Fort Campbell investigates firing of Jewish lay leader

A Clarksville, Tenn., woman who has provided holy day and weekly Jewish services at Fort Campbell for years says 101st Airborne Division chaplains terminated her from that volunteer role without explanation.

Jeanette Mize, the Jewish lay leader at the post, said her dismissal in March has effectively stopped the longstanding Friday evening Shabbat services at Fort Campbell. She thinks it is indicative of a larger problem among the division’s top chaplains, and she reached out to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation for help.

“I really feel like there is religious persecution for the Jewish soldiers and their families at Fort Campbell,” Mize said.

As a result, an investigation is underway, Robert N. Jenkins, director of public affairs at Fort Campbell, said in a statement. He would not comment on why Mize was dismissed as a volunteer.

“We are investigating allegations surrounding changes in religious support to the Fort Campbell Jewish community,” Jenkins said.

Jenkins would not say whether weekly Shabbat services continued after Mize’s termination.

Mize said she has stayed in contact with a person on post who told her they have not been happening. The closest synagogue is more than an hour’s drive away.

“It’s really heartbreaking that now the Jewish soldier if he wants to go and worship, doesn’t even have a Shabbat service,” Mize said. “He would have to come to Nashville.”

The weekly services would draw 10 to 15 people each week, Mize said. The Shabbat is still included in Fort Campbell’s online list of religious services.

“Fort Campbell is committed to maintaining and improving the exceptional support we strive to offer all of our chapel communities,” Jenkins said. “We make every effort to ensure all soldiers, family members and civilians have the opportunity to exercise their religious rights.”

Mize and her husband, Curt Mize, have served as Jewish lay leaders at Fort Campbell since 1999, she said. The couple own Heimansohn Steel and Salvage in Clarksville, and Curt Mize has made a number of unsuccessful bids for the Montgomery County mayor seat. Their son, Lawrence Mize, volunteered with them at Fort Campbell, too.

In recent days, Mize and Mikey Weinstein, the president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation, have been in contact with Fort Campbell leadership over the termination, the top chaplains and concerns for Jewish soldiers and their families.

Weinstein, who founded the civil rights organization dedicated to ensuring religious freedom for those in the military, considers the investigation a start.