August 31, 2005
A Canadian Rabbi whom the US army has listed as a deserter has said that he was driven out of the military chaplaincy by anti-Semitic harassment from Christian colleagues. Rabbi Jeffrey Goldman left Fort Stewart, Georgia, in January 2002 after just one year as an Orthodox Jewish military chaplain. He said that he believes he resigned from the Army legally and that the desertion charge was a vindictive response to his allegations. Goldman says that while he was posted at the Georgia base, he worked in a 'poisonous atmosphere' created by three Christian chaplains and that one of the men taunted him by displaying Nazi guard uniforms. Goldman's complaints are the subject of an Army Inspector General's investigation. However the head of the council responsible for Jewish chaplains in the military, the Jewish Chaplains Council, has disputed Goldman's account and denies giving him permission to quit.