‘Why should Jews who join the navy not have access to a rabbi?’

RABBI RAFI KAISERBLUETH, Australia’s first Jewish naval chaplain, tells STEVE MEACHAM about the long road to his new job, the importance of serving others, and seasickness.

Rabbi Rafi Kaiserblueth - Australia’s first Jewish naval chaplain - has spent a blissful Sunday in February with his wife Rachel and three young children at the beach.

But at 4.30pm, he has to get into the car and drive the 200km journey from Sydney’s eastern suburbs to the Royal Australian Naval College at Jervis Bay.

At the age of 43, he’s on a three-week intensive training course, learning the subtle differences between how our navy operates as opposed to the US Navy, where he served as a chaplain in the reserves for 13 years.

During those years, Kaiserblueth had many adventures. “Not many rabbis can say they have taken a helicopter to a synagogue,” he says. “I haven’t done that in Australia yet, but I did it several times in the US.”

Then there was the time he took the wheel of the legendary American aircraft carrier USS Nimitz in 2006. “I can’t pretend that wasn’t fun.

“But I want to make it clear that it’s not usually part of a naval chaplain’s job. However, I was on the bridge and they asked if I’d like to take a turn on the helm. Yes, I did!”

There’s unlikely to be such escapades in the RAN. The US Navy has about 430 ships in its fleet, the RAN less than a tenth of that.

However, Kaiserblueth’s previous naval service has meant he’s at least been spared “basic training”, which might involve 2am wake-ups for an exercise class on deck. 

“Still, everyone needs to prove they know how to swim, plug a leak and fight a fire,” he says of the second, practical week’s training he completed earlier this month.

Kaiserblueth, who has worked at the Emanuel Synagogue in Woollahra since 2016, says “I put my hand up” to join the RAN as a naval chaplain when he became an Australian citizen in 2022.

“For the first time in 12 years, I didn’t need to worry about my immigration status. I was home and settled,” says Kaiserblueth, who was born in Puerto Rico (a US territory since the Spanish-American war of 1898).

From 2010-16,  he lived in the UK, regularly flying over the Atlantic to complete his chaplain’s duties in the US Naval Reserve. 

While in London he met and married Australian-born Rachel and they had two children, Tobias and Jordan. Their third child Natan was born after they moved to Sydney. “Now my wife, my children and I all have the same citizenship.” 

Kaiserblueth is surprised the RAN accepted him as a chaplain. “Look, I’m not in my twenties anymore. I’m not old, but in the US it wouldn’t be possible to join the navy at my age.”

Why would any middle-aged father of three young children volunteer to spend so much time away from his family?

It’s a long story which starts before World War II, in Europe following the Nazi rise to power. “All four of my grandparents were refugees,” Kaiserblueth explains. “They made their way to South America, where my parents were both born.”

His paternal grandfather, Fritz, was born in Cologne and studied to become a lawyer until the Nuremberg laws meant he was unable to practice law in Nazi Germany. He escaped to Bolivia but never worked as a lawyer again - becoming a mining company executive. He met his wife Sofia, who had fled from Frankfurt, in Buenos Aires, Argentina, where Kaiserblueth’s father was born.

Both his maternal grandparents, Hans and Erni, hailed from Vienna, fleeing to Lima, Peru, a few weeks before the Anschluss in 1938.

“My parents - Claudio and Susy - grew up speaking German at home, English at school, and Spanish on the street. They also learned Portuguese when they moved to Brazil, as well as Hebrew from their time living in Israel during my father’s rabbinic studies.”

The family moved to Puerto Rico in late 1979, before settling in Los Angeles the following year. “For the first time in a generation our family felt safe and secure. The US was very good to us.

“As I grew older, I thought it was incumbent on me to find a way of giving something back.”

During his first year at the Jewish Theological Seminary of America in 2004 “we had a visit from US naval chaplains to explain what they did, why they did it, and to recruit. 

“I was particularly moved by the story of Rabbi Irving Elson, a navy chaplain who had served with the US Marines in Iraq in 2003.”

So, Kaiserblueth put up his hand for military service.  “My life is about service. I believe strongly in that. I think it’s important for someone in my position to be a role model and to inspire others to service.

“Everyone should serve. It doesn’t have to be in the military but you should give back to your community or country somehow. We may be Jews but we don’t live in the ghetto anymore. We’re part of a wider society.

“And why should Jews who choose to join the navy not have access to a rabbi? I feel I should serve them because they serve their country.”

How many Jews are in the RAN? “I don’t know,” Kaiserblueth admits. “But I suspect there are only a few dozen. “You have to remember (the RAN) is much smaller than the US Navy.”

About 14,000 people serve in the RAN. At one US base alone where he served, the Marine Corps Base Quantico in Virginia, there are more than 40,000.

And as of 2020, about 7.6 million Americans are of Jewish origin - with 4.9 million adults identifying their religion as Jewish.

Less than 100,000 Australians identified as Jewish in the 2021 Census - around 0.4 per cent of the national population (though that’s almost a 10 per cent increase since the 2016 Census).

Not that the rabbi will administer comfort just to Jewish members of the RAN. “My role is to provide for the spiritual needs of all sailors, regardless of faith.” he explains. “Anyone who wants to see a chaplain can.”

The role of naval chaplain, he says, is: “Mostly what I do in the synagogue, providing meaning and context in people’s lives through the lens of our rich tradition. 

“However, the big difference is that I have to go to where people are, versus in the synagogue where people generally come to me. That means I’m more likely to be doing a service out at sea, or counselling someone on the deck of a ship rather than in my office. 

“Very little (of being a naval chaplain) is running a service. A large portion of the role is counselling and morale, with some teaching thrown in.”

Apart from this initial training course, he doesn’t expect to be away from his family more than “a few days a month.” How many of those will be spent at sea? “As I’ve only just started, it is a bit unclear, but in general - not much.”

Finally, the obvious question. Does he suffer from sea sickness? “No, I love it most when a naval ship is rolling in the waves.”

Photo: Rabbi Kaiserblueth davening at dawn out at sea, Febraury 2009, on board USS Fort McHenry (supplied)