US Coast Guard allows religious head coverings

By ASSOCIATED PRESS
The US Coast Guard is changing its regulations to permit auxiliary members to wear religious head coverings, as long as they bear no bright colors, writing, pictures or symbols, Chief Petty Officer Daniel Tremper said Tuesday. Lawmakers called for the change after state Assemblyman Dov Hikind of Brooklyn drew attention to the rule in March. The new policy had yet to be formally adopted, but Jack Rosenberg, a 35-year-old Hasidic Jew from Rockland County who passed his training for the Coast Guard Auxiliary last year but was told he could not serve without taking off his skullcap, was now permitted to wear the head covering, Tremper said. "I never considered it a problem," said Rosenberg. "Only a bump in the road."