About the Author
Don Canaan
Don Canaan, a former network TV film editor, is the publisher, editor and chief bottle washer for
Israel News Faxx, a daily publication that brings you the latest news from Israel and the Middle East.
By Don Canaan
On Feb. 3, 1943, the S.S. Dorchester was ferrying American troops to Europe. The young soldiers on board, fresh from school and their families, did not have any idea they were being tailed by a U-boat until the German torpedoes struck the ship broadside.
The four chaplains were a Catholic priest, Methodist and Baptist ministers and Rabbi Alexander D. Goode of Cincinnati. They stood on the deck, hand in hand, as the Dorchester tilted and sank beneath the waves of the turbulent mid-Atlantic.
Jews have been a part of every American army since the Revolutionary War, but Jewish chaplains were not allowed to serve them until the end of World War I.
Fifty percent of West Point's first graduating class of 1802 was Jewish, but the class consisted of only two graduates.
More than 8,000 Jewish soldiers, including eight generals, 21 colonels, 40 majors, 205 captains, 325 lieutenants, 48 adjutants and 25 surgeons served in the Union Army. Seven Jews won the Congressional Medal of Honor during the fraternal conflict.
One Jew, Michael Allen, was appointed a chaplain in the 5th Pennsylvania Cavalry during the Civil War, but he was forced to resign under pressure. The Volunteer Bill specifically required chaplains to be "regularly ordained clergymen of some Christian denomination."
By the end of 1917 the Jewish Welfare Board (JWB) was asked to recruit rabbis to serve in the Chaplain Corps. Many Jewish doughboys had complained they had not seen one Jewish chaplain during their entire military career. Jewish volunteers accounted for 20 percent of all American land and sea forces.
The War Department had authorized one rabbi for every 1,200 men, but it was estimated recruitment only amounted to one per 10,000 Jews. In order to expand this coverage, the JWB furnished a Ford automobile for each rabbi, making them, as one chaplain said,"the envy of all of France."
Published by Don Canaan on September 30, 2005 04:29 PM
