LORI WEISS
Special to the Jewish News

I

n a tearful moment on the
bimah at Congregation B'nai
Moshe last December, Marlene
, and Garry Zeitlin said a prayer
with their son, Allen, 21, a U.S. Air
Force airman 1st class, knowing that
soon he could be deployed. Days later
they got the phope call they'd been
dreading: He was on his way to the
Persian Gulf state of Qatar.
"I wake up in the morning and the
first thing I do is turn on the news,"
Marlene said, her worry apparent in
every word. "It's on when I wake up,
and it's the last thing I do at the end of
the day — especially now since we're
not in regular communication.
"This morning, I waited until my
daughter left for school to turn on the
television," she said. "I don't want to
raise her anxiety level any more. After
watching President Bush on television
last night [March 17], we're all very
anxious, very uncomfortable. The reali-
ty is beginning to hit a little more that
people are going to die."
For a group of local Jewish families,
the headlines about Iraq hold even

For the latest developments involving
the U.S. and Iraq, please log on to
www.jewish.com

more meaning.
As the nation readied for war, com-
munication was cut off for many in the
military, leaving families, like the
Zeitlins, even more on edge.
"Normally, we'd talk with him once
every week or two, but it had been
quite a while," she said last week. "We
were pretty concerned. Then Caryn [her
11-year-old daughter] picked up my cell
phone and started screaming, 'It's Allen!'
He's in the middle of nowhere, and he
calls me on my cell phone.
"For a quick second, I felt better but,
in reality, it didn't give me any relief. I
still don't know where he is. I'm e-mail-
ing him now once a day, even though
he can't be in touch. I don't know if he's
able to read them, but if he can, I want
him to know I'm thinking about him."
Being Jewish in the military can be a
lonely existence, not only for the young
people who've been deployed, but also
for their families. Estimates by Rabbi
Moe Kaprow, the Navy's Deputy Fleet
Chaplain, reveal that only about 1.5
percent of those in the military are
Jewish. In turn, families are finding few
places to turn for support.
"The first time Allen called to give us
his address, he literally had seconds,
with a sergeant monitoring every
word," Marlene remembered. "He said
to get a pen, then he gave me his
address and he hung up the phone.

started crying. I didn't know that was
protocol. I thought something hap-
pened to the line. We don't have any
mentors; we didn't have any friends or
families in the military before this; we
didn't have anyone to tell us what to
expect. There was no one to turn to; no
one could offer anything to us."

Opposite page: Bob and Janet
Deitsch with daughter Jaime, 17.
Son David, 21, is in the Navy.

Top. The Zeitlin family: Caryn, 11,
Bryan, 17, with parents Marlene and
Garry. Allen, 21, is in the Air Force.

Taking Action

That was the situation for Deborah
Astor, executive director of a synagogue
in the Boston area. When her 28-year-
old son, a U.S. Marine, was being
deployed, she reached out to a Los
READYING FOR WAR on page 20

o'S

3/21

2003

17

