NEWYou can now listen to Fox News articles! Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff never intended to be in Beirut, Lebanon, on October 23, 1983, when suicide bombers drove trucks loaded with explosives into the Marine Corps barracks, killing 241 American service members. But as Resnicoff told Fox News Digital, his presence during that event and his subsequent advocacy would provide comfort and support to a multitude of American service members, leading him to firmly believe that “a coincidence is simply God acting anonymously.” Resnicoff, assigned to the U.S. Navy’s Sixth Fleet, was part of a team of three chaplains supporting service members on 40 ships stationed in the Mediterranean. On Friday, October 21, Resnicoff arrived in Beirut to conduct a memorial service for a Jewish marine who had been killed in the line of duty. Navy leaders wanted to send him back to the ship the next day, but as a practicing Jew, he refused to travel on the Sabbath. IRANIAN OFFICIAL ADMITS COUNTRY’S ROLE IN TERRORIST ATTACK THAT KILLED 241 AMERICAN MILITARY: REPORT From left, Protestant chaplain Danny Wheeler, Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff and Catholic chaplain George Pucciarelli attend the Oct. 21, 1983, memorial service for Jewish Marine Sgt. Allen Soifert two days before the terrorist attack. (Courtesy of Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff) Resnicoff woke up early on the morning of October 23 and was brushing his teeth at 6:22 a.m. when his building began to shake violently. When the doors came loose and the windows exploded, Resnicoff and others took cover on the ground, believing their building had been hit by a rocket or mortars. When the commotion stopped, the men began to hear “those terrible, terrible screams” coming from the building 50 meters from where Protestant minister Danny Wheeler lived with a host of Marines. US Marines search for survivors and bodies in the rubble, all that remains of their headquarters in Beirut, after a suicide car bomber was driven into the building and detonated, killing 241 US service members and wounding more than 60. The US military was in Beirut as part of a multinational peacekeeping force. (Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket via Getty Images) Each time Resnicoff visited Beirut, he alternated staying with a Catholic chaplain, George Pucciarelli, and Wheeler. According to his schedule, Resnicoff should have stayed at the Wheeler residence on Friday, but he preferred to stay with Pucciarelli, who had something to discuss with the rabbi. “Who knows what we’re talking about,” Resnicoff recalled. “But that probably saved my life.” As those around him took notice, Resnicoff watched Pucciarelli put his purple stole around his neck, “probably because he knew he was going to have to say a lot of last rites.” Pucciarelli looked at Resnicoff and said, “Follow me.” Outside, Resnicoff said, “the big four-story building disappeared with the smoke.” Buried under the rubble were 241 U.S. service members, including 220 Marines, 18 Navy sailors and three Army soldiers. Navy casualties included “an entire medical detachment,” leaving no one “medically qualified to assist those left alive.” Resnicoff, Pucciarelli and other rescuers began picking their way through the rubble in search of survivors. He said: Pucciarelli “went to one body on the ground, I went to another. We just cradled these wounded men and said, ‘Help is coming.'” Each tended to the men as best they could, tearing their clothes to clean the blood, dirt, and dust from their faces. When Resnicoff tore his shirt, he wore his Jewish head veil, called a kippah, which soon became “bloody, dirty, and lost.” 1983. (Peter Charlesworth/LightRocket via Getty Images) Eventually, ambulances and helicopters arrived on the scene, allowing Pucciarelli and Resnicoff to catch their breath. Pucciarelli commented that he had never seen Resnicoff without his head covered. “I told him what happened to my kippah, so he tore a piece of his camouflage uniform and put it on my head.” Pucciarelli told Resnicoff that “in this country where every religion is killing every other religion, I want everyone here to remember not only that you and I, the chaplains, were helping everyone, regardless of whether they had a religion or what religion they had, but that you and I had different religions.” [and were] “Wheeler was the last living service member to be pulled from the rubble five hours after the explosion. Resnicoff said it took four days to unearth the hundreds of bodies buried in the rubble. “These tough Marines were crying, helping their fellow soldiers,” Resnicoff said. Resnicoff drew on an element of his own Jewish tradition as he ministered to the Marines who were grieving and working among the rubble. “After death, we have a week of family reunion. and telling stories about the person who died,” he explained. “The tradition is that if you visit the family during that period, you don’t start the conversation, you just show your concern and love through your presence, and if the mourners talk to you, then you have a conversation. So when I was going from Marine to Marine, they were digging up the bodies of their comrades, I used that Jewish approach. I didn’t start the conversation, I just stood next to them to show them I was there, and then if they wanted to talk, I talked.” Resnicoff said the tradition listened to the words of the Catholic friar St. Francis of Assisi, who taught his followers to “preach the gospel everywhere.” Use words only if absolutely necessary.” The Legacy of the Camouflage Kippah Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff, photographed in his camouflage kippah. (Courtesy of Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff) Before the bombing of Beirut, Resnicoff reported that obtaining permission to wear the kippah “was always a struggle” for Jewish service members. In the early 1980s, Resnicoff says Congress was debating the Religious Clothing Amendment, which would have allowed Jews serving in the military to cover themselves. their heads. “For two years, this amendment had failed. And then in the Congressional Record, they told the story of a priest who covered my head,” Resnicoff said. “The amendment passed. They understood that it was a source of pride that we could work side by side from different faiths. Then-Vice President George HW Bush asked Resnicoff to write a report on his experience. Former President Ronald Reagan would share that report with a group of 20,000 Baptists, “who evidently appreciated it,” Resnicoff recalled. SUBSCRIBE TO RECEIVE THE NEWSLETTER ANTISEMITISM EXPOSED In this photograph file from October 23, 1983, the aftermath of the bombing of the US Marine barracks in Beirut, Lebanon. (AP) At chaplain school, Resnicoff said chaplains were trained to care for seriously injured personnel from different religious backgrounds than his own. “But it turned out that none of the people I consoled in Beirut asked me a religious question. It was just ‘if I die, tell my mother I love her.’ Most of those Marines were too young to have children of their own.” He says, “I was reminded that the role of the chaplain is much broader and greater than simply being a religious representative.” “I always used to believe that the military was ahead of the civilian world when it came to understanding and working together. And when you’re in a trench or a bunker, you don’t really care if the guy next to you is a Democrat, Republican or Independent, you don’t really care what his religion is. You only care that they protect you like you are going to do. protect them and we are all in this together.” CLICK HERE TO DOWNLOAD THE FOX NEWS APP Resnicoff says the Beirut bombing showed him that “if the world had more interfaith trenches, we would have less need for trenches and more room for faith.” Beth Bailey writes about the United Nations, global anti-Semitism and conflict regions for Fox News.
