A longtime educator in Kamianske’s Chabad community has completed months of military training and begun serving as an assistant military chaplain in the Ukrainian Armed Forces.

After years of teaching Torah and preparing local boys for bar mitzvah, Rabbi Nochum Simcha Leitans has taken on a new role alongside Ukrainian soldiers serving during the war.

Leitans recently completed several months of military training and was appointed as an assistant to a military chaplain in the Ukrainian Armed Forces, Kamianske shliach Rabbi Levi Yitzchak Stambler announced.

“We wish him and all the soldiers protection, strength and a speedy peace,” Stambler wrote.

Leitans has long served as an educator in the Kamianske Jewish community, overseeing its yeshiva and advanced Torah study programs, teaching halacha and Jewish tradition, and guiding boys as they prepared for bar mitzvah.

His new position will bring that work into the military, where he will assist with the religious and personal needs of soldiers serving amid the continuing war.