisory responsibility for 33
chaplains representing every religious faith. He managed religious
programs and administrative responsibilities for eight communities
based in Western Europe serving with the First Armed Division.
Stateside, he was deployed to Fort Bliss, TX; Fort Know, KY;
Fort Hamilton, NY; Fort Monroe, VA; and served as deputy commandant
of the Army Chaplain School in Fort Monmouth, NJ
Among Rabbi Lapp’s numerous professional affiliations
is membership on the executive committee of the Rabbinical
Council of America; on the academic board of the Association
of Jewish Chaplains; and in the Jewish War Veterans of America.
He has been decorated by the military many times, most recently
this past December when he received the prestigious medal
of the Order of Aaron and Hur. The medal was presented in
a special ceremony at the Pentagon by Chaplain (Maj. Gen.)
David Hicks, chief of chaplains.
Lapp has no immediate post-retirement
plans, but looks forward to becoming involved as a volunteer
in hospitals and for UJA-Federation of North Jersey near his
home in Fair Lawn, NJ where he lives with his wife, Ruth.
###
JCC Association
is the leadership network of, and central agency for the Jewish
Community Center Movement, which is comprised of 350 JCC,
YM-YWHA and camp sites in the U. S. and Canada. JCC Association
offers a wide range of services and resources to strengthen
the capacity of its affiliates to provide educational, cultural,
social, Jewish identity-building, and recreational programs
to enhance the lives of North American Jews of all ages and
backgrounds. Additionally, the movement fosters and strengthens
connections between North American Jews and Israel as well
as with world Jewry. JCC Association is also the U.S. government
accredited agency for serving the religious and social needs
of Jewish military personnel, their families, and patients
in VA hospitals through JWB Jewish Chaplains Council.
Miriam
Rinn
Communications Manager
JCC Association
15 E. 26 St., NY, NY 10010
212-786-5092
fax: 212-481-4174
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