On My Mind
Executive editor — issues and opinionsBattlefield Inspiration
If you maybe are falling a little short on Rosh Hashanah inspiration, maybe a social networking vehicle like YouTube could offer some help.
There is a remarkable piece of archived film, made possible through the American Jewish Committee, where an actual recording of a Sabbath service can be heard.
With First Infantry Division Chaplain Sidney Lefkowitz leading the service and Pfc. Max Fuchs serving as chazzan, the voices of men who experienced D-Day and other horrific battles can be heard singing Ein Keloheinu. The soldiers were just outside the town of Aachen, Germany. The service was held in October of 1944. It was broadcast by NBC back to the U.S.
If you are reading this somehow prior to tonight’s beginning of Rosh Hashanah, I would strongly urge you to go to YouTube and search for it. We will not hear the shofar blasts on the first day of the holiday because it falls on Shabbat. The sounds of these Jewish men, who were fighting in Germany, can act as those awakening sounds.
If ever there was a symbol for goodness and freedom winning the battle over evil, it is this recording.
And if ever there was a hesitancy among any of us to gather as Jews…
Whatever reasons we find not to be together.
Just remember that these 50 men, who had seen fellow GIs in their own units, decimated by enemy fire, who had relatives who disappeared in the concentration camps.
These men got themselves together in the theater of war, because they were Jews, and prayed to the Almighty.
The recording and the stories one can find over the Internet about the participants will inspire me throughout the holidays.
