Joshua L. Goldberg
Joshua Louis Goldberg | |
|---|---|
| Born | January 6, 1896 Belarus, Russian Empire (Present-day, Belarus) |
| Died | December 24, 1994 (aged 98) West Palm Beach, Florida, U.S. |
| Buried | Arlington National Cemetery, Arlington County, Virginia, U.S. |
| Allegiance | United States of America |
| Branch | Russian Imperial Army United States Army United States Navy |
| Years of service | 1914–1916 (Russia) 1917–1920 (U.S. Army) 1942–1960 (U.S. Navy) |
| Rank | Private (Russia) Sergeant (U.S. Army) Captain (U.S. Navy) |
| Battles / wars | World War I World War II |
| Awards |
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| Other work | Rabbi Columnist |
Joshua Louis Goldberg (January 6, 1896 – December 24, 1994) was a Belarusian-born American rabbi, who was the first rabbi to be commissioned as a U.S. Navy chaplain in World War II (and only the third to serve in the Navy in its history), the first to reach the rank of Navy Captain (the equivalent of Army Colonel), and the first to retire after a full active-duty career.
He had a highly unusual military background for a U.S. Navy chaplain, having been drafted into the Russian army when he was a teenager, then deserting to make his way to the United States where he enlisted in the U.S. Army, serving in an infantry unit in Europe during World War I before beginning rabbinical school studies in New York City after the war.
On January 16, 2025, Secretary of the Navy Carlos Del Toro announced that a future Navy ship would be named the USNS Joshua L. Goldberg (T-AO 215), the first ship to be named after a Jewish chaplain.