Flashback: Lubavitcher Rebbe Sends Emissary to Conduct Yom Kippur Services in Greenland

NEW YORK (LNS) – Jewish personnel stationed at the United States Air Force base in Thule, Greenland, will – to their pleasant surprise – have someone to conduct services for them on Yom Kippur, the holiest day on the Jewish calendar.

The office of the secretariat of the Lubavitcher Rebbe, Rabbi Menachem M. Schneerson, world leader of the Lubavitcher movement, announced that it has sent a representative to Thule for the Yom Kippur services.

The office explained that there are Jewish agencies responsible for the supply of chaplains for Jewish members of the armed forces, however, requests for chaplains require several weeks of processing. In the Thule base instance the request had come less than a week before Yom Kippur and could therefore not be fulfilled. The matter was brought to the attention of the Rebbe.

With the cooperation of the Radio Corporation of America necessary communications were swiftly made. But late Friday afternoon the Rebbe’s office learned that the formal reservation for the United States Air Force jet leaving for Thule on Sunday, and the only means of transportation to Greenland before Yom Kippur, would not be obtainable from the Pentagon in Washington until the following Monday.

With its “diplomatic corps” in high gear the secretariat contacted Secretary of the Air Force Zuckert who ordered that all normal protocol reservation procedures for the flight be waived for the Rabbi.

The civilian emissary, Rabbi Shmuel Lew, 25, ordained at the Lubavitcher Yeshiva in New York, left MaGuire Air Force Base on Sunday aboard the Air Force jet with special credentials and priorities, and will return on Friday. Rabbi Lew took a supply of -nonleather shoes with him for the Jewish people in Thule; leather shoes are prohibited on Yom Kippur.

President Lyndon Johnson who was informed of the proceedings was greatly pleased to learn of the immediate expediency and cooperation of the Air Force command.