Posted to Chabad News on July 23 2010

Rabbi Joins Canadian Armed Forces Full-Time


Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Lazer Danzinger, right, takes the oath of office administered by Lt. Col. Andrew Zalvin, commanding officer of the 32nd Canadian Brigade, two years ago.

Rabbi Lazer Danzinger, only the second Canadian army chaplain since World War II, has joined the military full-time. He is now stationed next to Toronto at the 32nd Canadian Brigade. Rabbi Danzinger decided to transfer from the reserves so that he could work with soldiers around the clock.

by Joshua Runyan - Chabad.org
On July 16, Danzinger formally transferred from the 32nd Canadian Brigade headquartered in Toronto to Canadian Forces Base Borden 100 kilometers north of the city. The rabbi told the Jewish Tribune that he decided to transfer from the reserves so that he could work with soldiers around the clock.

“It will be a great move,” the one-time member of Chabad.org’s Ask the Rabbi team said. “I find the work so rewarding, so fulfilling. I decided to go full time because of the need that I see in the forces. As a reservist, there was no way I could meet that need.”

Danzinger’s posting will allow him to commute daily from his Toronto home. At Borden, he will provide spiritual care to students at one of the base’s many training facilities.