Lt. Rabbi Itzik Blau is now Captain Blau after receiving a promotion from Israel Defense Force Chief Rabbi Rafi Peretz.

Blau, a resident of the central village of Kfar Chabad, serves in the IDF Rabbinical Corps’ Burial Unit, whose mission is to ensure proper treatment of soldiers’ bodies in accordance with Jewish law.

Among Blau’s numerous assignments was the retrieval of fallen soldiers following last summer’s crash of an Israeli helicopter carrying six IDF personnel and one Romanian soldier during joint aviation exercises in Romania.