Chabad Rabbi joined the chaplaincy service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine: Nohum-Simcha Leitans from Kamenskoye appointed as assistant military chaplain

Rabbi of the Jewish community of Kamenskoye, Nohum-Simcha Lejtans, after several months of military training, was appointed to the position of assistant military chaplain. The new appointment once again raised the question of how many Jewish chaplains serve in the Ukrainian army and how an official military chaplain differs from his assistant.

The appointment of Lejtans was announced by the chief rabbi of Kamenskoye, Levi-Yitzhak Stambler. The publication appeared on July 17, 2026.

“After several months of military training, Rabbi Nohum-Simcha Lejtans, who is responsible for the yeshiva and advanced Torah study programs in our community, was appointed to the position of assistant military chaplain,” the message says.

Stambler wished him and his comrades protection, strength, and a speedy peace. The open publication does not name the military unit, the place of further service, the name of the chaplain whom Lejtans will assist, or the date of the corresponding order.

In the published photograph, Lejtans is captured together with a member of the Jewish community of Kamenskoye, Lieutenant Colonel David Gruba. Levi Stambler introduced him as the head of the School of Professional Training. No additional information about the military unit or subordination of this school is provided in the open message.

Where is Kamenskoye

Kamenskoye is a large industrial city in the Dnipropetrovsk region of Ukraine, located on the banks of the Dnieper, about 40 kilometers from the city of Dnipro.

Until 2016, it was called Dniprodzerzhynsk. The historical name Kamenskoye was restored as part of decommunization.

The city is known as one of the major metallurgical centers of the region. It has a population of over 200,000 people.

It is here that the Chabad Jewish community operates, led by Rabbi Levi-Yitzhak Stambler.

Nohum-Simcha Lejtans became another representative of the Chabad-affiliated Jewish communities in the Ukrainian military chaplaincy system. Yakov Sinyakov represents the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine, Chabad-Lubavitch traditions, and David Milman is associated with the Kyiv community of Moshe Asman. At the same time, Lejtans became the first publicly known rabbi directly from the Chabad community of Kamenskoye, appointed as an assistant military chaplain.

Who is Nohum-Simcha Lejtans

Nohum-Simcha Lejtans has been involved in religious education and youth work in the Jewish community of Kamenskoye, Dnipropetrovsk region, for several years.

At least since August 2021, he has been teaching at the yeshiva school operating at the Beit Baruch charitable center and the Beit Reuven synagogue. Students there studied Hasidism, Jewish laws and traditions, sofrut — the art of writing sacred texts, shechita rules, programming, and English. Together with Lejtans, Levi-Yitzhak Kanevsky and Dovid Kupriy conducted classes.

In January 2022, Lejtans helped student Pavel Kushnir during his bar mitzvah: the teenager first donned tefillin and ascended to the Torah.

In September 2024, the community reported that Lejtans, along with the chief rabbi of Kamenskoye, Levi Stambler, and Yosef Binyomin Kushnir, participated in the traditional shofar blowing during the month of Elul. In December of the same year, he conducted the bar mitzvah ceremony of Yaroslav Silin.

Thus, it is not just about a community member deciding to join the army, but about a person responsible for the yeshiva, Torah study, and preparing young community members for important religious ceremonies.

Why he was appointed as an assistant, not a military chaplain

In the Ukrainian army, a military chaplain and an assistant military chaplain are different positions.

The Law of Ukraine “On the Military Chaplaincy Service” was adopted by the Verkhovna Rada on November 30, 2021. In September 2022, the Military Chaplaincy Service was introduced into the structure of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, and it began full operation in October of the same year.

A military chaplain must be a citizen of Ukraine and a clergyman of a registered religious organization. He receives a special mandate to carry out military chaplaincy activities, undergoes training, signs a contract, and holds an officer position.

A military chaplain is responsible for the spiritual support of the unit. He conducts prayers and religious ceremonies, talks with servicemen, helps the wounded and families of the deceased, advises the command on religious and ethical issues, and organizes social and charitable work.

The army service highlights four main areas of chaplain activity:

• spiritual-pastoral care;
• religious-educational work;
• advising the command on religious issues;
• social and charitable activities.

The official definition emphasizes that a military chaplain is simultaneously a clergyman prepared by his religious organization and an officer of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

An assistant military chaplain, on the other hand, belongs not to the officer, but to the enlisted or junior ranks. In the list of military accounting specialties, the position has the code 582, military accounting specialty 916582, and corresponds to the standard category “senior soldier.” This does not mean that any appointed assistant automatically already has such a rank, but this is how the position is designated in the normative list.

The assistant is involved in organizing meetings and services, preparing premises, administrative issues, accompanying the chaplain, interacting with the command, servicemen, the wounded, and families.

In one of the active vacancies of the Ground Forces, it is explicitly stated that the assistant supports the spiritual, moral, and humanitarian work of the unit, acts together with the chaplain and command, and is not involved in combat missions with weapons. However, in the National Guard, the assistant is also described as the “right hand” and physical protector of the unarmed chaplain. Therefore, the practical content of the position may depend on the specific military formation and unit.

Simply put, the chaplain leads the spiritual service and bears personal responsibility for it, while the assistant ensures its organizational and practical work.

The appointment of a rabbi as an assistant leaves a legal question

In October 2025, the head of the Military Chaplaincy Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Oleksandr Vovkotecha, stated that according to the current doctrine, an assistant military chaplain should not be a clergyman.

At the same time, Nohum-Simcha Lejtans is referred to as a rabbi in Levi Stambler’s publication.

This does not necessarily mean a violation. In Jewish communities, the address “rabbi” or “reb” may indicate education, religious function, or community status. However, for Ukrainian legislation, it is important not only the title but also whether the person is officially registered as a clergyman of a religious organization.

Documents on Lejtans’ status, his military rank, chaplaincy mandate, or appointment conditions are not publicly presented. Therefore, it is correct to call him exactly as indicated in the initial message: Rabbi Nohum-Simcha Lejtans was appointed to the position of assistant military chaplain.

There are no grounds yet to call him a regular military chaplain or an officer of the chaplaincy service.

How many chaplains and assistants serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Ukraine does not publish a complete open register of military chaplains broken down by religions and denominations.

According to data presented by the Military Chaplaincy Service in October 2025, its regular strength was about 1700 positions:

• approximately 70 positions of the leadership;
• about 800 positions of military chaplains;
• about 800 positions of assistant military chaplains.

However, not all positions were filled. The overall staffing of the service was estimated at about 45%. The positions of military chaplains were filled by 43%, and the positions of assistants by approximately 40%.

If these percentages are mechanically applied to the staffing schedule, it may be about 340 occupied chaplain positions and 320 assistants. This is only an approximate calculation, as the official figures were rounded.

The structure of the Military Chaplaincy Service included clergymen from 13 religious organizations.

That is why it is impossible to honestly state that, for example, exactly two or three Jewish chaplains serve in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. It is necessary to distinguish between regular officers, officially authorized religious ministers, assistants, volunteer chaplains, and representatives of other communities.

NANews — Israel News studied open sources and found that several people representing different directions of Jewish religious life are currently publicly known, but their official status is not the same.

Yakov Sinyakov — regular officer and chief chaplain of the corps

The most definite official status is held by Igor Sinyakov, also known by the religious name Yakov Pinchas Sinyakov.

In the fall of 2025, Junior Lieutenant Sinyakov headed the chaplaincy service of the 7th Rapid Reaction Corps of the Air Assault Forces of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Military sources called him the first official Orthodox chaplain of the Jewish faith in the history of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. Before joining the regular military service, he was engaged in volunteer activities, was a member of the Jewish community of Dnipro, and was a chaplain of the Federation of Jewish Communities of Ukraine.

On November 30, 2025, the official website of the 7th Corps reported that Junior Lieutenant Yakov Sinyakov represented Ukraine at the first International Conference of Jewish Military Chaplains in Berlin, held with the support of NATO structures.

In the corps message, Sinyakov was called the only Jewish military chaplain in the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

This is the most significant official indication of the number of regular Jewish officers of the chaplaincy service: as of the end of November 2025, one person — Yakov Sinyakov — was publicly named as such an officer.

David Milman — the first officially authorized rabbi of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Another known representative of Jewish chaplaincy is Dmitry, or David, Milman, assistant to the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Reuven Asman.

On April 20, 2023, Milman was appointed as a clergyman from a religious organization in the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He was authorized by the then head of the Military Chaplaincy Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, Colonel Oleksiy Tereshchuk, guided by the law on military chaplaincy.

At that time, Milman was named the first and only rabbi officially cooperating with the Armed Forces of Ukraine in organizing spiritual-religious and humanitarian support for servicemen and their families.

Milman helped servicemen of Jewish origin observe Shabbat and holidays, provided them with kosher food, religious literature, and tefillin, visited the wounded, participated in the funerals of the deceased, and worked with families.

In November 2025, he attended a meeting of the Chief Rabbi of Ukraine Moshe Asman with the new head of the Military Chaplaincy Service of the Armed Forces of Ukraine and continued to be publicly called a Jewish chaplain of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

An obvious contradiction arises: Milman is called the first official rabbi and chaplain of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, while the official resource of the 7th Corps later calls Sinyakov the only Jewish military chaplain.

The likely explanation lies in the difference in statuses. Milman was officially authorized to cooperate with the Armed Forces of Ukraine as a clergyman of a religious organization, while Sinyakov received a military rank, an officer’s regular position, and headed the chaplaincy service of the corps.

Without the publication of personnel documents, it is impossible to assert this definitively. Nevertheless, it is important to distinguish the concepts in the article:

David Milman — the first officially authorized rabbi working with the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Yakov Sinyakov — the first publicly confirmed regular Orthodox Jewish officer-chaplain of the new Military Chaplaincy Service.

Nohum-Simcha Lejtans — a known assistant from the Orthodox community

After the July 2026 appointment, Nohum-Simcha Lejtans is added to this list.

At the moment, he is the first publicly known assistant military chaplain sent from the Orthodox Chabad community of Kamenskoye. At the same time, it is unknown to which unit he was attached, who his immediate chaplain is, and whether he will primarily deal with the needs of Jewish servicemen or the entire personnel.

His appointment is of particular significance as it shows that Jewish spiritual presence in the Ukrainian army is developing not only at the level of one central rabbi or one corps officer but also at the level of assistants working directly within units.

Kostya Yudin — assistant from the Messianic Jewish community

Another publicly known assistant is Konstantin, or Kostya, Yudin.

In September 2025, he was introduced as a serviceman of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, assistant military chaplain, and minister of the Kyiv Jewish Messianic Community. Before joining the military service, he worked as a volunteer chaplain of the Christian Rescue Service Corps of Military Chaplains.

Yudin said that he initially engaged in volunteer chaplaincy service and then officially joined the ranks of the Armed Forces of Ukraine. He consciously chose the position of assistant chaplain.

When counting, it is necessary to consider that Messianic Judaism combines elements of Jewish tradition with belief in Jesus as the Messiah. Orthodox Judaism does not recognize Messianic communities as one of the branches of Judaism. Therefore, Yudin can be attributed to representatives of the Jewish Messianic religious organization, but it is incorrect to equate his status with the status of Orthodox rabbis Milman, Sinyakov, or Lejtans.

So how many Jewish chaplains are there in the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Based on open sources, only a cautious conclusion can be drawn.

In the narrow official sense, one regular Orthodox Jewish officer-chaplain is publicly confirmed — Junior Lieutenant Yakov Sinyakov. He was called the only Jewish military chaplain of the Armed Forces of Ukraine by the official resource of the 7th Corps in November 2025.

Separately, David Milman operates — the first rabbi officially authorized in 2023 to cooperate with the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the field of spiritual and humanitarian support. He continues to be publicly called a Jewish chaplain of the Armed Forces of Ukraine, although the exact correlation of his status with the regular officer system requires additional official clarification.

Among the assistants, at least two people are known:

• Nohum-Simcha Lejtans — rabbi of the Orthodox Jewish community of Kamenskoye;
• Kostya Yudin — minister of the Kyiv Jewish Messianic Community.

In addition to them, several chaplains and volunteer chaplains of Messianic communities are known: Alexandra Vyatrzhik, Alexey Denisov, Anatoly Emma, and Andrey Mishchenko.

But it is incorrect to add all these people into one number. Some have officer status, others are authorized by a religious organization, others hold the soldier position of assistant, and the fourth work as volunteers.

NANews — Israel News notes that the official confessional statistics of the Armed Forces of Ukraine remain incomplete. The Military Chaplaincy Service discloses the overall regular strength and the list of religious organizations but does not publish an open list of all representatives of each denomination.

Therefore, as of July 2026, it is more correct to speak not of an exact total number, but of at least four publicly known active representatives of Jewish spiritual service with official or military ties to the Armed Forces of Ukraine: Yakov Sinyakov, David Milman, Nohum-Simcha Lejtans, and Kostya Yudin.

The appointment of Nohum-Simcha Lejtans shows that this system continues to develop. A rabbi who, just a few years ago, taught at a yeshiva, prepared teenagers for bar mitzvah, and conducted religious ceremonies in Kamenskoye, will now be alongside Ukrainian servicemen — already as an assistant military chaplain.

Chabad community of Kamenskoye: synagogue, lyceum, yeshiva, and help during the war

The Jewish community of Kamenskoye, where Nohum-Simcha Lejtans serves, belongs to the international movement Chabad-Lubavitch.

In the official Chabad.org catalog, it is presented as an active Chabad House, and its leader is listed as the chief rabbi of the city, Levi-Yitzhak Stambler. The community structure includes a synagogue, educational institutions, and programs for Jews of different ages.

Levi Stambler has been living and working in Kamenskoye since 2001. Together with Rebbetzin Dina Stambler, he develops religious, educational, social, and charitable life in the city, based on Chabad-Lubavitch traditions. It was Levi Stambler who announced the appointment of Nohum-Simcha Lejtans as an assistant military chaplain.

The center of the community is the charitable complex “Beit Baruch” and the synagogue located in it, “Beit Reuven”. The modern building was opened in September 2008 on the site of a synagogue closed by Soviet authorities. Its architecture reproduces the famous building of the World Chabad Center at 770 Eastern Parkway in Brooklyn, where the office and synagogue of the Lubavitcher Rebbe Menachem Mendel Schneerson were located.

The connection of Kamenskoye with the Chabad movement is emphasized not only by architecture. In 2016, near the “Beit Baruch” center, a street named after the Lubavitcher Rebbe appeared. The ceremony of unveiling the plaque was attended by Chabad emissaries Levi-Yitzhak Stambler and the chief rabbi of Dnipro and the Dnipropetrovsk region, Shmuel Kaminetsky.

The community operates a private lyceum “Beit Menachem Lubavitch”, continuing the traditions of the Jewish school “Or Avner.” Along with the general education program, children study the history of the Jewish people, its traditions, and the basics of Judaism. The community center also houses a library of religious and educational literature and a museum, where items from Jewish families of Kamenskoye, ancient utensils, and elements of the historical synagogue, including bricks from its 1913 foundation, are collected.

The community conducts classes for children, teenagers, adults, and the elderly.

Among its projects are the children’s educational program JFuture, youth classes, a women’s club, “Kolel Torah,” the “Golden Age” program, lessons on the weekly Torah portions, Hasidic farbrengens, and preparation of boys for bar mitzvah. The celebration of Shabbat, Passover, Purim, Hanukkah, Rosh Hashanah, and other dates of the Jewish calendar is accompanied by prayers, classes, and community meals.

After the start of the full-scale Russian aggression, the community did not cease its work.

In 2022, it was engaged in purchasing and distributing food, evacuating people, finding safe places to live, providing psychological assistance, and delivering humanitarian aid. Already in the first days of the invasion, Levi Stambler and community staff prepared and distributed food packages for the city’s residents.

Even during the war, targeted delivery of Shabbat packages, support for families, the elderly, and other community members continued in Kamenskoye. This shows that “Beit Baruch” and “Beit Reuven” are not only places of prayer but also a constantly operating center of social mutual assistance.