Less than two and a half years after becoming only the second rabbi since World War II to join the ranks of Canada’s reserve military forces, Rabbi Lazer Danzinger has taken another plunge. Last week, the 54-year-old Danzinger – a Chabad-Lubavitch community member who after a 20 year career in computers, decided to jump into the world of chaplaincy at a local hospital and prison – became the first rabbi in more than 60 years to join the Canadian Armed Forces full-time.

On July 16, Danzinger formally transferred from the 32nd Canadian Brigade headquartered in Toronto to Canadian Forces Base Borden 100 kilometers north of the city. The rabbi told the Jewish Tribune that he decided to transfer from the reserves so that he could work with soldiers around the clock.

“It will be a great move,” the one-time member of Chabad.org’s Ask the Rabbi team said. “I find the work so rewarding, so fulfilling. I decided to go full time because of the need that I see in the forces. As a reservist, there was no way I could meet that need.”

Danzinger’s posting will allow him to commute daily from his Toronto home. At Borden, he will provide spiritual care to students at one of the base’s many training facilities.

Chabad-Lubavitch Rabbi Lazer Danzinger, right, takes the oath of office administered by Lt. Col. Andrew Zalvin, commanding officer of the 32nd Canadian Brigade.