The official title of Colonel Brett Oxman is not "military rabbi," but rather "chaplain," and he’s officially assigned to the United States Strategic Command. The number of Jews currently serving in the U.S. military is estimated to be between 10,000 and 14,000, but only about 4,600 identify themselves as Jews; most are not religiously observant, and prefer not to stand out too much. Some report being subjected to religious pressure to convert by their fellow, Christian servicemen. At one California base, when I asked to speak to a Jewish soldier, a young black man showed up and declared himself to be the only Jew there. He turned out to be a Messianic Jew.

Furthermore, as a chaplain in America’s enormous armed forces, Oxman – an Orthodox rabbi – is expected to minister to the spiritual needs of all the troops, regardless of their faith.

Training to be a military chaplain thus includes getting to know other religions, because, "We need to work in a pluralistic, multi-religious environment." In the field, Oxman notes, soldiers of different faiths often have to share a single prayer tent.

"It’s assumed that you know how to be a clergyperson when you join, but you first have to learn the military system. In our case, we’re all officers," he explains in an interview with Haaretz in Washington, D.C., where he participated last week in the General Assembly of the Jewish Federations of North America. "We obviously have to learn how to operate in a combat environment, so that we can be a help and not a hindrance.

"Our chaplain corps is very different from the Israel Defense Forces chaplain corps," Oxman says. "The main function of the IDF chaplain, as I understand it, is in essence to protect and watch over matters of religious ritual." For him, though, "Everybody is my people, and I care for their spiritual well-being." Indeed, even when Oxman runs Jewish programs sponsored by the military, they are open to everyone.

"I don’t have to perform Christian rites," he explains, "but it is important to know about Christianity and [about religious] differences – for example, to know whether a person who is dying needs a minister of a specific faith. So we need to become knowledgeable, just as a Christian chaplain would need to know about kosher foods and shmirat Shabbat [Sabbath observance]."

There are currently some 40 Jewish chaplains on active duty in the U.S. military, out of an estimated 2,800 in total. The U.S. Navy alone, for example, has around 900 chaplains, but only eight are rabbis; they move from base to base, and soldiers often find themselves without a rabbi on Jewish holidays.

Although Jews account for only a small fraction of U.S. troops, America’s Jews have suffered their share of losses in recent years. One of the bodies flown last month to Dover Air Force Base in Delaware, where the coffins of U.S. casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq are brought, was that of Capt. Benjamin Sklaver, a 32-year-old Jewish officer. Two years ago, after returning from a tour of duty in Uganda, he founded a nonprofit organization that purifies the water from wells in villages there. In Afghanistan, too, as a reservist in the 422nd Civil Affairs Battalion, 2nd Infantry Division, Sklaver was determined to help rebuild the life of the civilian population.

Oxman is stationed at Offutt Air Force Base in Nebraska, but spends most of his time on the road. He and his fellow Jewish chaplains are currently trying to organize lightweight Torah scrolls for distribution to units with Jewish soldiers.

"One of the issues is that sifrei Torah [Torah scrolls] are usually big and heavy," he explains. "We’re involved in ongoing conflicts, and many of our people go to war. So we’re engaged right now in raising money to commission the writing of a number of small, lightweight Torahs, similar to what the IDF uses, that can be carried on a person’s back and easily transported from location to location."

Although the number of Jews in the U.S. military has been declining ever since World War II, Oxman believes the stereotype about the armed forces not being a place for the Jews is out of date. His own story, he notes, is "not so romantic. I was a full-time student, as was my wife. We got married young, and we were working odds-and-ends jobs trying to support ourselves and pay for school."

Oxman realized that his father-in-law – who was in the naval reserves at the time, and worked in that framework two weekends a month – was making more money than he and his wife together.

"At that point I didn’t understand about differences in rank and pay," he admits. "I didn’t like his uniform; it was all white. Once a man walked by me wearing what I thought was a nice-looking uniform. I asked … and he said he was in the air force. So I called the air force and joined the reserves as a chaplain candidate."

It was supposed to be a temporary job, but today, 24 years later, Oxman has no regrets about his career choice: "Three years turned into four, and I decided, I’ll keep doing it as long as I’m having a good time, and I’m still having a good time. As I travel throughout communities in the United States, I always am welcomed with open arms." (According to a recent poll published by the Rasmussen Reports, public support for the military in the United States stands at 81 percent, about the same as the support the IDF enjoys in Israel.)

The list of war zones where Oxman has spent time includes Bosnia in the 1990s, Kosovo, and more recently, in Iraq and Afghanistan; he has also been stationed in Qatar, Saudi Arabia, Amman and Bahrain. When asked about the reactions to his skullcap, he replies, "It’s recognized that my role is to be a religious person, and that engenders a certain amount of respect." Walking down the street in Saudi Arabia with his yarmulke would perhaps be unadvisable, he agrees, but, "I did see part of Saudi Arabia, and we try to dress somewhat low-key in order to fit in and not draw attention to ourselves, not just [because of] being Jewish, but as American military members."

The most difficult days were those he spent at a military hospital in Iraq in 2006. "The majority of the people coming into the hospital were not Americans, but Iraqi civilians who were attacked by their fellow Iraqi citizens," he recalls. "Earlier on, in Afghanistan, in 2001, we saw the injuries to our American soldiers, and as horrific as it is, it’s still understood that it’s war. But to see children, women, men, who did nothing beside belonging to the ‘wrong’ sect of their religion, or in the wrong place, and to see the violence perpetrated on them, was very disheartening."

The military has its share of ethnic and religious tensions. A year ago, a Jewish soldier at Fort Benning, Georgia, was severely beaten by fellow soldiers. His parents claimed that the young man had complained that he was being harassed on religious grounds, and that other soldiers had called him "Juden." According to reports, one of the officers on the base told him to take off his skullcap in the mess hall. Following the incident the person who abused him was dismissed from the service. The base instituted religious tolerance training and began to hold Shabbat dinners for the 20 Jewish soldiers present there (out of some 25,000 in basic training).

Earlier this month, an American-born Muslim of Palestinian descent who served as a military psychiatrist killed 13 people at the army base in Fort Hood, Texas. His relatives claimed he had been harassed by other soldiers on religious grounds.

Oxman: "I’m not commenting on Fort Hood, I have no details and no knowledge about what happened. What you’re describing is intolerance and disrespect, and the military, by regulation, doesn’t allow it. Does an individual person do that from time to time? I’m sure the answer is yes. Probably not to me, I’m a little bit too senior for anyone to do that, but it’s not the policy of the military, it’s not accepted by the military, and it’s usually dealt with in very clear and unambiguous terms.

"I know that we, as military leaders, actively try to ensure that no religious followers, including Muslims, are made to feel persecuted or disrespected because of their faith. I can’t be responsible for every individual who may say something inappropriate, or in fact may say something that is appropriate, but is taken in the wrong way by another individual."

None of Oxman’s four children, the youngest of whom is 20, has chosen a military career, but he believes that it is a viable, professional path for a Jew. "If someone wants to be a doctor or a dentist or a lawyer, and they have financial issues, or they just want to be a soldier, that’s great," he says, referring to the willingness of the armed forces to pay for professional training if one commits to a certain number of years of service. "Through the good times and the bad," he says, explaining why he has remained in his post for so long, "I’ve really loved what I do. I think I’m very fortunate to know what my purpose in life is.