Air Force Chaplain Allegedly Denied New Position After Converting to Judaism

An Air Force B-1B Lancer jet. Image by Master Sgt. Andy Dunaway/U.S. Air Force
A former Christian chaplain in the U.S. Air Force claims that he faced discrimination after converting to Orthodox Judaism, Air Force Times reported Tuesday.
Capt. Jeff Montanari, who was ordained by the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel, was assigned in 2010 to the March Air Reserve Base in California, where he was dedicated to serving the Jewish community, according to First Liberty Institute, the law firm dedicated to defending religious freedom that is representing him. He provided the base’s first Seder for Passover and helped Jewish men and women with their kosher dietary requests, in addition to making other religious accommodations.
Montanari was moved by his experience, and after discovering his own Jewish lineage, Montanari looked into converting to Orthodox Judaism. That was when he says his superiors began demeaning his character, refusing to make religious accommodations, isolating him from the rest of the chaplain staff and excluding him from meetings. One chaplain allegedly told Montanari that he could no longer work with him because of his change in religious beliefs, according to a letter sent by First Liberty.
Montanari was eventually driven out of the Air Force in 2015, his lawyers said.
After completing his Jewish conversion studies, Montanari decided to re-apply to the military chaplaincy to serve the needs of Jewish airmen. But Montanari said that the International Church of the Foursquare Gospel had rescinded its chaplaincy endorsement and ignored the law requiring them to notify him immediately. He also alleges that when he was interviewed again, he faced hostile questioning about his decision to convert.
The Civil Air Patrol still approved his application, but rescinded the decision several days later.
In a letter to Air Force officials, First Liberty demanded that Montanari’s application to become a chaplain in the Air Force Reserve and the Civil Air Patrol be approved, and that the Air Force issue an apology. It is demanding a response by May 21.
Contact Alyssa Fisher at [email protected] or on Twitter, @alyssalfisher
The Forward is free to read, but it isn’t free to produce

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward.
At a time when other newsrooms are closing or cutting back, the Forward has removed its paywall and invested additional resources to report on the ground from Israel and around the U.S. on the impact of the war, rising antisemitism and polarized discourse.
Readers like you make it all possible. We’ve started our Passover Fundraising Drive, and we need 1,800 readers like you to step up to support the Forward by April 21. Members of the Forward board are even matching the first 1,000 gifts, up to $70,000.
This is a great time to support independent Jewish journalism, because every dollar goes twice as far.
— Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO
2X match on all Passover gifts!
Most Popular
- 1
Film & TV What Gal Gadot has said about the Israeli-Palestinian conflict
- 2
News A Jewish Republican and Muslim Democrat are suddenly in a tight race for a special seat in Congress
- 3
Fast Forward The NCAA men’s Final Four has 3 Jewish coaches
- 4
Culture How two Jewish names — Kohen and Mira — are dividing red and blue states
In Case You Missed It
-
Fast Forward ‘Another Jewish warrior’: Fine wins special election for U.S. House seat
-
Fast Forward Cory Booker proclaims, ‘Hineni’ — I am here — 19 hours into anti-Trump Senate speech
-
Opinion In Trump’s war against campus antisemitism, hate the tactics but don’t ignore the problem
-
Yiddish כ׳בענק נאָך די וועלטלעכע ייִדן וואָס האָבן אָפּגעריכט אַ טראַדיציאָנעלן סדר Longing for those secular Jews who led a traditional seder
מײַן פֿעטער יונה האָט נישט געהיט שבת און כּשרות אָבער בײַם אָפּריכטן דעם סדר האָט ער געקלונגען ווי אַ פֿרומער ייִד
-
Shop the Forward Store
100% of profits support our journalism
Republish This Story
Please read before republishing
We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines.
You must comply with the following:
- Credit the Forward
- Retain our pixel
- Preserve our canonical link in Google search
- Add a noindex tag in Google search
See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.
To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.