Y.E. Bell Jewish Press December 7, 2001

Ensigns Asher and Moldane were having breakfast on the day that “will live in infamy.” They never finished it. Zeroes (Japanese war planes) descended from the sky 60 years ago, December 7th, bringing destruction and carnage upon our Pacific fleet, American servicemen, their families and Hawaiians. There were more than 3,500 casualties. Nearly 2,500 were murdered.

The Ensigns did what was expected of them as they maneuvered the U.S.S. Blue, admist the onslaught, out to sea. The Jewish Naval officers saw it all unfold. Some four years later, Jewish Air Corp Lt. Jacob Besser saw it end as his crew discharged the atomic bomb over Nagasaki, bringing Tojo to his knees. All in all, 550,000 Jews from every walk of life served in the armed forces during World War II. More than 61,000 were decorated for valor. In fact, Jews were represented in greater numbers (4.23%) than their percentage in the civilian population (3.33%).

Surprized? Those who took Pat Buchanan’s calumny seriously a decade ago might be. Recall when Buchanan pressed anti-Semitic buttons by insisting that the “Amen Corner” of Congress was pushing American into a conflict with Saddam, yet the likes of “McAllister, Murphy, Gonzalez and Leroy Brown” would be doing the fighting, bleeding and dying. It was the old disloyalty libel.

“One reason why we’re here is to show that Jews have served,” says curator Pamela Feltus of the National Museum of American Jewish Military History. Along with the Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America, which “was founded in 1896 because a bunch of stories and articles, including one by Mark Twain, were released in the popular press saying that Jews have never served in the military,” the Washington based Museum has documented the facts, among them from Seymour Brody’s Jewish Heroes of America, which place Jewish Americans in the vortex of every U.S. military campaign.

They’ve recorded Union General Oliver O. Howard asserting that “there were no braver and patriotic men to be found then those of Hebrew descent.” At least six Jews received the Congressional Medal of Honor, first awarded during the Civil QWar. And there’s Confederate Commander T.N. Waul stating that he “never saw or heard of any Jew shrinking or failing to answer any call of duty or danger.”

Over 4,000 rode with Teddy Roosevelt’s Rough Riders. During the Great War, Jews were 3.27% of the general population, yet made up 5.73% of the armed forces fighting with General John J. Pershing. “When the time came to serve their country under arms, no class of people served with more patriotism or with higher motives than the young Jews who volunteered or were drafted and went overseas with our other young Americans to fight the enemy.” Jews were honored for repelling Mao’s invaders and Ho Chi Minh’s thugs. They helped kick Saddam out of Kuwait too.

Yet in spite of the thousands upon thousands of decorations awarded to Jews, controversy swirls around the big one, the Medal of Honor. Only 13 Jews were presented America’s most distinguished award and that puzzles Feltus and others. “Jews have served anywhere from three to five percent of the U.S. military. It seems strange that this tiny percentage has received the medal.” The possible reasons - “You need witnesses and sometimes the witnesses are dead. Sometimes the war is moving so quickly that the officers don’t have time to file. Sometimes the filing gets lost. Sometimes it’s personal issues. Sometimes it’s anti-Semitism.”

Which is why Congess is looking into this issue with H.R. 606 - a bill “to direct the Secretaries of the military departments to conduct a review of military service records to determine whether certain Jewish American war veterans, including those previously awarded the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, or Air Force Cross, should be awarded the Medal of Honor.”

Perhaps Sam Dreben will receive one too. He was the Russian born doughboy from El Paso who earned the Distinguished Service Cross for valor on the World War I battlefield in France - the everlasting personifications of GI Jew immortalized by journalist/writer Damon Runyon in the final stanza of his ode, “The Fighting Jew.”

Now whenever I read articles
That breathe of racial hate,
Or hear arguments that hold his kind to scorn
I always see that photo
With the cap upon his pate
And the nose the size of Bugler Dugan’s horn,
I see upon his breast
The D.S.C.
The Croix de Guerre, the Militaire
These, too.
And I think, Thank G-d Almighty
We will always have a few
Like Dreben,
A Jew!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, December 11th, 2001 and is filed under history.