German military appoints chief rabbi for first time since World War I

The German military has named a chief rabbi to serve in its ranks for the first time in almost a century after German Defense Minister Annegret Kramp-Karrenbauer made the appointment aimed at both serving the hundreds of Jews in the German military's ranks and to combat antisemitism.
Rabbi Zsolt Balla, currently the chief rabbi of Saxony and its capital, Leipzig, has been selected to fill the position. He will also continue in his current position, according to German broadcaster Deutsche Welle (DW).

Some 300 German Jews currently serve in the Bundeswehr and the German parliament voted unanimously exactly a year ago to allow rabbis back into the military to provide religious assistance to Jewish soldiers. Rabbis were expelled from the ranks when Adolf Hitler rose to power in 1933. Until the vote, German soldiers were offered religious services only by a Christian military chaplain.