Operation Benjamin’s first project in the United States was completed on April 7 during its unveiling of two new Star of David grave markers at Arlington National Cemetery. The ceremony also marked the nonprofit organization’s first honoring of a World War I soldier.
Jewish WWI soldiers David Moser and Adolph Hanf had been buried under headstones adorned with Latin crosses at Arlington National Cemetery. Operation Benjamin replaced the two soldiers’ headstones with Jewish gravestones, honoring their Judaism more than a century after their deaths.
About 100 people gathered for the unveiling ceremony, where they heard from Reps. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.) and Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.).
“We take a moment out of our busy lives to remember two men of the Jewish faith, long at rest in this cemetery but mistakenly commemorated,” Rob Dalessandro, the deputy secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission, said at the April 7 event. “Today, thanks to the efforts of Operation Benjamin and their team, we can better appreciate the shared Jewish sacrifice in the cause of democracy and freedom.”
Born in 1898, Moser fought in “many of the major, major battles of WWI and survived them all,” but succumbed to the Spanish flu and died in Germany in 1918, according to Operation Benjamin CEO Shalom Lamm.
Photo by Vera Mandel via Shield Communications PR.
Deborah Eiferman, Moser’s niece, shared her family’s story at the event. She recalled that her family referred to Moser as “Baby David” because he died at the age of 20.
When Moser’s father learned of his son’s death, he had a stroke and never spoke again. Eiferman’s family took him in after Eiferman’s grandmother, his caregiver, died. Though Moser died before Eiferman was born, the 102-year-old remembers her uncle fondly.
“When I think of my Uncle David, it brings to mind the sweet memory of my zayde (grandfather) and his presence in my early life,” Eiferman said in her remarks.
This ceremony differed slightly from Operation Benjamin’s usual unveilings. Members of the American Battle Monuments Commission replace headstones in front of attendees at ceremonies abroad. But the ABMC couldn’t do that at the Arlington National Cemetery, so the Operation Benjamin team had to get creative.
The crowd collectively gasped as Liz Steinlauf, a second-generation Holocaust survivor, removed the slip cover, printed with a photo of the original headstone, from the new grave marker that had been replaced a few weeks prior.
“Suddenly it was a Star of David headstone,” Lamm told Washington Jewish Week. “It was really poignant and beautiful.”
Eiferman, who also lost her fiancé to war, expressed gratitude to Lamm and Operation Benjamin for giving her uncle a proper Jewish burial.
“For 105 years, David Moser was buried under a Latin cross, meaning part of his true identity lay hidden,” she said. “As a proud member of the Jewish religion who loved his country, volunteered to defend it and gave his life for it, I feel that his contribution as a Jewish American is finally being honored.”
Private First Class Adolph Hanf, a Russian soldier born in 1884, was killed in 1918 by a missile in one of the major battles of WWI. He was one of two relatives who left Russia for the U.S. — his brother, who also emigrated, died childless. Operation Benjamin’s genealogical and historical team traced the soldier’s ancestry and knew many details about his life, in order to prove beyond reasonable doubt that he should have been buried under a Star of David rather than a cross.
“In doing that research, we also came across a very sad discovery: [Hanf] has no family left in this world,” Lamm said at the event. “He is utterly and completely alone.”
The Operation Benjamin team searched “high and low and everywhere” for any living relatives to no avail.
“It’s a phenomenal gift that the Arlington National Cemetery — and I really mean a gift — allowed us to stand in for the closest living relative because there is no closest living relative; he is ultimately alone,” Lamm said in an interview. “We asked the Eiferman family to basically be the family of Adolph Hanf at the ceremony and they did.”
After the unveiling of Moser’s new headstone, the entire group went to Hanf’s grave and said Kaddish for him.
“You have a guy who’s not had Kaddish said for him in 100 and some odd years, and now you had 150 people sitting there saying Kaddish; that was so special,” Lamm said.
Torres eulogized the two soldiers and Wasserman Schultz read Tehillim in Hebrew. In her remarks, Wasserman Schultz said she and her colleagues in the House and Senate are introducing legislation which would authorize an annual $500,000 for a decade to replace headstones for Jewish American servicemen to represent their faith.
Doug Collins, the U.S. secretary of veterans affairs, read El Malei Rachamim, the “iconic prayer for the dead.”
“Had these guys lived, nothing like this ever would happen,” Lamm said. “They’re almost more honored in death than they were in life.”
He emphasized the importance of the soldiers’ sacrifice in serving their country. Moser and Hanf, however, aren’t alone. Lamm said the Operation Benjamin team has identified at least four more soldiers buried in the same section of Arlington National Cemetery who are “100% Jewish, no question about it.”
The team is in the process of tracing the soldiers’ family trees and is seeing successes, which means that more projects are on the horizon for Operation Benjamin.
“There’s no doubt we’ll be back there,” Lamm said.
Many many Jews fought in wars America participated in going back to the Revolutionary War but I never learned about their heroic efforts while in school. I know many Jews were buried under crosses especially in WW11, for a variety of reasons. If a Jewish soldier was caught by a Nazi soldier, and they were all Nazis, he would be sent to a concentration camp instead of a POW camp. They were killing Jews up until the last hour so I suppose many Jewish soldiers hid their identities somehow. How many Jews and others, know how many medals for bravery Jews won in that war? We barely teach history anymore and by the way people are giving into their bigotry and hatred and murderous impulses here and abroad, I suppose the answer is no..We are as ignorant as a newborn about why the war was fought. it seems in many quarters, especially on college campuses. I was born in 1945 and remember how my relatives acted when they learned who survived over there who chose not to come to America, and who didn’t. I saw people with numbers on their arms and wondered why. It is happening again and this time Jews as a body and all descent people must make sure that never happens again. sincerely, Janis Wital.
Amen