July 29, 2022
Podcast: Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter on Why So Many Jewish Soldiers Are Buried Under Crosses, and What Can Be Done About It
By Tikvah Podcast at MosaicThe rabbi joins us to talk about Operation Benjamin, a project that helps to identify and place Star of David headstones on the graves of fallen Jewish soldiers.
This Week’s Guest: Jacob J. Schacter
More than half a million Jewish men and women served in the U.S. Armed Forces in World War II. They fought in every theater of the war, from North Africa and Italy to France and Belgium to the Philippines and Japan.
In the process, many of them fell in service to their country. In the fog of war, some of them were buried in military cemeteries under Christian gravestones in the shape of the Latin Cross. Decades later, there’s now an organization dedicated to working with the families of the fallen and the American military to replace the crosses with stars of David to honor more properly the heritage of the Jewish war dead.