Rabbi Aaron Benson, right, of the East Brunswick Jewish Center was recently named co-chaplain of the New Jersey office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. He is shown at the bureau’s Newark field office with its other chaplain, the Rev. Kevin Carter of St. Nicholas Church in Jersey City, left and special agent-in-charge Matthew Horace.
Photo courtesy Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives
Advertisement
August 4, 2009
Rabbi Aaron Benson of the East Brunswick Jewish Center has been named chaplain of the New Jersey office of the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives.
Benson, who was sworn in during a June ceremony at the bureau’s Newark field office, will share chaplaincy duties with the Rev. Kevin Carter of St. Nicholas Catholic Church in Jersey City.
“It is very exciting, and I’m very proud to be asked,” Benson told NJJN. “As a rabbi and representative of the Jewish community, I feel it’s important to demonstrate our commitment to causes that extend beyond the scope of our own community and help the larger community of which we are a part.”
Special agent Michael Mohr, the office’s public information officer and a resident of adjacent Milltown, said he reached out to the East Brunswick rabbi after reading an article about him in a local newspaper.
“We wanted to get a chaplain of Jewish faith on board,” Mohr said. “We brought him up to Newark and explained to him what the ATF does.”
The bureau, under the aegis of the Department of Justice, investigates the illegal use and trafficking of firearms, the illegal use and storage of explosives, arsons and bombings, and the illegal diversion of alcohol and tobacco.
Mohr said the NJ office was established in October. Prior to that, the northern portion of the state was handled by the New York office, and the Philadelphia office handled the southern part. Carter and Benson are the new office’s inaugural chaplains.
Benson said he went through a screening process and is slated to undergo training for his position.
“As a chaplain he will be available to all our employees 24/7 in the state of New Jersey,” said Mohr, “whether they are investigators, or special agents or office workers having family or work-related problems or grieving over a death in the family or an injury.”
Benson said he will work with people of various religious backgrounds and will be available to go anywhere in the state in the event of a disaster or emergency.
“I think by design it has been up until now a low-intensity job,” he said, “with the expectation that if anything does happen and I get called upon, it will certainly be intense enough then.”
Comment: comments@njjewishnews.com
--TOP--