By COLlive reporter
Chaplain Colonel Jacob Goldstein visited Wednesday Chabad of Melbourne CBD where he spoke about his long career as the most senior Jewish Chaplain in the United States Military Corps.
Goldstein and his wife Sima Goldstein, residents of Brooklyn’s Crown Heights, spent Pesach in Australia by their daughter.
They were invited to Melbourne’s Central Business District by the Chabad Shliach Rabbi Chaim Herzog.
Goldstein told the lunch-time audience he was convinced to join the reserves thanks to a duel effort by the Lubavitcher Rebbe and, lehavdil, a Roman Catholic Priest.
During his service, he said he has encountered special moments. One of them was when he was deployed to Croatia and saw an elder man crying from the sight of him carrying a Lulav and Esrog on Sukkos.
“I was escorted by a team of 6 Army Police,” he recalled. “Two were walking with me and four were driving behind me. The old man ran over saying he hadn’t seen a Lulav in 60 years and I invited him to join us in Shul.”
He has served in the reserves as Chaplain in South Korea, Afghanistan and Guantanamo Bay and Cuba. He even spent Pesach once in the Palace of Saddam Hussein in Iraq.
After the September 11 terror attack on the World Trade Center in New York City, Goldstein served for 5 months as the Senior Chaplain for all military branches at Ground Zero.
Our troops protect freedom for us and others around the world. We should all respect and honor what they do, and what Rabbi Colonel Goldstein does.