“How can a good Jew celebrate Thanksgiving?” a fervently Orthodox Jew asked me some years ago. Thanksgiving, he pointed out, is not mentioned in the Bible, the Talmud, or any of the Codes of Jewish Law, and had its origins among Christian Pilgrims in New England.

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Years ago, my wife and I were invited to a Chanukah party at the home of an intermarried Jew. The wife, who was Jewish, proudly lit the Chanukah candles near the window in the dining room, reciting the traditional blessings.

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The battle for a Pagan chaplain recalls an earlier effort to make the chaplaincy more inclusive. The story dates back to 1861, during the early months of the Civil War.

The military chaplaincy law, passed in that year, stipulated that a regimental chaplain be a “regularly ordained minister of some Christian denomination.” Interestingly, the parallel Confederate law was more inclusive, requiring simply that the chaplain be a “minister of religion.”

The chaplaincy bill effectively barred Jewish chaplains from the field in the North – this in a war where some 8,000-10,000 Jews were fighting in the field. At least two elected Jewish chaplains were rejected on account of the discriminatory law, placing Jewish soldiers at a great disadvantage to Christian ones, and in effect rendering the Jewish faith illegitimate.

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