Jewish Members of the Armed Services |
Jews in the American Military Because the Jewish population of
the United States is only 1.7% of the 325 million American citizens, it is not
surprising that Jewish participation in the military is small. Nevertheless, it
is remarkable how many Jewish members of the armed forces have distinguished
themselves in the service of their country. The military history of Jewish
Americans begins before Independence when Jews served in the colonial militias. Thereafter Jews served in all
branches of the American armed forces and in all the many wars in which the
United States has been involved. Most important is to remember
those who died fighting in the many wars of the United States in this century
and in the past. From the Revolutionary War to the War of 1812, the Civil War,
The Spanish American War, the First World War, the Second World War, the Korean
War, the Viet Nam War, and the several wars in Iraq and Afghanistan, Jewish
casualties, including deaths, have been evidence of Jewish willingness to
sacrifice their lives for the sake of America. A list of “fallen heroes”
demonstrates this sacrifice of Jewish men and women in “Operation Iraqi
Freedom,” “Enduring Freedom,” and “New Dawn.” These men and Elizabeth
Jacobson died at an average age of 24, with some as young as nineteen and a few
as old as forty-two. Elizabeth Jacobson was 21 years
old when an explosive device blew up at Camp Bucca in Iraq which killed her. She
was the first female airwoman to die in combat “in the line of duty.” She
was born in 1984 and died in 2005. In addition there are numerous Jewish wounded veterans of these wars. Although there were only 3,000 Jews in the United States during the Revolutionary War, 160 Jewish men served in the War for Independence. During the Civil War or The War Between the States, Jews served in both armies. At that time some 600 Jews died in both the Confederate States and the Union. About 7,000 served for the Union and 3,000 for the Confederacy. Jews constituted 0.5% of the population. Two Jewish companies were raised
in the north, made up of Illinois volunteers who were recent immigrants from
Europe. Four Jewish generals served in the Union army. Brigadier General
Frederick Solomon had been a colonel but was promoted to general and became a
major general by the end of the war in 1865. Brigadier General Leopold
Blumenberg fought against General Robert E. Lee at the battle of Antietam, where
he was severely wounded. Because of his wounds, he was relieved of the fighting
and appointed by President Lincoln to superintendent of warehouses in Baltimore.
Brigadier General Frederick Knefler rose
from First Lieutenant to Brigadier General after serving on the staff of General
Lew Wallace, having been recognized for bravery and courage after fighting in
four campaigns. The 82nd Illinois was command by General Edward S. Solomon. His
unit participated in the battle of Gettysburg, July 1-3 , 1863. In World War I William Shermin ran
across the battlefield three times in order to save wounded soldiers. Then, at
age 19, he took command of his unit as the commander had been killed. He led the
men to safety. He was awarded the Distinguished Service Cross. In 2011,
President Obama signed the William Shermin Jewish World War I Veterans Act,
ordering the Defense Department to review the actions of
Jewish veterans who had been refused the Congressional Medal of Honor
because they were Jewish. In World War II, 550,000 American
Jews served in the armed forces. This constituted 4% of all American service
personnel, although the American Jewish community at that time was only 3% of
the USA population. General Maurice Rose Among the outstanding American
Jewish soldiers was General Maurice Rose. (1899-1945). He was a World War I
veteran. He was the highest ranking American killed by enemy fire because,
unlike all other generals, he rode in a Jeep in front of the Third Armored
Division at the time of the Normandy Allied invasion. General Rose placed his
headquarters close to the front line so that he could visit his units without
wasting time. By exposing himself, he encouraged his men, as he never demanded
anything from them that he would not do himself. General Rose and the Third Armored
Division put an end to the Nazis’ last offensive
and began a relentless drive across northern France. The Third Division defeated
the Germans in Belgium by liberating Liege and then advanced to the German
border as the lead force of the First Army. General Rose and the Third Division
became the first Americans to enter Germany on September 12, 1944, and captured
the infamous Siegfried Line. The Third Division was also the key force defeating
the Germans at the Battle of the Bulge, and captured Cologne
(Köln) on March 5, 1945. The Division advanced 1010 miles in one day and
captured 374,000 German soldiers. General Rose was killed on March 4, 1945
shortly before the German surrender. As a 19 year old First Lieutenant,
Maurice Rose fought with the 89th Infantry Division in France during the First
World War. Wounded, he spent three weeks in a hospital. In 1920 he was promoted
to captain. In World War II he served in North Africa with the 1st and second
armored division and earned a Silver Star at the Battle of Tunisia. Just before
the invasion of Sicily, he was promoted to Brigadier General. Assigned to the
command of the Third Armored Division, General
Rose fought in Germany, where he was killed only five weeks before the German
surrender. Maurice Rose was married twice to non Jewish women. He had two sons,
one each from his two wives. He was buried in a Dutch cemetery for American
soldiers. Because he pretended to be
a Protestant in order to further his career, he is buried under a cross,
although he never converted to Christianity. Alexander D. Goode On February 3, 1943, the American
troop ship Dorchester was hit by a German torpedo in the north Atlantic.
The torpedo struck the engine room, leading to a massive explosion. The ship
capsized and sank within 20 minutes. There were four Army chaplains aboard.
Father John T. Washington, Rev. Clark D. Poling, Rev. George Fox, and Rabbi
Alexander D. Goode. As the ship sank, the four chaplains assisted the wounded
and frightened sailors in boarding life boats. The four chaplains also handed
out life preservers taken from locked boxes on deck. When the life preservers
gave out and there were no more to give to the frightened sailors, the four
chaplains gave their life preservers to four sailors. Then, locking hands, the
four, including Rabbi Goode, prayed together as the ship sank. They were among
670 passengers who died that day with them. Rabbi Alexander Goode was born in
1911 in Brooklyn, New York. He became a rabbi like his father before hm. In 1944
the four chaplains received the Distingushed Service Cross posthumously. In 1949
a U.S. postage stamp was issued with the inscription “The Immortal
Chaplains” and Congress designated February 3 “Four Chaplains Day”. Admiral Hyman G.
Rickover (1900-1986) Rickover is known as “The Father
of the Nuclear Navy.” He has been designated as “the Navy’s most important
officer.” He served as a four-star admiral from 1953- 1982. He spent 63 years
in the U.S. Navy, making him the longest-serving naval officer as well as the
longest-serving member of the US Armed Forces in history. Rickover was born in Portland as
Chaim Godalia, of Jewish parents who came to the United States in 1900. His
father was a tailor. The family lived in Chicago, where Hyman graduated from
high school. He then worked as a telegraph boy delivering Western Union
telegrams. His acquaintance Congressman Adolph Sabath nominated him for
appointment to the United States Naval Academy. He graduated in 1922 and was
commissioned as an ensign. In 1923 he was promoted to engineer officer. He then
came on board of the parent ship Nevada, and earned a Master’s of Science in
electrical engineering from Columbia University. He married a Christian woman in
1931 and converted to the Episcopal religion as he believed this necessary in
order to have career. Religious bigotry
was then well entrenched in the American Armed Forces. Despite this conversion,
he was regarded as a Jew. There were several reasons for
anti-Jewish conduct in the armed forces during the 1930’s and beyond. When
Germany under Hitler persecuted the German Jews and even burned down all
synagogues (Greek for assembly), many Americans claimed that those who wanted to
attack Germany were only seeking to fight the Nazis on behalf of the Jews. It
was even said that President Roosevelt was a Jew or that the Jews were telling
him what to do. A second reason for anti-Jewish hate in the United States during
the 1930’s and later was anti-Jewish propaganda distributed by the German Nazi
embassy in Washington and by such “personalities” as the radio priest Father
Coughlin and by the “hero” Charles Lindbergh. In addition, German language
newspapers fueled hate of Jews and agreement with Hitler among the numerous
German—Americans who at that time were subscribers to German language
newspapers. Finally, the Ku Klux Klan was active, and had many members who
promoted religious hate, as did the American Nazi
Party, which ceased to exist only after the United States entered the
Second World War in December of 1941. From 1929 to 1933 Rickover
volunteered for submarine duty. During that time, he translated a German book
concerning submarines, which became the basic text for the US submarine service.
In 1937, Rickover was promoted to Lieutenant Commander and assigned to the
Bureau of Engineering in Washington, DC. After the United States had entered the
Second World War, he was sent to Okinawa, an island in the Pacific. In December
1945 he was appointed Inspector General of the 19th fleet on the West Coast. He
was then sent to Oak Ridge National Laboratory. Rickover was then appointed by
Secretary of the Navy, John L. Sullivan, to
build the world’s first nuclear powered vessel. In 1955 Rickover was promoted to
Rear Admiral after he was at first rejected because he was seen as Jewish
despite his conversion to Christianity. As an admiral, Rickover oversaw the
Shippingport Atomic Power Station. In 1958 he was promoted to Vice Admiral ad
received a Gold Medal from Congress. In 1973 he was again promoted to four star
admiral.
Admiral Jeremy Boorda Jeremy Boorda (November 26,
1939-May 16, 1996) was an admiral who served as the 25th Chief of Naval
Operations, which is the highest rank in the navy. The son of Jewish parents who
immigrated from the Ukraine, he was the only Chief ever to rise to that position
from having begun as an enlisted man. He
was awarded 15 medals during his career, which ended when he shot himself in the
chest or was murdered, although he did leave a suicide note to the effect that
he had tarnished the reputation of the Navy. The media, ever ready to attack all
successful Americans, claimed that Boorda had worn two service ribbons
containing a “V” for Viet Nam to which he was not entitled. Boorda therefore
may have killed himself. However Admiral Zumwalt, the previous Chief of Naval
Operations and other high ranking officers, repeatedly confirmed that Boorda was
entitled to wear the “V.” Those who believe that Boorda was
murdered point out that Boorda was the only admiral who did not graduate from
the Naval Academy in Annapolis, MD, earning him a great deal of animosity from
the other naval officers. The media claimed that Boorda left two suicide notes
behind, although only one has ever been found and that note was not signed. The
navy never released the results of his autopsy. Witnesses claimed they saw two
bullet holes in Boorda’s body. IF Boorda shot himself then he would not have
been able to fire a second shot. Boorda has a favorable reputation not
associated with a suicidal personality. Moreover. He repeatedly remarked how he
was looking forward to retire that year. Since the theory that Boorda killed
himself because he wore an unauthorized insignia seems absurd in view of the
assertion by all naval authorities that he was entitled to wear this device.
Therefore an explanation for Boorda’s death is tied to the so-called the
Tailhook Scandal. This label referred to a series of assaults on women performed
during a drunken convention of Navy and Marine pilots who allegedly assaulted 83
women and seven men, and otherwise engaged in indecent conduct at the Las Vegas
Hilton Hotel. Some of the men wore T -shirts with the legend “Women Are
Property.” Women were forced to “walk the
gauntlet” in which drunken officers lined both sides of a hallway and
assaulted women attempting to go to their rooms. A subsequent investigation led
to some officers being demoted and others dismissed. Further investigation of
the Tailhook Scandal included testimony from the wife of a divorced Marine Corps
Colonel, Kay Griggs, in which she testified that her ex-husband George Griggs
was probably involved in the murder of Admiral Boorda. She also claimed
that it is nearly impossible for an officer to attain the rank of colonel or
above without participating in homosexual activities. According to Mrs. Griggs,
Admiral Boorda “made the mistake” of firing numerous men involved in the
Tailhook scandal. This infuriated several generals who had participated in the
Tailhook Scandal. That , according to Glen MacDonald, an army major, led to
Boorda’s murder. Jeremy Boorda dropped out of high
school and entered the U.S. Navy at the age of 17. He finished high school while
in the navy and was promoted and served on aircraft carriers. In 1962 he was
admitted to the Officer’s Candidate School. He was commissioned at Lieutenant
Junior Grade. In 1965 he commanded a destroyer during the Vietnam war. Later he
attended the US Navy War College and also earned a B.A. degree from the
University of Rhode Island. After
commanding a number of ships, Boorda was assigned assistant to the Secretary of
the Navy. In 1984 he was assigned Executive Assistant to the Chief of Naval
Operations. He then became Chief of Naval Forces in Europe and in 1994 became
the 25th Chief of Naval Operations. He was the only enlisted man eve to rise to
the highest rank available to a navy officer. Admiral Claude Charles Bloch Admiral Bloch was a veteran of
both World War I and II. He received the Naval cross for bravery.
He graduated from the United States Naval Academy in 1899 and commanded
the USS Plattsburg. Later he commanded the US Battle Force and became Commander
in Chief of the US fleet 1938-1940. He commanded the Naval Air District when the
Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor in 1941. Admiral Bloch served in the navy for 46
years. Congressional Medal of Honor
Heroes Jewish members of the armed forces
have also distinguished themselves by extraordinary acts of courage which won
them the Congressional Medal of Honor, the highest decoration available to an
American fighting man or woman. Of all those who have been awarded the Medal of
Honor, Tibor Rubin is no doubt the most amazing recipient.
Tibor Rubin was born on June 9, 1929 in a small Hungarian town inhabited
by 120 Jewish families. His father was an employee in
a shoe store. At age 14, Tibor and his family were sent to the Mauthausen
death camp by the Germans who had invaded Hungary. He survived while his mother
and father were murdered. On May 5, 1945, American soldiers liberated the death
camp inmates. A very religious Jew, he promised God that he would join the U.S.
army if he survived the death camp. In 1948, he succeeded in coming to the
United States. In 1950 he joined the army and was told that he did not have to
fight in the Korean War because he was not a citizen. He insisted that he wanted
to fight for the United States in gratitude for admitting him to the country.
His sergeant, a man called Watson, hated all Jews and sought to have Rubin
killed by assigning him he most dangerous missions. This included one situation
in which he singlehandedly held off a wave of North Korean soldiers for 24
hours, securing a safe route of retreat for his own troops. As a result, Rubin
was recommended to receive the Medal of Honor, but his sergeant, Artice W.
Watson, refused to fill out the paperwork because he did not want a Jew to
receive the medal. In 2002 Congress passed the
Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act, named after a fallen Jewish hero who was denied
the Medal of Honor because he was Jewish. That led Presidnt Bush to order a
review of 137 Jewish veterans’ records. At that time, the Jewish Journal of
Southern California published Rubin’s record and the conduct of Watson. Rubin
spent 30 months as a prisoner of war in North Korea. His fellow prisoners have
testified that Tibor Rubin risked his life for the good of others. He stole food
from the enemy’s supplies, which he shared equally with all American
prisoners. He did this at night. He knew that if he had been caught by the enemy
he would have been killed. Because
he was born in Hungary, the Koreans offered to release him by sending him to
Hungary, then a communist country.
He refused unless all other Americans were also released. He carried sick
American prisoners to the latrine and nursed others. Nothing was more important
to him than to help his fellow men. Among those who received the
Congressional Medal of Honor is Florent Groberg, a native of France, born in
1983, who was decorated by President Obama in 2015. Groberg had been promoted to
Captain in the 4th Infantry Division. Groberg had received The Bronze
Star and the Purple Heart. In 2012 he was severely injured thwarting a suicide
bomber in Afghanistan. Raised by his mother and stepfather, he never met his
biological father. His family moved to Potomac, Maryland when Florent was in
middle school. He became a US citizen in 2001. He graduated from the University
of Maryland in 2007. In 2008 he entered the Army and became an officer after
graduating from the Fort Benning Officer Candidate School.
Assigned to the action in Afghanistan, Groberg risked his life and
suffered considerable wounds on seizing a suicide bomber before the bomber could
kill a patrol consisting of two brigade commanders, three battalion commanders
and two sergeants major. Groberg tackled the suicide bomber, who then detonated
his device, blowing Groberg 20 feet away. Thereupon a second suicide bomber also
detonated a bomb which killed several Americans, although Groberg survived with
a brain injury, significant nerve damage, and blown eardrums. Leonard Kravitz earned the
Distinguished Service Cross for his action in the Korean War. Years later he was
awarded The Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously. No one saw Kravitz die.
He was found in a foxhole surrounded by a large number of enemy soldiers. He had
only 6 rounds of ammunition in his machine gun. His unit was surrounded by enemy
soldiers who launched a fanatical “banzi charge,” forcing the Americans to
withdraw, except for Kravitz, who volunteered to cover his retreating comrades
by firing the machine gun at the enemy. The citation for his Distinguished
Service Cross reads “Pvt. Kravits poured devastating fire into the ranks of
the onrushing assailants. He swept the hostile soldiers with deadly accurate
fire, killing the entire group.” He was so effective that the enemy was forced
to concentrate their fire to his position. Pvt. Kravitz would not be ignored.
And while the enemy was trying to take out the lone brave soldier, his unit
safely withdrew. Kravitz put up one heck of a fight which saved his entire unit,
although he could not save himself. After the Korean War, one of
Leonard Kravitz’s friends campaigned to have Kravitz’s Distinguished Service
Cross upgraded to a Congressional Medal of Honor. In 2004 they succeeded when
Representative Robert Wexler introduced a bill in the House H.R. 606 called
“The Leonard Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act of 2001.”
John Levitow was born in Hartford,
Connecticut on November 1, 1945. From 1966 to 1970 he served in the U.S. Air
Force in Viet Nam. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor because he saved
the lives of the entire crew of a plane which was hit by a missile. Levitow was
severely wounded and in great pain. When he saw that a flare was about to fall
into the ammunition on the plane, Levitow threw himself on the flare and pushed
the flare through the open cargo door an instant before it would have destroyed
the aircraft. Levitow received the Medal of Honor from President Richard Nixon.
Since Levitow died of cancer in 2000, the Air Force Academy has given the John
Levitow Award to cadets ranking in the top 1% of their class.
Jack Jacobs was awarded the Silver
Star and the Congressional Medal of Honor for his amazing courage and actions
while fighting in Viet Nam. Severely wounded by heavy mortar fire, he took
command of his company when the commander was disabled. Risking his life, Jacobs
repeatedly ran across open rice paddies through heavy fire to evacuate the
wounded. He saved the lives of fourteen men. Jacobs also received 15 other
medals for outstanding actions in combat. Benjamin Salomon was born in
Milwaukee, Wisconsin in 1914. He was killed by the Japanese on Saipan Island in
the Pacific on July 7, 1944. A dentist, he was assigned as a front line surgeon.
He went ashore with the 105th Infantry and volunteered. In 1944 the Japanese
started to overrun his hospital. He therefore stood a rear guard action without
any hope of surviving. His action
allowed the evacuation of the wounded. Salomon killed 98 of the enemy troops
before he was killed. In 2002, Salomon received the Medal of Honor posthumously.
Isadore Jachman was born in
Berlin, Germany, in 1922. His family came to America when Isadore was two years
old. He grew up in Baltimore, Maryland. His relatives were murdered by the
Germans. Jachman joined the U.S. Army in November, 1942, and became a member of
the 513th Parachute Regiment. When his company was pinned down by enemy machine
guns, mortars, and artillery, two German tanks also attacked Jachman’s unit.
Then Jachman dashed across open ground, leaving his concealed place, and through
a hail of fire grabbed a bazooka with which he advanced on two enemy tanks,
firing his weapon. Both tanks left, but Jachman was fatally wounded and died at
age 22 in 1945. Later a statue of an American soldier was erected in the village
where Jachman died. An armory bearing his name is located in Owings Mills,
Maryland. He was honored posthumously when his family were given his Medal of
Honor. Raymond Zussman was killed by
German fire on September 21, 1944 in France. He was 27 years ld. Zussman, a
native of Michigan, was a second lieutenant in the 756th tank battalion. He was
awarded The Congressional Medal of Honor posthumously. His citation describes
how Zussman was in command of two tanks operating with an infantry company town
in France. Armed only with a carbine, Zussman walked ahead of the tanks alone
and returned to the tanks to designate targets for the tank crews against the
Germans. He stood by the tanks, directing their fire. After a number of Germans
were killed, he continued to walk ahead of the tanks, leading them to shoot at a
number of houses occupied by Germans and bringing about the surrender of
numerous Germans. He then captured 39 Germans alone using his carbine.
Ninety-two Germans were captured that day because of Lieutenant Zussman’s
courage. He died in a mortar attack. Sydney Gumpertz was awarded the
Congressional Medal of Honor by General John Pershing at a ceremony at Chamont,
France, on February 9, 1919. The citation for the medal reads: “When the
advancing lines were held up by machine gunfire, 1st Sargent Gumpertz left the
platoon of which he was in charge and with two soldiers threw a heavy barrage
toward the machine gun nest. When the two soldiers with him were wounded,
Gumpertz continued alone, and in the face of direct fire from the machine guns,
jumped into the nest and captured nine enemy soldiers single handed. Benjamin Kaufman was born in
Buffalo, New York in 1894. He received the Congressional Medal of Honor and the
Croix de Guerre from France. He was blinded by a gas shell while helping in the
rescue of several other soldiers. Sent to a hospital, he returned to the
fighting without entering the hospital. Returning to the front, he took on a
machine gun which had prevented the advance of his company. A machine gun bullet
shattered his right arm. Nevertheless he advanced on the gun alone, throwing
grenades with his left hand. He charged with an empty pistol. He took prisoners
and scattered the rest of the German crew and then brought the German gun and
the prisoner back to the American lines. William Sawelson was born in
Newark, New Jersey in 1895 and died at age 23 on October 26, 1918. He was
awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. According to the citation, he heard a
wounded man in a shell hole some distance away calling for water. Sgt. Sawelson
left shelter and crawled through heavy machine gun fire to the wounded man,
giving him water from his canteen. He then returned to his own shell hole with
no more ammunition when he was killed by German fire. Not all military heroes received
the Congressional Medal of Honor. Three Jewish heroes of World War II illustrate
this. The brothers Asher and Milton Moldane were on board the destroyer U.S.S.
Blue when the Japanese attacked
Pearl Harbor on Sunday, December 7, 1941. The Blue was docked for refueling, as
the captain was ashore. This left Ensign Milton
Moldane, a graduate of the Washington University Law School, and his
brother in charge. Ensign Asher Moldane had graduated from the Naval Academy at
Annapolis. At breakfast both were informed that the Japanese had attacked the
battleships anchored at Ford Island in Pearl Harbor. Asher therefore directed
the crew to head the Blue out to sea while Milton took charge of the forward
machine guns, witnessing the sinking of the Arizona. As the Blue headed out to
sea for one and a half hours, the Japanese kept flying
over the ship, bombing everything visible to them while the Blue crew
shot machine gun fire at the
Japanese planes, shooting down at least one of them. At that same time, Private
Louis Schleifer was walking to breakfast when he heard the sounds of Japanese
planes attacking Hickham Field. As the Japanese dropped bombs on the field and
strafed American planes, Schleifer grabbed his helmet and his revolver and kept
firing at the planes until he was mortally wounded. There is a memorial to Louis
Schleifer in the garden of temple Beth Shalom (House of Peace) in Livingston,
New Jersey. Every year on December 7, the congregation holds memorial services
at the memorial fountain. Leo Goldfarb was a third class
radio man on the U.S.S. Oglala. At 7 a.m. he had finished his watch as he heard
the sounds of aircraft motors. He saw Japanese planes attack the seven battle
ships as one ship after another was hit with torpedoes. As he went to his battle
station to defend his ship, it was hit by a torpedo and sank with him.
Additionally, radio mechanic Rosenthal died aboard the California, as did Alex
Sherman, on the New Orleans, Ben Lichtman on the USS West Virginia, Stan Levitt
on the USS Rigel, and Bernard Rubin on Hickam Field. All these Jewish fighting
men died at Pearl Harbor. Meyer Levin was a sergeant in the
US Air Force and served as a bombardier in the Pacific flying against the
Japanese. On the first day of the war against Japan, Meyer Levin was flying
along the coast of the Philippines under the command of Captain Colin Kelly when
they saw the biggest Japanese battleship, the Haruna. Captain Kelly flew over
the Haruna. At that moment Sergeant Levin sent a bomb which scored a direct hit
and sank the Haruna. Levin later participated in the battle of the Coral Sea.
There he launched the bombs that destroyed a large transport filled with enemy
troops. In January 1943 Levin had flown more than 60 missions. Now he flew
through a severe thunderstorm with a near empty fuel tank. When the pilot could
not gain altitude, he landed the plane in the rough sea. Then Levin climbed out
of the bomb bay and unhooked the life rafts for the men to use, when the plane
was hit by a large wave, breaking it in two. The men were already in the life
rafts but Levin could not escape and died as the plane went down. Meyer Levin
was only 25 when he died. He had been awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross,
the Silver Star with Oak Leave Cluster, the Purple Heart, and the Certificate of
Merit. Barney Ross was not only an
all-time great Jewish boxer but also a military hero. He was born in New York
City in 1909. His name was Dov-Baer Rosofsky . His father was a rabbi and
shopkeeper. The family moved to Chicago into the Jewish ghetto. Barney, as he
was later called, wanted to become a rabbi and Talmud scholar like his father,
but his father was murdered as he resisted a robbery in his store.
Barney was then 13 years old. His mother suffered a nervous breakdown, so
that his siblings were sent to orphanages or to relatives. Left alone, Barney
lived in the streets, where he associated with Jack Ruby or Rubenstein, the man
who later killed President Kennedy’s assassin, Oswald. Seeking to earn enough
money to reunite his family, Barney Ross became a boxer. He changed his name to
Barney Ross because his mother had returned and was ashamed that her son was a
boxer. In 1929, Ross won the Chicago Golden Gloves tournament, having fought
over 200 amateur fights, winning almost all of them. In 1929 he turned
professional. In 1933 he defeated the world lightweight champion Tony Canzoneri.
This was a shocking victory for the boxing world. Later he defeated Jimmy McLane,
considered the greatest fighter in his class. Calling himself “Pride of the
Ghetto,” he attracted crowds of 70,000 fans. His last fight was in 1938, when
he lost and retired from the ring. In 1941, the year the Japanese
attacked Pearl Harbor, Ross enlisted in the U.S. Marines, although he was too
old to be drafted. He demanded assignment to combat, although he was to be a
boxing instructor. He was therefore sent to Guadalcanal Island, where a brutal
battle with the Japanese was in progress. On patrol with three other men, they
were attacked by a Japanese force. His three fellow soldiers were wounded. He
moved the three wounded men into a
shelter, and from there he fired over two hundred rounds at the enemy. When his
bullets ran out, he hurled 22 grenades at enemy machine gun positions. During
the night he killed about 20 of the enemy. By morning, two of his colleagues had
died. He then carried the one survivor to safety. This feat earned him the
Silver Star, the Purple Heart, and a Presidential Citation. He had been wounded
during that night and was sent to a hospital, where he was treated with
morphine. This led him to become a drug addict for a number of years, until he
recovered and traveled throughout the United States campaigning against drug
use. He died of cancer at age 57. He is a member of the International Boxing
Hall of Fame. General Norton A. Schwartz General Schwartz was Chief of
Staff of the United States Air Force from 2000 to 2008, when he retired. While
Chief, he was responsible for 700,000 active duty men and women. As a member of
the Joint Chiefs of Staff, he was a military adviser to the Secretary of
Defense, the National Security Council, and the President. Schwartz grew up in New Jersey,
the son of a Jewish typewriter salesman. He graduated from the U.S. Air Force
Academy with a degree in political science. He also earned a Master’s degree
in Business Administration from Central Michigan University. He then attended
the National War College. He was commander of the Pacific Special Operations
Command, Alaskan Aerospace Command, and the 11th Air Force. He piloted a variety
of aircraft and had more than 4,400 flying hours, and took part in the 1975 Viet
Nam airlift. Prior to becoming Chief of Staff, he was assigned to numerous tasks
in several US states and Germany. And Washington, D.C. In January
2000 he became Deputy Commander in
Chief and in in 2008 he became the first Jewish Air Force Chief of Staff. General David L. Goldfine General Goldfine was born on an
airbase in France where his father was stationed. His father was a colonel in
the U.S. Air Force. David flew combat missions during the Gulf War, where he
commanded the 555th Fighter Squadron. In May 1999 his plane was shot down in
Serbia by a missile. He ejected and was rescued by an American helicopter crew. Goldfine was executive officer to
the commander of the US Air Force in Europe and a National Defense Fellow of the
State Department in Arlington, VA, from 2000 to 2001. Thereafter he became
commander of the US Air Force Central Command, Vice Chief in 2005, and, in 2016,
Chief of the US Air Force. David Berger is the first Jewish
Commandant of the U.S. Marine Corps. Considering the reputation of the Marines
as the toughest, most aggressive American fighting force, it is significant that
a Jew commands this unit in view of the European and Arab opinion that Jews
can’t fight and are cowards. The truth is that European Jews could not fight
because they had no weapons, which was also true of the Jews in Muslim countries
until the Israelis achieved independence in 1948. General Berger holds a degree in
engineering and two Master’s degrees from Tulane University. He was
commissioned in 1981 and has since then served as company commander and in
Operation Desert Storm and served on the Joint staff as policy planner. He
commanded the 3th battalion, 8th Marines from 2002 to 2004 in Okinawa and Haiti.
As a colonel he also commanded troops in Iraq. Appointed to Brigadier General,
he deployed to Kosovo where he served as chief of staff. For the next two years
he was assigned to Marine Headquarters. Then he was deployed to Afghanistan as
commanding general of a Marine division. He then became commanding General of
Marine Air-Ground Task Force and later became commanding general of Marines in
the Pacific. He is a graduate of several military schools. In 2019, President
Donald Trump appointed him Commandant of the United States Marines. Another Marine Corps general is
Robert Magnus, who retired in July 2008 after 38 years of service.
Magnus was born in Brooklyn, New York, the child of a Jewish bookkeeper
and seamstress. He was sent to a
Conservative Hebrew school and celebrated his Bar Mitzvah at the Long Island
Jewish Center. Ben Morrell graduated from the University of Virginia with a B.A.
degree and a commission a second lieutenant in the Marine Corps. In 1993 he
earned a Master’s degree in business administration. In addition he was sent
to an engineering school in Paris, France to study the European military
techniques of engineering. He also trained as a naval aviator at the National
War College. After a short stint on Wall street, Magnus returned to the Marines
as a weapons instructor. He was then given numerous assignments leading to
Deputy Commander, Marine Corps, Pacific. Later he became executive assistant to
the Director of the Joint Chiefs of Staff and promoted to General on November 1,
2005, and became assistant Commander
of the Marines. He retired in 2008 after also serving in the Viet Nam war. The Jewish Chaplains
In 1917, during the First World War,
the Jewish chaplains council was formed. It includes Jewish chaplains drawn from
all denominations including Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Judaism. The
Council consists of sixteen rabbis. Four from the Central Conference of American
Rabbis (Reform), four from the Rabbinical Assembly (Conservative), four from the
Rabbinical Council of America (Orthodox), and four active chaplains . The
council serves not only thousands of Jewish military personnel, but also
deals with Jewish veterans at Veterans’ Administration medical centers.
Jewish chaplains served in World War I and World War II and in all subsequent
wars of the United States. Outstanding
examples were Rabbi Isaac Klein and Rabbi Herschel Schacter. Rabbi Klein later
wrote a book The Anguish and the Ecstacy of a Jewish Chaplain, which describes
his experiences in Europe during the liberation of the countries occupied by
Germany and the encounter of Rabbi Klein with the Jewish survivors of the
concentration camps. Rabbi Schacter was the first rabbi to enter and participate
in the liberation of the notorious Buchenwald camp. Both rabbis participated in
the resettlement of the displaced persons, Jews who had no home and no place to
go. Rabbi Klein served for four years.
He was promoted to major when he became advisor to the high commissioner of the
occupation government in Germany. He was promoted to Brigadier General during
special assignments concerning Jewish soldiers. He described his experiences in
his book The Agony and the Ecstacy of a Jewish Chaplain.
There were three hundred and
eleven Jewish chaplains in service during World War II. One hundred and
forty-seven were Reform, ninety-six were Conservative, and sixty-eight were
Orthodox. This reflected the size of these three denominations. Before they could serve, chaplains
were trained at a number of different universities, where they met members of
various Christian denominations. They shared rooms with one another to become
closely acquainted. Shalom u'vracha. |