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As it grapples with charges of religious intolerance at its Colorado Springs academy, the U.S. Air Force has tapped the talents of a District rabbi to address problems there, days after issuing a report on the school's religious climate.

These moves have drawn mixed reviews from Jewish groups, church-state separation advocates and local lawmakers.

Retired Naval chaplain Rabbi Arnold Resnicoff began work Monday as special assistant to the secretary of the Air Force and chief of staff for values and vision (SAVV).

"If this was a civilian university, we wouldn't think this is a crisis," Resnicoff, a Conservative rabbi, said in an interview Tuesday. "But the difference is that this is the U.S. Air Force Academy, where we build military leaders."

Resnicoff, 58, served 25 years as a Navy chaplain before retiring in 2001. At the request of Air Force brass, he visited the force's academy last Dec. 13-15, accompanied by deputy assistant secretary of the Air Force for equal opportunity Shirley Martinez.

Although his new job is only a one-year appointment, he voiced his "sincere belief" that Air Force leaders are moving quickly to address the religious climate at its academy.

"It's become not just a political issue and not just a military issue, because we want the Air Force to become a model in terms of dignity, sensitivity and values," Resnicoff said Tuesday.

In a related development that day, Air Force Chief of Staff John P. Jumper sent a statement to everyone in his military branch on "Airmen, Spiritual Strength and Core Values" that touched on religious proselytizing, a key complaint by many at the academy.

"In particular, sharing personal beliefs in a professional setting, one where leaders are performing their duties in a chain of command or in a superior-subordinate relationship, can easily become improper influence about personal matters. Furthermore, it can be resented," Jumper's statement read in part.

Meanwhile, two Jewish groups praised Resnicoff's appointment -- and the release last week of an Air Force study on the religious climate at its academy.

Noting "pervasive" religious abuse at the school, Anti-Defamation League national director Abraham Foxman called the report a "significant step."

Turning to Resnicoff's appointment, Foxman cited the former chaplain's knowledge of the armed forces.

"He is a good choice," Foxman said. "It's also a statement to the community that they consider this important."

In a double chain of command, Resnicoff will report both to Jumper and to Secretary of the Air Force Michael L. Dominguez.

Thomas Neumann, executive director of the Jewish Institute for National Security Affairs, sees the SAVV's twofold reporting as a signal that "ultimately, it's the very top that cares about these issues and is ready to deal with it."

But, a Jewish Air Force critic and 1977 academy graduate, Mikey Weinstein of Albuquerque, blasted last week's report as a "whitewash" and voiced doubts about Resnicoff's mandate. His son, Casey, graduated from the academy in 2004 and another son, Curtis, is a rising junior there.

"There's no way my children or other people should be made sport of," said Weinstein. "Make no mistake about it -- it's Inquisition 2.0."

Weinstein says 117 people, including current and former cadets, faculty and staff, have contacted him about religious bias at the school. Of this total, he said, only eight are Jews and 12 are Catholic.

"All the rest are Baptists, Presbyterians, Lutherans; they're just not recognized as Christian enough," lamented Weinstein, charging that evangelicals "have weaponized the gospel of Jesus Christ and are using it against others."

The controversy over the Air Force Academy has sparked heated debate in Congress.

In an interview Tuesday, Rep. James Moran (D-Va.) voiced concern about religious intolerance in the Air Force and called for the firing of those responsible. Meanwhile, he worried that Resnicoff's appointment could represent mere "lip service."

"I'd be much more comfortable if they'd named Rabbi Resnicoff as chaplain at the academy," Moran said, "because the chaplain there doesn't understand what this country is all about -- and the Air Force officers are fighting to defend -- among these fundamental principles is religious freedom."

Rep. Christopher Van Hollen (D-Md.), whose Montgomery County district includes a large number of Jews, sees the Air Force as "reluctantly pushed" to move against religious bias.

"We'll have to watch their deeds, not just their words," Van Hollen said.

But in an e-mailed answer to questions, a Maryland member of the House Armed Services Committee, who chairs its projection forces subcommittee, affirmed his faith in the military's efforts.

"I have great confidence in the Air Force Academy's ability to support the First Amendment's guarantee of the free exercise of religion," wrote Rep. Roscoe Bartlett (R-Md.), who represents the Sixth District, including Frederick and Howard counties.

In a staff-led conference call with reporters Monday, Resnicoff underscored Jumper's invitation to him to give a 30-minute talk before a meeting of four-star generals next month.

That's part of what he calls the "good news" at the Air Force.

"For every comment and action that is inappropriate and crosses the line, there are hundreds that help people stand up straight and tall and strong in their faith," Resnicoff told the journalists.

The former chaplain, who grew up in Hyattsville and belongs to D.C.'s Adas Israel Congregation, has a long career in the military. After service as a Navy line officer in Vietnam, he attended the Jewish Theological Seminary in New York, at the prodding of an Episcopal chaplain. He was ordained in 1976.

Among those who pushed for a Vietnam Veterans Memorial, Resnicoff gave the closing prayer at its 1982 dedication.

His Naval chaplaincy included a stint in Beirut during the 1983 bombing of the Marine barracks there. Resnicoff and a Catholic chaplain tended to survivors in the aftermath and the rabbi used his kippah to wipe blood off soldiers. A report the rabbi wrote about this later appeared in a speech that President Ronald Reagan gave to some 20,000 people at the "Baptist Fundamentalism '84" convention, led by Rev. Jerry Falwell.

"I have some link, through that speech, to the evangelical community," Resnicoff said Tuesday.

Following his military retirement, he served for a year as American Jewish Committee's national director of interreligious affairs.

His appointment followed last week's release of a 100-page report of a 16-person military task force, led by Lt. Gen. Roger A. Brady, that probed religious bias at the academy.

The report denied the presence of "overt religious discrimination" at the school, but flagged several related problems. These included "failure to address the religious needs of cadets of minority religions," religious slurs by cadets and "inappropriate" religious expressions by faculty and staff.

Yet a 13-page report released in April by Americans United for Separation of Church and State (AU) took a sterner view of the academy.

"We have investigated those complaints and come to the conclusion that the policies and practices constitute egregious, systemic, and legally actionable violations of the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution," the report stated.

An AU statement last week welcomed the Air Force report as "an important first step," but called for more action "to ensure that the basic constitutional rights of all cadets are respected."

Meanwhile, the impact of the Air Force Academy controversy seems to keep rippling.

Moran noted an annual party he held last week for some 20 appointees to military academies and their families. One parent told him that his child had opted for West Point, rather than the Air Force Academy, after hearing about the problems there, the congressman said.

For his part, Weinstein alleged a record of religious intolerance at the school going back more than a decade. He pointed to a full-page evangelical Christian proclamation printed from 1993 to 2003 in the government-funded Academy Spirit newsweekly, signed by hundreds of school faculty.

"I'll shed my last drop of blood for these evangelicals," said Weinstein, who reported serving in the Air Force from 1977 to 1987, "even though they've said to me that Einstein, Jack Benny and Anne Frank are burning in hell -- as long they don't engage the machinery of the state."

But, Resnicoff believes the Air Force wants to correct its missteps, and sees a place for religion in the military.

"I believe if the world had more interfaith foxholes, we would need fewer foxholes," the rabbi said.