PHOTO: Tigard Chabad Rabbi and Oregon Army National Guard Capt. Menachem Orenstein, right, takes his oath at his commissioning ceremony Sunday, Aug. 18 at Camp Withycombe in Clackamas. Rabbi Orenstein is the first Jewish chaplain to serve in Oregon's National Guard. (Aaron Perkins/Oregon Military Department)

By ROCKNE ROLL

The Jewish Review

There are lots of ways to greet a rabbi, but Rabbi Menachem Orenstein of Tigard Chabad will have to get accustomed to an atypical greeting – a salute. 
Rabbi Orenstein officially became the Oregon Army National Guard’s first Jewish chaplain when he was commissioned as a Captain in the National Guard Sunday, Aug. 18 in a ceremony at Camp Withycombe in Clackamas.
As a part-time soldier, Rabbi Orenstein will continue his work with Tigard Chabad, reporting for monthly drill weekends and a two-week summer training exercise with his unit, the 741st Brigade Engineer Battalion. The idea of a Chabad rabbi in the army may seem strange to some, but Rabbi Orenstein is far from the first Chabad rabbi to serve in uniform. 
“I actually see it as a natural progression,” he said. “Our mission is to serve the Jewish people, wherever they are and whatever context they may be in. Our mission is also to make the world a better place.”
While a Jewish rabbi will, of course, tend to the spiritual needs of Jewish soldiers and their families, chaplains are called upon to serve personnel of all faiths or no faith. 
“I’ve always wanted to be a chaplain, but I also wanted to be a Chabad rabbi,” Rabbi Orenstein said. “So here I am, taking care of the community here in Tigard, and then I found out about the National Guard and how in the National Guard, you can do both. You can serve your community, you can do your quote-unquote day job, but then also serve our state and our country.”
The process has taken about a year to get to commissioning – Rabbi Orenstein applied, went through an interview process and a medical examination. He also had to pass a physical fitness assessment because while he’s a rabbi and a chaplain, the uniform is not merely decorative – Rabbi Orenstein is also a soldier. 
“While a chaplain might not carry a weapon, you’ve got to be able to do all the physical things that any soldier would be asked to do,” he said. 
Beyond monthly drill and summer training exercises, National Guard soldiers are called upon to provide aid in disasters. Oregon units have played important roles in suppressing major wildfires in the Pacific Northwest in recent years. Additionally, Rabbi Orenstein’s unit, the 741st BEB, is attached to the 41st Infantry Brigade Combat Team, which was federalized and deployed to Louisiana and Texas in the aftermath of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita in 2005.
“As a soldier National Guard, I serve the state first, but there is obviously that chance that we would have to serve the country in some sort of capacity,” Rabbi Orenstein said. “I love our country. I love being able to serve the United States and serve our soldiers. I particularly love the National Guard because I like the idea of serving your community and your state first; I think that’s really cool.”
There’s also the remote possibility of being called to duty that’s farther afield and more dangerous – elements of the 41st IBCT have deployed twice each to Iraq and Afghanistan as part of the Global War on Terror. 
Rabbi Orenstein said of the possibility of a combat deployment, “We’ll cross that bridge when we get to it.”
Rabbi Orenstein is not the first of his family to serve in uniform – both his grandfathers fought in World War II, one as a bomber crewman in Europe, the other as a Naval officer in the Pacific theater, while one of his grandmothers served in a Coast Guard medical unit. 
“It was always a great sense of pride for me and for my family,” Rabbi Orenstein said of his grandparents’ service. 
Now he gets to carry on that legacy while still serving the Jewish community in Tigard. 
“It’s definitely something that complements what you’re doing on a regular basis. The average National Guard soldier has a regular civilian job,” Rabbi Orenstein said. “I know many people don’t really understand how the National Guard works and if I’m going to be honest, I might have not completely understood before I started this journey.”
That journey will continue in the next couple months when Rabbi Orenstein attends the Army’s Basic Officer Leadership Course, a program that orients new officers to the details of the Army and their jobs within it and stands in for the more typical Basic Combat Training. There, Rabbi Orienstein will have to get used to being saluted and addressed as Captain Orenstein.
“It goes both ways,” he said. “I’m not used to saluting people either and I’ve got to salute my superiors. The army culture and the military discipline is definitely something that could take a little bit of getting used to but I have confidence that I’ll be fine.”