From the Economist Magazine, Jul 28, 2012: Ben-Gurion’s error
Its founding fathers, socialist-Zionists in the main, thought that the vestiges of the old religion would soon disappear. David Ben-Gurion, Israel’s first prime minister, held that the 2,000 years of diasporic Judaism were a deviation from the true fulfilment of the Jewish ethos. The Talmud (Judaism’s ancient body of law and lore) was too casuistic, he felt; the new state must hark back to the Bible. But he agreed to exempt a few hundred Talmud students from army service, confident they were a dying breed.
…Jewish Orthodoxy has come surging back. Early marriages and high birth rates have produced a demographic explosion among the ultra-Orthodox haredim (God-fearers). This has pumped up their numbers, compensating for the steady outflow from active Judaism caused by assimilation. The overall total of Jews worldwide is somewhat higher than it was 40 years ago (see chart above). By conservative estimates, one in ten Jews is now haredi. The “modern-Orthodox” account for another 10%. So the army exemption is an accident of history. And ultra-Orthodox are distinguished from “modern-Orthodox”, which are both different than the Conservative and Reform Judaism which predominates in the US.
Many Orthodox Jews did not object to military service. Those that did during WWII draft were often given the option of serving in non-combat roles (medic, supply officer, maintenance worker, office staff, etc.) There were more of them then combat soldiers, after all.
A friend of my parents was a moderate but pacifist Jew in our small town. He was informed by a member of the draft board that ‘his number had come up, and he was likely to be drafted next month.’ So before that he went and enlisted in the Navy, which assigned him to a ship as a officially non-combatant Pharmacist Mate. (His family ran the local pharmacy, where he had worked all his teenage years, which probably helped him get that assignment.)
I am sorry that this has ended up in GD. I was seeking a factual answer.** In WW2 were special exceptions made by the US for Orthodox Jews? Could they wear their beards (for example)? **
My grandfather was in the Pacific, too, but I don’t know where his four brothers served.
Frankly, for observant Jews, I’d think the food would be a much greater issue than the beards. I doubt there were many kosher meals in the U.S. miliary.
My grandfather, who was Jewish, served in Italy during WWII. (My great-uncle, also Jewish, served in the Pacific – but that was because, y’know, USMC.)
There may be different motivations for fighting guys trying to turn your Mother into soap than the religious objections of reestablishing the kingdom of Israel.
If I understand correctly, some Orthodox guys believe G-d will do that when He is darn good and ready, people shouldn’t mess with it.
During WWII the delineation of Jews wasn’t quite the same as now. It would have more resembled the Jews in Israel now who will overwhelmingly call themselves Orthodox Jews, but more closely resemble modern Reform or Conservative Jews, or may be non-practising altogether. Many Jews in the US at that time would be immigrants or children of immigrants who had never associated themselves with any particular branch of Judaism. Like many others at the time, they were often highly patriotic, and would readily join the military and not be greatly concerned with religious tradition. The Quakers in America took a hit at the time. The majority of young Quaker men joined the military, and many never returned to an identity as Quakers after that. Jews might have done the same if not for religious aspects of WWII. My own grandfather who had been non-practising, even declarely himself as a communist atheist before the war, resumed his religious identity, eventually moving to Israel shortly after it was established as a modern nation, and passed away there a few years later.
Here’s a source on draft exemptions in WWII. The only religious category I see is one exempting ministers and divinity students - no specific religions cited. In WWI, exemptions affected several religions in particular:
“Conscientious objector exemptions were allowed for the Amish, Quakers and Church of the Brethren only. All other religious and political objectors were forced to participate. Some 64,700 men claimed conscientious objector status; local draft boards certified 57,000, of whom 30,000 passed the physical and 21,000 were inducted into the Army. About 80% of the 21,000 decided to abandon their objection and take up arms, but 3,989 drafted objectors refuse to serve. Most belong to historic pacifist denominations, especially Quakers, Mennonites, and Moravian Brethren, as well as a few Seventh Day Adventists and Russellites (Jehovah’s witnesses). About 15% were religious objectors from non-pacifist churches”
Maybe not in combat, but in other circumstances I don’t doubt that there were provisions made for diets acceptable to particular religions. The services incorporated Jewish chaplains in addition to those of other faiths (a rabbi was one of the famous “Four Chaplains” who went down with their ship in WWII, helping sailors to evacuate and giving up their own life vests to save others.
In the US at that time it was probably a problem for many observant Jews. Outside of major metropolitan areas kosher meats may have been difficult to obtain. I don’t think adjusting to the limitations of military meals presented that great a problem. Perhaps only because the level of observance by young men in the military tended to decline. Also, necessity is certainly an acceptable reason to eschew kosher requirements.
My own experience as a Jew in the (relatively) modern American Navy is that none of the Orthodox Jewish chaplains I encountered wore a beard. (I met two or three; the other two were Reform.) Defense of country is considered a legitimate reason not to follow some of the commandments, so I doubt that any of them were put out by having to be clean-shaven.
You’re right that kosher food is often a problem. However, my experience is that it is possible to cobble together kosher-style meals. It’s not easy, but it’s possible. Many observant Jews are simply ovo-lacto (eggs and dairy) vegetarians when on field exercises or deployed, and there are glatt kosher MREs available.
Finally, there does come a point where one has to decide if one is too religiously observant to be in the military in the first place. It is not always possible to stop what you are doing to go through a full prayer session, nor is it possible to go to Shabbat services every Friday night and Saturday morning. I was discharged with such a person; he was Christian, not Jewish, but he had “gotten religion” and was so intent on doing his thrice-daily prayer sessions and going to church three or four times a week, and his proselytizing had alienated so many of his co-workers that his chief and division officer, both of whom were apparently fairly religious themselves, encouraged him to get out when his current enlistment was up because his level of observance was incompatible with the good order and discipline of the unit.
But this is the modern, all-volunteer Navy. It’s just intended to describe what it’s like to be a Jew and some of the problems we face.
Yes. In many cases today, even people who want to serve are sometimes turned away. Quakers, Amish, and other pacifists tend not to apply, and the Army doesn’t care. In WW2, I understand that they were, by and large, exempted, but I’ve never heard of this happening with Orthodox Jews.
“Turning people into soap” originated in WWI, when the British invented the story that the German’s were rendering their own war dead. They knew this would disgust the Chinese. The fiction lived on into the Nazi era (although they did use ashed/bone fragments on icy roads near the concentration camps, and human hair was used in U-boat insualtion and crew’s felt slippers
People interested in this sort of topic might appreciate The Book of Lights, a novel by Chaim Potok (The Chosen, The Promise) drawn from his experiences serving as a US Army chaplain in South Korea. As Wikipedia puts it, “Brought up to believe that the Jewish people were central to history and God’s plans, he experienced a region where there were almost no Jews and no anti-Semitism, yet whose religious believers prayed with the same fervor that he saw in Orthodox synagogues at home.”
My father’s battalion was half from New York (heavily ethnic, including lots of Jews like him) and half from rural Pennsylvania. The battalion was sent where it was needed (Europe, after D Day) and nothing I’ve heard from him or read in the battalion history leads me to believe that the Army paid any attention at all to the religion of individual soldiers. The extent of the Nazi atrocities were not well known in 1944, even if their general anti-Semitism was.
Nor was there anything special after the war. During occupation duty he got assigned SS officers as menials for the Officers’ Club he ran.
There was sometimes a preference because many American Jews spoke European languages. My father was a counter-intelligence officer in WWII because German was his first language. But that would be a preference based on language skills, not a particular religion.
Are you kidding? I loved (and still love) that stuff–along with it’s low rent Navy cousin creamed hamburgers-that-got-cooked-but-weren’t-eaten-yesterday-at-lunch. Whenever it was available on either of the two ships I served on, I jumped at the chance to eat it. Way better than oatmeal or scrambled eggs (which, to be fair, were almost never made from powdered eggs).
