Archive for category: Features

By Maj. Sarah Schechter, U.S. Air Force

Operation Allies Refuge is the largest noncombatant evacuation operation in the history of the United States, and I am fortunate to say, “I was there.”
The operation included 22 Religious Support Teams who provided 24/7 religious accommodation to our 35,000 guests and was nothing short of miraculous. It was a collaboration between the military, German Police, Embassies, the State Department, USAID, the USO, interpreters, volunteers, and big hearts of all kinds.

I am an Air Force Chaplain/Rabbi and belonged to this once in a lifetime team. At the close of daily leadership meetings, the officer in charge called on me for final thoughts. “And Chaplain, what do you have for us today?” The turn of events had impacted my perspective on our presence in Afghanistan over the last twenty years. I experienced a range of emotions and prayed to G-d for insight. It then occurred to me that this operation was our country adopting another people as its own. That realization defined the rest of the operation for me and thus at the camp meeting I said, “Our Afghan guests are about to be adopted by our country to be our fellow American citizens. Our role at Ramstein is much like that of a foster family. What does a foster family do? It provides love, care, stability, safety, nurturing, and shelter. We are the foster family, and our guests are on their way to becoming family. Our family! And our fellow Americans.”

U.S. citizens and their families process through the passenger terminal at Ramstein Air Base, Germany, to board a departure flight on their way to the United States as part of Operations Allies Refuge, Aug. 23, 2021. Ramstein, a transit location for evacuees from Afghanistan, provided temporary lodging, food, medical services and treatment while they awaited transportation to the United States. Nearly 48 hours after the operation began, more than 7,000 evacuees have landed at Ramstein. (U.S. Air Force photo by Airman Edgar Grimaldo)

Operation Allies Refuge, one of the most challenging and powerful experiences of our life, was a giant foster family. Months later, as the operation came to a close and last flights departed Ramstein with passengers smiling ear to ear, many a heart ached. Hearts ached at having to say farewell to children whose little feet they clothed in socks and shoes. Children with whom they played ball, taught English, and snuck candy into hands, just to bring a smile and make their difficult life more pleasant. Hearts were aching because in the bittersweet moment, they were now all gone off, we hope, to a brighter future. The once teeming tent cities that sprang up overnight are now empty, silently echoing the non-stop, problem-solving, rhythm of their life here. Now a ghost town. The Islamic call to prayer we played over loudspeaker to thousands of people, five times a day, for two months, is no longer needed.

I escorted the last Afghans leaving Ramstein and realized that I was there due to a decision I had made 20 years ago. I joined the military because of September 11, going to a recruiter on September 12, 2001. By some uncanny coincidence, I was the last military member to say goodbye, on one of the last flights to the United States. For me, this closed that chapter of September 11.

Former Chief Rabbi of England, Rabbi Sacks once said, “We are as great as the challenges we have the courage to undertake.”

This operation, and its various challenges, has been a courageous undertaking. We are providing the homeless with a home, the nationless with a nation. People who had no future, now have a future.

How is greatness achieved? To again quote Rabbi Sacks, “When we hand our values to the next generation and empower them to build a future.” Our newest American citizens are our family and our next generation. May God bless them, and may God bless America, through them.

Volume 75. Number 4. 2021

By Kerry Ward, Veterans History Project Liaison Specialist

Jacob Weinstein. Melvin Cohen. Bonnie Koppell.
These names may not be etched into popular memory, but they fought unrelenting bigotry in two World Wars, battled communist forces within the jungles of Vietnam, and operated peacekeeping missions in some of the most difficult environments in the world. With their brothers and sisters in arms, they followed a long tradition of Jewish Americans who have heeded the call to serve and, in doing so, helped form the fabric of our military, history, culture, and society. They faced barrages of artillery in the trenches of France during The Great War, flew bombing missions over Germany during World War II and counseled the men and women on the front lines during the most recent conflicts. By sharing their diverse experiences, we as a nation can begin to understand their immeasurable contributions.

Created by Congress in 2000, the Library of Congress Veterans History Project (VHP) includes those treasured stories of service and over 112,000 other first-person narratives of U.S. veterans and Gold Star family members. As a grassroots effort, volunteers around the nation help the veterans in their lives and communities gather and submit audio and video oral history interviews, original photographs, letters, diaries, and other documents chronicling their time in the military. These collections create a lasting record of service, while simultaneously providing an invaluable cultural resource that informs the historical record and illuminates the times in which our nation’s veterans lived. Our repository is full of information that focuses solely on veterans’ personal experiences – memories of what they did, saw and felt- no matter their branch, rank or religious affiliation.
Those of Jewish heritage have served our nation since before the Revolutionary War and have continued to serve through every U.S. conflict. More than half a million Jewish Americans served in the U.S. Armed Forces during World War II.

Fighting Nazi Germany took on special significance for this group of U.S. servicemen in the European Theater. Even those Jewish soldiers, airmen, Coast Guardsmen, Marines, and sailors who were serving elsewhere in World War II understood that defeating the Axis would be a defeat for blind hatred of any ethnic group or nationality. First-person accounts of 10 veterans of the Second World War are spotlighted in one of VHP’s Experiencing War online exhibits, titled Jewish Veterans of World War II.

One veteran included in the exhibit is Milton Stern, who enlisted in the Army Air Force in October 1941, six weeks before the attack on Pearl Harbor. Fresh out of high school in Rochester, New York, he was working in a defense-related job which might have exempted him from service, but he was determined to serve in uniform. By March 1944, he was flying as a navigator in a B-17 in bombing missions over Germany.

The enemy shot down his plane over Holland and after 10 months of being sheltered by Dutch partisans, he was captured and sent to a prisoner of war camp. Being captured relatively late in the war had its advantages. Stern’s captors knew he was Jewish, but they were too distracted by the advancing Allied forces to transfer him to a death camp. He kept a secret diary, which detailed his dwindling rations, as well as wish lists. By May 1, 1945, the German guards had fled the camp and the prisoners’ Russian liberators had arrived.

Not included in the exhibit, but available in the online database is the oral history of Dr. Henry Heimlich, who accepted an assignment as a U.S. Navy chief medical officer at Camp Four of the Sino-American Special Technical Cooperative Organization (SACO) located in northern China. Following the war, Heimlich continued to think of a Chinese soldier he saw die from a bullet wound to the chest. This experience led to the creation of the Heimlich Chest Drain valve, which helps save individuals with a collapsed lung. This valve would go on to save countless lives during the Vietnam War. His innovations continued and he is credited with creating the first aid procedure popularized in 1974 called the Heimlich maneuver.

Jewish veterans continued to make impacts throughout the U.S., whether during a conflict or peacetime, through traditional military occupational specialties and those not as common. Rabbi Israel Drazin served during the Cold War and was the first person of the Jewish faith to serve as the Army’s Assistant Chief of Chaplains. As a lawyer, the Army called on him to defend the constitutionality of military chaplaincies. When he won that case, he helped to open the door for chaplains to serve people of all faiths, as well as atheists.

Regardless of whether Jewish American service members ventured onto foreign soil or supported efforts stateside, the ones who chose to tell their stories are contributing to the record of human understanding and the evolution of American society. If you are a veteran, share your story with VHP so we can add it to the national repository for future generations. If you have a veteran in your life, even if they are deceased, VHP welcomes you to submit their personal narrative and/or original materials as soon as you can.

You can download a VHP How-to Field Kit at www.loc.gov/vets, check out the adapted training materials and guidance for library users engaged in VHP collecting activity in person or via remote interviews.

Volume 75. Number 4. 2021

By Larry Jasper, National Editor

Sigd is an Ethiopian Jewish holiday held 50 days after Yom Kippur. It is about accepting the Torah and yearning for Israel and the Temple. It is thought to be the date on which G-d first revealed himself to Moses. For centuries Ethiopian Jews have used this holiday to plead to return to Zion.
It is also a tradition for the community to hold communal introspection in addition to the self-examination during Yom Kippur because in order to be worthy of returning to Jerusalem from exile, you must engage in communal introspection and repentance. Sins of community members are forgiven during Yom Kippur and the subsequent 50 days. On the 50th day, following communal introspection, the community returns to the Yom Kippur experience with prayers and a fast.

The Ethiopian Jews are also known as Beta Israel. They are one of the oldest Diaspora communities. The Torah refers to the land of Cush. The prophet Isaiah spoke of the return of the Jews who were exiled to a variety of lands, including Cush, which is now part of Ethiopia and the Sudan.
In the ninth century, the story of Eldad ha-Dani became well-known. He maintained that the tribe of Dan chose to leave the holy land rather than join the fight between Rehoboam and Jeroboam when the Kingdom of David split. The tribe went to the land of Cush. It is probably from this account that the idea arose that the Ethiopian Jews were descendants of the tribe of Dan.

The Ethiopian Jews have continued to practice Judaism for centuries despite persecution and isolation. Because of isolation their type of Judaism differs from that practiced elsewhere. The most significant difference is that Ethiopian Jews base their beliefs on the Torah and some oral traditions passed from generation to generation. The rest of the Jewish world bases its practices on both written law (the Torah) and oral law. Oral law is the rabbinical interpretation of the Torah which was largely codified by the year 400 in the Talmud.

Since the Ethiopian Jews were unaware of the oral law, they were not familiar with any of the practices, rituals, and interpretations developed over the centuries by the rabbis. The Ethiopian Jews also had their own interpretations of the Torah and did not fulfill many of the biblical commandments, including the wearing of prayer shawls (tzitzit), posting of mezuzot on doorposts, or sounding the shofar on Rosh Hashanah.

The Ethiopian Jews also did not speak or write Hebrew, but speak Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia. Jews living in the region of Tigre speak Tigrinya. Their holy books are written in Geez, a language considered holy and used also by Ethiopian Christians. Their Torah is handwritten on parchment as a book, rather than as a scroll.

The first modern contact with the Beta Israel occurred in 1769, when Scottish explorer James Bruce stumbled upon them while searching for the source of the Nile River. He found them impoverished, heavily taxed, and oppressed. His estimates at the time placed their population at 100,000.
The Ethiopian Jewish community lived in complete isolation from other Jewish communities for many centuries. For this reason, the Ethiopian Jewish community developed many holidays and celebrations that do not exist in other Jewish communities. In the mid-20th century, during civil war and famine in Ethiopia, many Beta Israel were air-lifted to Israel.

The Knesset passed the Sigd Law in 2008, declaring the 29th of Cheshvan as a national holiday.
In Israel, it is celebrated for an entire month leading up to the 29th of Cheshvan and is an opportunity to raise Ethiopian Jewish visibility and educate Israeli Jews about the Beta Israel.

Today, since most members of the Ethiopian Jewish community have made Aliyah to the State of Israel and learned to speak Hebrew, during the holiday members of the community travel to Jerusalem and visit the Wailing Wall and the promenade in the city’s Armon Hanatziv neighborhood. The holiday serves as an annual gathering of the entire Ethiopian community and its members view it as an opportunity to strengthen the connection with their roots and culture.

The Kessim (Ethiopian Jewish religious leaders), dressed in their traditional robes, carry the Torah scrolls while holding multi-colored umbrellas. They stand on an elevated stage, read excerpts from the Bible, and recite prayers before members of the community. Public officials attend the celebration and greet the audience, and many of the community members continue to fast until late in the afternoon.

Volume 75. Number 4. 2021

By Cara Rinkoff, Managing Editor
Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) Deputy Secretary Donald Remy delivered the keynote address during the opening ceremony of JWV’s 126th Annual National Convention in New Orleans, Louisiana. Just one week before the convention, the VA decided it would not allow Remy or any other department official to travel because of COVID-19 concerns. Remy still wanted to deliver the keynote speech, so he recorded it for members to see at convention.

Remy discussed the priorities that the Biden administration set for the VA. He said the department wants to “deliver more care, more benefits, and more services to more veterans and future veterans than ever before with advocacy, access, outcomes, and excellence as our guiding principles.”
When it comes to access, Remy told JWV that veterans need to have the opportunity to access VA benefits whether it is at a VA facility or at another location in their community. However, he stressed that the current administration will not privatize the VA. “Privatizing the VA is not the answer,” Remy said. “And that’s not going to happen on our watch.” He said the ultimate goal is to make sure that VA’s direct care system is sustainable for future generations of veterans.

When it comes to treatment in VA facilities, all veterans should feel “safe, free of harassment, and free of discrimination,” Remy said. He added that “we owe world-class healthcare benefits and services to all veterans, including women, veterans of color, survivors of military sexual trauma, and LGBTQ+ veterans.”

Remy also talked about the importance of mental health and said one of the most urgent priorities is preventing veteran suicide. He hopes Congress will approve a budget request for more than half a billion dollars for outreach programs that address suicide risk. He said a new program is being developed to help mentally ill veterans in rural areas. The goal is to create a training program that will attract “top-shelf clinicians to those communities, to keep them in rural areas, and to care for the vets living in those areas.”
Another priority for Remy is making sure all veterans have a home. He said the Biden administration will do whatever it takes to keep veterans in their homes through various means, including the emergency rental assistance program and the extension of the foreclosure and eviction moratorium in place due to the coronavirus.

Remy appeared to understand that some veterans are concerned about the man chosen to lead the VA. He said that while Secretary Denis McDonough may not be a veteran or a doctor, he is a leader and a fighter, and someone who will do the best job possible for all veterans.

The Deputy Secretary also discussed his recent visit to the National Museum of American Jewish Military History. Remy spent 45 minutes at JWV headquarters and the NMAJMH on August 5, meeting with National Executive Director Herb Rosenbleeth, and getting a tour of the museum from Mike Rugel.

Remy’s entire speech from the convention’s opening ceremony is available on the Jewish War Veterans YouTube channel.

Volume 75. Number 3. 2021