I’m always loathe to personally embrace gay rights as a Jewish issue.  Movements concerned with either contemporary social justice issues or maintaining relevancy are mentioned in this article in Jerusalem Post.

Points for consideration and discussion:
1.  Is this really a Jewish issue?
2.  In spite of the fact that we are blessed to live in a nation where civilian control of the military is paramount, is it troubling that many Jewish voices on this issue, such as Rabbi Wernick of the Conservative Movement, have not served as either troops or chaplains?  Are there Jewish military voices speaking on this issue, or would like to?
3.  How does this positively or negatively affect Jewish service, if at all?
4.  Can we reshape the dialog to stop being dishonest?  Attempts to make this about anything other than fairness, i.e. the “this is a national security” issue mantra, ring false with an organization where by rule, we are all expendable.

A topic I am curious about is based off a recent Sexual Assault Prevention briefing.  An astounding number of sexual assaults within the military are male-on-male attacks, with 95% of the accused perpetrators identifying as heterosexual.  Just to clarify, my thought here does not involve “gays-as-villainous-rapists,” but rather, with the removal of Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell, and I can only assume would be the Congressional modification of current UCMJ articles as well, without additional protections implemented, will homosexual men in particular end up as a statistical victim class?

Whether for or against homosexuals within the military, there are many fine points for discussion.  It’s not an issue I’m personally invested in nor particularly concerned about, but with Jewish groups choosing to identify this as a “Jewish issue” on the behalf of the aggregate, I’d like to give Jewish service members, past and present, a forum to air our thoughts.

By JEANNE F. SAMUELS 11.FEB.10
“Now that I placed my life at risk, it is becoming so interesting that I feel that everything must be written down, so that later either I – if I survive – or my friends can re-live these days.”

Those words, written on Aug. 3, 1918, began the diary of then-16-year-old Yitzak Jacov Liss. His remarkable day-to-day account of his military life documents a historic period: the Jewish Legion in World War I Palestine. Young Liss served as an enlisted man in the British Jewish Legion 38th Battalion Royal Fusiliers from May 1, 1918, to Dec.8, 1919.

Read more at the Jewish Herald Voice.

UPDATE: The list has been sorted alphabetically, broken out by rank, service branch, and basic home of record (if known), including sadly the latest casualty.

I think it’s appropriate to remember our Jewish service members who have given all in the Global War on Terror.  If I missed any names, I do apologize.

For families of the deceased:  Ha’makom yenahem etkhem betokh she’ar avelei Tziyon vi’Yerushalayim.

Agami, Daniel - Specialist, Army, Florida
Allen, Howard Paul - Sergeant, Army National Guard, Arizona
Ben Yahudah, Benyahmin - Specialist, Army, Georgia
Bernstein, David - 1st Lieutenant, Army, Pennsylvania
Bitton, Albert - Corporal, Army, Chicago
Blum, Aron C. - Sergeant, Marines, Arizona
Bruckenthal, Nathan - Petty Officer, Coast Guard, New York
Budeysky, Steven M. - Sergeant, Army, Chicago
Cohen, Michael R. - Corporal, Marines, Pennsylvania
Dvorin, Seth - 2nd Lieutenant, Army, New Jersey
Engel, Mark E. - Lance Corporal, Marines, Colorado
Evnin, Mark A. - Corporal, Marines, Vermont
Fairbairn, Aaron - Private First Class, Army, Washington
Farkas, Daniel - 1st Lieutenant,Army National Guard, New York
Fletcher, Jacob S. - Private First Class, Army, New York
Freeman, Daniel J. - Specialist, Army, Cincinatti, OH
Harrington, Foster - Sergeant, Marines, Texas
Jacobson, Elizabeth N. - Airman First Class, Air Force, Florida
Kane, Jeremy - Lance Corporal, Marines, Cherry Hill, NJ
Krissoff, Nathan M. - 1st Lieutenant, Marines, Nevada
Mervis, Paul - Lieutenant, British Army, London
Pine, Shawn - Lieutenant Colonel, Army Reserve, Texas
Pontell, Darin - Lieutenant JG, Navy, Pentagon, died on 9/11
Rosenberg, Mark - Major, Army, Florida
Schrage, Dustin - Corporal, Marines, Florida
Schulte, Roslyn - 1st Lieutenant, Air Force, St. Louis, MO
Secher, Robert Michael - Captain, Marines, Tennessee
Seiden, Marc S. - Specialist, Army, New Jersey
Shackelford, Michael - Sergeant, Army, Denver, CO
Sher, Gregory - Private, Australian Army, Melbourne
Sherman, Alan D. - Sergeant, Marines, New Jersey
Sklaver, Benjamin - Captain, Army Reserve, Hamden, CT
Stern, Andrew K. - 1st Lieutenant, Marines, Tennessee
Tarlavsky, Michael - Captain, Army, 5th Special Forces Group
Weinger, Robert M. - Sergeant, Army National Guard, Illinois
Wershow, Jeffery - Specialist, Army National Guard, Florida
Wolfe, Colin J. - Private First Class, Marines, Virginia
Wolfer, Stuart A. - Major, Army, Florida
Wong, Elijah - Sergeant, Army National Guard, Arizona
Yelner, Jonathan - Senior Airman, Air Force, California

Returning from a two-month hiatus with a firm commitment to maintain this blog, starting with this:

For the active duty military, this may or may not be relevant, since as Jews in the American military, our lives likely do not revolve around either Israel or life on university campus.

For some in the reserves currently enrolled in school, this may be more omnipresent.

March 1st through March 14th is Israel Anti-apartheid Week, and though the organizers are apparently too daft to recognize the difference between 7 days and a fortnight, their message will be crystal clear - “free thinkers” of the world will continue to fallaciously dog Israel and single it out for “crimes” that no sane or discerning individual would.

I do not fall into the “cult of Israel” paradigm.  I do not think it necessarily admirable when a youth who spends his life immured in gilded Americana decides to go throw his lot in with the Israeli military, no matter how noble the concept.  As long as the United States and Israel are allied, there are plenty of opportunities to serve here, in the land that has equally given us so much, with ostensibly more freedom of religious movement than we might enjoy in Israel (see marriages and conversions).  A strong Jewish presence in allied Diaspora military, as we’ve documented with former Guard Bureau chief General Blum’s visit to Israel, does more for maintaining Jewish credibility in the US than kids enlisting overseas.

For my part, too, as much as I love Israel, my spiritual home is in a minyan, or teaching our faith to my children, or our home when we bask in the glow of Shabbos candles on our dining room table.

I also like big snow storms, especially with the recent two foot dump the Mid-Atlantic just enjoyed.

I only say this to lay the groundwork that one need not indulge a knee-jerk support of Israel in order to recognize just how damaging is this Western opinion shift towards Israel, for both Jews in Israel and Diaspora.

We, especially those of us in the military, cannot forget that how we fare in Diaspora is a bell-weather for what’s in store for the Jewish people.

I don’t know why it is buried in the news, but the sad fact is, one of the continually growing “hate crime” sectors in the U.S. are crimes committed against Jews.  Many of these are taking place on college campuses, where antisemitism thinly disguised as “legitimate criticism of Israel” manifests in events such as this “anti-apartheid week.” See the ridiculous outbursts at Ambassador Oren, for instance, in California.

Take it apart:  Mel Gibson, “Kick a Jew Week” on Facebook, which enjoyed significantly less press than a similar persecution of redheads, and even local students in Lancaster County, Pennsylvania, describing that “Jew” is being bandied about as an insult amongst peers in their schools.

It’s not a “left” or “right” issue.  See the dude that shot up the Holocaust museum for a scary manifestation of an antisemitic fringe right.  Read the comment section on the Huffington Post attached to ANY article regarding Israel, and many about other countries in the Middle East, and you’ll see where the self-flagellating losers like former President Carter have taken us.  “We have seen the enemy, and it is us” nonsense, rinse, repeat.  People are quoting Israel as the cause du juor for demonizing Jews and bring forth the age old canards, which read like they’re still using the Protocols as a play book.

Read more...

http://patriotguard.org/ALLForums/tabid/61/view/topic/forumid/29/postid/1321748/Default.aspx

Updated 28 JAN 10 1015CST by Ladynighthawk

The Patriot Guard will render honors to LCpl. Jeremy M. Kane, who died while supporting operations in Afghanistan.  He was assigned to the 4th Light Armored Reconnaissance Battalion, 4th Marine Division, Marine Forces Reserve, based out of Camp Pendleton, Calif.

Viewing: 9 A.M. to 10:45 A.M.
Congregation M’Kor Shalom
850 East Evesham Road
Cherry Hill, New Jersey 08003-4400

L. CPL Jeremy Kane, Of Cherry Hill, NJ Death on 23 January 2010.
In Afghanistan.
Funeral service will be 9 AM At Cong. M’KOR Shalom 850 Evsham RD Cherry Hill, NJ 08003

We of the Drizin-Weiss Post JWV #215 Philadelphia, Pa. Would like to start a program sending Care Packages to our troops.
If anyone can tell us who to contact and help in obtaining these troops,it would be appreciated.
EMail Put In subject line (CARE FOR TROOPS)
or Drizin-Weiss JWV Post 215
913 Tyson Av.
Phila, Pa 19111-4405
Phne # 215 728 9368
Thanks

Paul Ouslander