In 1967, at the height of the Vietnam War, Chaplain (Colonel) Sanford Dresin, having just received semichah from Yeshivas Chasam Sofer in Brooklyn, New York, became an Army chaplain. After serving two years on a United States Army base in Fort Meade, Maryland, he knew that if he remained on active duty, the next stop would be Vietnam. He chose active duty.

In Vietnam, the self-described “traveling rabbi” went from base to base, from Saigon to the Central Highlands, flying helicopters in and out of hostile areas in order to offer Jewish soldiers moral support and divrei chizuk, words of inspiration. They eagerly welcomed his visits. “Some would actually risk driving down a road amid [enemy] fire to come to a class,” says Rabbi Dresin. “One night, down in the Mekong Delta, in the middle of singing Lechah Dodi during Kabbalat Shabbat, we started getting rocketed. Everyone just continued singing. I told them this was a case of pikuach nefesh and we better head for the bunkers.”

Continue reading here. This article offers a minor glimpse into how the military and a chevra kadisha interact at Dover AFB to perform taharah to the extent the military can accommodate, thanks to Rabbi Dresin.

In perhaps a first, the Chief of Staff of the Air Force will be Featured Jew General Norton Schwartz.

Mazel tov to the General for his achievement!

Chaplain Shulman has provided us with a number of high quality images of the Seder he conducted in Iraq.  He also photographed the Haggadah autographed by President Bush, Senator Levin, and Admiral Mullen.  There’s even a nice picture of Chaplain Shulman with General Petraeus.

The care Chaplain Shulman delivers *all* troops in Iraq is by all accounts highly commendable.  We are very lucky to have such a gregarious rabbi representing the tribe in the Army.

By Morris B. Margolies, Special to The Chronicle (of Kansas City)

In the summer of 1952, peace talks between the Americans and the North Koreans were in progress at Panmunjom. I was stationed near Taegu, not too far away, as a chaplain for the Tenth Army Corps. From my headquarters I set forth every morning in a jeep on the way to Army units miles distant, where I led Jewish soldiers in prayer. Because I covered about 300 miles every week along bumpy and narrow mountain roads, some cutesy soldier painted the legend “Rough Ridin’ Rabbi” on the back of my jeep. Above the words was a really rough sketch of a Jew wearing a tallit with his hands outstretched.

The week before I was to return to the states, I held my last service for the smallest of the congregations — four men and one woman, an Army nurse, who were also the farthest away from by HQ. For months our attendance had been at 100 percent. But at this final service, one of the men was missing — as I soon learned, permanently so. He had been killed by a land mine four days earlier. His body was already aboard a transport plane on the way home.

We could not get into a prayer mode in any routine fashion. The prayer book somehow failed to say what was in our hearts. The nurse, a lieutenant named Sarah, spoke: “Does God really listen to prayer, Rabbi?” And she wept. Almost immediately the rest of us broke into tears. The tears flowed freely, punctuated only by sobs that still ring in my ears. When all was quiet, I said, “Sarah, I think you now have the answer to your question.”

I then asked our tiny group to join me in reciting the Kaddish, even though we had no minyan. Our service ended. I remained in the tent for about an hour talking with the men. Sarah had had to leave.

I came back to my jeep and was stopped short. The outstretched hands of the Jew in the tallit had been replaced by wings. Sarah stood a few feet away. “Drive back carefully, Rabbi,” she said. And she waved farewell.

Senator Barack Obama’s supposed “kerfuffle” over his great-uncle’s participation in the liberation of Buchenwald (he said Auschwitz) offers a unique opportunity to revisit more history of liberation during World War II.  Regardless of where one sits politically, I think it is in bad form for pundits to start trying to diminish the role that Charles Payne, his great-uncle, played in WWII Europe.  I’m sorry to say that many of our Jewish youth aren’t familiar with camp names and locations, and neither should we jump all over Senator Obama when his great-uncle perhaps saved many of our people.

From the 89th Infantry Division’s historical website:

Concerning the service of Mr. Charles Payne: C.T. Payne was a soldier in the 89th Infantry Division. He served in the 355th Infantry Regiment, Company K. The 355th Infantry Regiment was the unit to liberate Ohrdruf. Mr. Payne was there.

For those who seek to minimize the horrors of Ohrdruf since it was a ‘work’ camp and not a ‘death’ camp, we have but one word: shame. Ironically, this argument has been made to us time and time again by various Holocaust-deniers and other pro-Nazi groups. We will let the testimony of survivors and veterans speak for themselves.

This had a silver lining.  This treasure trove of a website is one of the best WWII historical sites I have ever seen.  It’s worth the visit.

I had the honor of listening to Alexander Rosner, one of the Schindler Jews, at a local college a few years ago.  In his speech, as Rabbi Murray Kohn relates on the 89th website, Mr. Rosner spoke of the high regard he had for American soldiers who liberated both he and his father from Dachau (many of the Schindler Jews had been marched there from Auschwitz at the end of the war, which was not depicted in the film).  Let’s remember that fact, and give Senator Obama’s great-uncle the credit he deserves.

Six U.S. lawmakers marked Jewish-American Heritage Month with a tour of the national Jewish military museum.

U.S. Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), whose freshman bill inaugurated May as the heritage month in 2006, led the delegation on Tuesday that toured the National Museum of American Jewish Military History.

The museum, just off Dupont Circle in downtown Washington D.C., uses artifacts and educational materials to cover Jewish involvement in the U.S. military since the Revolutionary War. U.S. Jews have consistently fought in wars in greater proportions than their representation in the greater population.

Other lawmakers on the tour were U.S. Reps. Allyson Schwartz (D-Pa.), Gary Ackerman (D-N.Y.), Susan Davis (D-Calif.), Albio Sires (D-N.J.) and Timothy Walz (D-Minn.).

(from JTA.org)

From Media-Newswire.com:

The candle flame danced a slow mesmerizing dance as it flickered from one side of the wick to the next. The light softly illuminated his face as his silhouette became a portion of the projection behind him—images of Holocaust victims. Soft-spoken yet with a stern demeanor, Rabbi ( Capt. ) Raphael Berdugo’s eyes glistened as he solemnly lead a prayer in Yiddish.

More than 30 servicemembers bowed their heads to pay their respects during the Holocaust Remembrance Vigil held here May 2, to remember the more than 6 million lives lost during World War II.

One of only nine Rabbis in the Air Force and the only one in U.S. Air Force’s Central region, Rabbi Berdugo’s area of responsibility extends far beyond the base.

“I once received a call in the middle of the night from the wing chaplain of a different base, asking me what would be appropriate to do as a memorial service for a fallen Jewish servicemember,” said the 379th Air Expeditionary Wing chaplain from McGuire Air Force Base, N.J.

Read more...

So much of the American Jewish identity revolves around Israel, that it would be difficult to let the occasion pass without comment.

My wife, who teaches in a preschool/kindergarten program at our local JCC, has been busy sharing pictures of an Aish trip she enjoyed to Israel.  My youngest daughter, Amelia, is in her class, and at 3, it’s interesting to see how she relates to Israel, when she doesn’t necessarily understand the distinction between “the city” (NYC, of course) and Pennsylvania quite yet.  I’m excited for the first time she sets foot in Israel, those first moments where we are heavily scrutinized by security at Ben Gurion notwithstanding.  Once I make it safely through our little piece of OIF, I’ve made a promise to my family that we’re going to Israel, not Disneyworld.

This special time for Israel puts us, as American Jews serving in the military, in an interesting place.  Many of us, especially those with command responsibilities or security requirements, live under the specter of Pollard (and now Kadish), and the question of dual loyalty arises from time to time.  Jewish or Israeli friends ask, why not serve in Israel?

How does one celebrate 60 years of Israel without answering to those things?

I respond to the Pollard/Kadish question easily—espionage between allies is wrong.  I am not naive.  I am aware that it occurs.  Nevertheless, spies do not do what they do for altruistic reasons.  They skulk and steal, in direct opposition to our values, almost solely for personal gain.  The aggregate of Jewish citizens should not be judged by the greed of a few.

And we’ve moved past that time in our mutual national relationship.  I point to recent examples, posted on this site, of the extensive collaboration in the War on Terror between just the National Guard Bureau and Israel’s various defense forces.  As we learn from each other and share our resources, I find a great source of pride in that we both stand to contribute to the other’s national security.

Our shared values of plurality and democracy speak to why I see no difference between an American service member and my wife’s late friend Michael Levin, who gave his life as an Israeli paratrooper fighting in Lebanon.  We all combat the same evils for the same righteous purpose, though I envy the national call to service that epitomizes military service in Israel.

Israel at 60 is an achievement for the Jewish people in Eretz Yisroel or in Diaspora.  Its existence is a living, vibrant answer to the horrors of Shoah, and arguably, what could have left us a defeated people instead became impetus for not just the physical rebirth of a Jewish nation, but the reinvigoration of world Jewry. In a sense, with any b’nei mitzvah, brit millah, pidyon haben, or ba’alei tshuvah, the Land grows just a little bit larger, the emotional borders transcending the physical.

In the context of this forum, the pride I take in having “Jewish” on my ID tags is in no small part due to the extent of those borders.  I hope you all get the chance to reflect on what Israel means to you!

From the Wisconsin Jewish Chronical
‘Grateful that I am alive’: Iraq war veterans reflect

By Andrea Waxman
of Chronicle Staff

Racine resident Tom Rodgers, a veteran of the Marine Corps and of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom, would “absolutely” make the same decision and join the Marines again, if he had it to do over.

“It is such a big part of who I am. I wouldn’t change it for anything,” he said

Joshua Warren, 26, a Racine native and now a junior majoring in history at Seattle University, Wash., served in the U.S. Army for three tours of duty in Afghanistan and two in Iraq.

Though he decided to leave the Army after the death of a close friend and also to please his ex-wife, Warren said he too would not choose to undo his military experience.

Rodgers and Warren are two members of Wisconsin’s Jewish community who have served in the Iraq War and in Kuwait and Afghanistan, respectively. Both have ties to Kenosha’s Beth Hillel Temple.

Rodgers, 45, joined the Marine Corps in 1981 at the end of his freshman year of college.

“Being part of the military was part of my game plan for as long as I can remember,” he said. He would have joined right after high school if a girlfriend had not talked him into going to college instead.

Read more...

from the Jerusalem Post

Two years ago, Andrew Shulman’s designated location on Shabbat mornings was the auditorium of the Orthodox Congregation Beth Israel in Malden, a suburb of Boston. Shoulders covered by a tallit, Shulman followed the service in the siddur, lending his deep, ebullient voice in prayer and song. Before services ended and everybody left for lunch, Shulman would stand up before the congregation and discuss the schedule for the following week. This was among his responsibilities as the synagogue’s program director.

Shulman’s wife, Lori, and their two daughters remain in Malden, but Shulman has a new job and a new address. Since last year, he is one of four full-time Jewish chaplains stationed with the US military in Iraq.

Like the Jewish personnel they minister to, these chaplains come from diverse backgrounds. They include a Beverly Hills native whose career included stops in Israel and Massachusetts, an eloquent Pennsylvanian with a history of family military service and a New Yorker who witnessed the horrors of war on a road near Baghdad. In separate e-mail and telephone interviews, three of these men - Shulman, Jon Cutler and Ira Ehrenpreis - discussed the destinations their respective paths have led them to in Iraq. (A fourth, David Goldstrom, did not respond to a request for an e-mail interview.)

Read the rest on the Jerusalem Post.