feature story
SERVING THE
U.S. NAVAL ACADEMY
Carin M. Smilk |
Baltimore Jewish Times Editor
RABBI YONINA CREDITOR STARTS CHAPLAINCY POSITION, STRESSING FOUR TENETS:
TO PROVIDE, FACILITATE, CARE AND ADVISE
everyone has the ability to practice religion authentically.”
And while she makes it a point to say that “my job encompasses every-
thing” — that it has a wide umbrella — she does specify four tenets of
service: to provide, facilitate, care and advise.

Working in the Miller Chapel housed in the Commodore Uriah P. Levy
Center, she provides religious services for her own faith group, Judaism,
even though she is there to assist and advocate for other faith communi-
ties at the Academy. And she does so in ways big and small.

For example, she advises like any rabbi would. Th at entails assistance in
matters of family, fi nances, mental health, physical health and, for Jewish
personnel, access to services, classes and lectures, religious items like
kippahs and prayer books, and access to kosher food, or ordering MREs,
or Meals-Ready-to-Eat, which can be obtained for regular consumption
and/or for holidays with special eating restrictions, like Passover. She
notes that she does work with both the Jewish Welfare Board-Jewish
Chaplain’s Council, her endorser, as well as the Aleph Institute in
MikeBagley64 /E+v
TALKING TO RABBI YONINA CREDITOR is an exercise in effi ciency.

She tells it like it is in a way that’s both straightforward and positive,
speaking with such candor, wisdom and joy of duty that she almost seems
as if she’s the one interviewing you.

Creditor is the new rabbi assigned to the U.S. Naval Academy in
Annapolis, Maryland — she is a rabbi assigned to the Naval Academy
itself and a battalion chaplain — a position she started on Sept. 21 and
will hold for the next three years. A lieutenant commander, she is one of
nine chaplains assigned to the Naval Academy and one of eight rabbis on
active duty in the Navy.

As for the new job … so far, so good. “It’s going OK,” she says
congenially. Th at, of course, seems an understatement. Creditor is charged with a
signifi cant portfolio as a main communication link for everything Jewish
among midshipmen and service members assigned to the academy. She’s
not just a Jewish leader but a leader, period, noting that “I advocate so that
26 NOVEMBER 24, 2022 | JEWISHEXPONENT.COM



Surfside, Florida, for Jewish military matters.

Since she arrived, she has held Friday night ser-
vices in the Miller Chapel that have drawn anywhere
from 25 to 200 attendees. Shabbat, she notes, is their
“day of liberty.”
As Creditor describes it, working with members
of the military seems like a congregation of sorts —
one that grapples with issues like any civilian group.

“Everyone is going through a transition right now; this
place isn’t any diff erent,” she says.

Th at means young midshipmen are still adjusting
to post-pandemic life, similar to situations those
away at college might face. Creditor is there to off er
counseling on every subject under the sun — from
how to best handle funds and investing (she jokes
that her last name can raise eyebrows in that cat-
egory; as for her fi rst, it can be a real conversation
starter, and she makes it easier for some by breaking
it down to: “Yo! Nina”) to getting along with one’s
offi cers to issues with family and other relationships
to celebrating holidays in ways that feel comfortable.

She emphasizes that conversations are 100% confi -
dential by law.

On the fl ip side, she frequently has to educate
service members on Jewish topics, explaining, for
example, what Shavuot is, how it is observed and the
fact that “it really is a big deal.” Th ose conversations,
including advising the command, can be formal or
casual, depending on the circumstance and the per-
son involved.

Rabbi Yonina Creditor
Thomas Kloc / iStock / Getty Images Plus
‘A REFLECTION OF SOCIETY’
Creditor, the daughter of a rabbi, grew up
“Conservadox” in the Mid-Atlantic, the one only
(save for a cousin, she says) with a career in the mili-
tary. She says, “I knew I was going to be a rabbi when
I was 7,” even though, she adds, “you don’t tell people
that at 7.” She has a brother, also a rabbi, and a sister
who lives in Israel.

She went to Solomon Schechter Day School of Nassau
County on Long Island, New York, and graduated
from Columbia University and the Jewish Th eological
Seminary. In her third year of rabbinic school, she stud-
ied in Israel.

She spent a year as an assistant rabbi in Orlando,
Florida, before going on active duty in the Navy.

When asked how she manages the weight of her
responsibilities, she quips: “My spin bike and I have
an important relationship.” More seriously, she says
that physical fi tness “has to be part of your routine.

How to take care of myself factors into the equation.

In every moment, I represent the U.S. Navy.”
But she also represents the Jewish people, and
whatever they need in her realm, she will try to do
and get. She estimates that about 10,000 Jews are
serving active duty in the U.S. military, though
believes the number is higher than that.

And while she wears Judaism on her sleeve (quite
literally), many others do not. When asked about
antisemitism within the ranks, she replies that more
oft en than not, issues that do arise come from a place
of ignorance, from an unawareness that she helps
rectify by explanations. Along those lines, “it takes
talking and being present, lovingly engaging with
those who just don’t know,” she says.

“Honor, courage and commitment” ... these aren’t just
Interior of the U.S. Naval Academy
Chapel words; it is part of her job to encourage inclusion and
respect, she stresses. Th ere are recourses, she adds, for
serious actions, but more oft en than not, she narrows it
down to ignorance vs. antisemitism.

“Th e military is a refl ection of society,” she points
out. “Th ere are half-truths, there is the not knowing.

So let’s start a conversation. We don’t need to come
out with guns blazing, because the situation is more
easily rectifi ed with a gentle, open hand. Th ere are
plenty who just question, who just don’t know.”
Th at said, her job is to show the pride of Yiddishkeit —
the need to support Jews wherever they are. She urges the
Jewish community to do the same: “Contact the JWB-
Jewish Chaplains Council and ask how you can help
the Jewish military community. Reach out, be active. It’s
about Jews taking care of Jews.”
“We have Jewish lay leaders who volunteer to lead
the Jewish program on a base where there is no rabbi
assigned. Supporting them, and the rabbis who serve
is incredibly meaningful for us. We are a small but
mighty group,” Creditor said. “But you, too, can be
connected. When someone who doesn’t know you
feels your support and presence, it makes a world of
diff erence.” JE
To learn more about the JWB Jewish Chaplains
Council or how to support the military, contact Rabbi
Irving Elson at: jcca.org/what-we-do/jwb.

csmilk@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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