Around The Jewish World
Of God And Country
For some cadets at West Point, Jewish life is shelter in a storm.
PETER EPHROSS
Jewish Telegraphic Agency
West Point, N.Y.
here's a joke at the U.S.
Military Academy that 50
percent of the first graduat-
ing class was Jewish — and
that it's been downhill for Jews ever
since.
The joke is true, at least on the face of
it: Simon Magruder Levy was indeed
half of West Point's two-person graduat-
ing class in 1802, and Jews have made
up a much smaller proportion of gradu-
ating classes since.
But Jewish life appears to be alive and
well among the 80 or so Jewish cadets
currently enrolled at the hilly campus
beside the Hudson River.
"It's a really close-knit group. They're
my closest friends," Megan Williams,
West Point's Hillel student representa-
tive, says of the other Jewish cadets.
That friendship can be crucial for
cadets at West Point, where the roughly
4,000 students who make it through
four grueling years receive a free educa-
tion in exchange for at least five years of
post-graduate service in the army.
Some of the Jewish cadets come from
military families. Some are descendants
of Holocaust survivors who want to give
something back to the country that pro-
vided a safe haven for their grandpar-
ents.
A few admitted they had to overcome
parental resistance. While becoming a
U.S. military officer is no shame, it's not
the career most Jewish parents envision
for their children.
Jacob Bergman found that out when
he informed his Israeli parents of his
plans to attend the military academy.
"When I said I was going to West
Point, they were like, What?!"' Bergman
recalls.
But Bergman — recruited as a track
athlete and attracted to West Point by
the promise of something beyond a nor-
mal college experience — persevered.
Now, four years later, Bergman, who
was born in Israel but grew up in White
Plains, N.Y., is a senior at West Point.
His parents have since come around, he
says, and his father now is proud to visit
him at the academy.
His father "lives vicariously through
me," Bergman says.
T
family in Fort Collins, Colo.
The military does its part for soldiers
in the field, providing kosher MREs —
meals ready to eat — for those who
want them.
There's also a Jewish choir at the acad-
emy that is about two-thirds Jewish and
performs songs such as "Ani Miamin"
and "Jerusalem of Gold" alongside old
military standards at synagogues and
college campuses.
"I've been as active in Jewish life here
as I was at home," says Ben Diamond, a
plebe who was a member of the
Conservative movement's United
Synagogue Youth in his hometown of
Houston.
The choir also is a way to introduce
soldiers — particularly non-Jewish
cadets from small towns with few or
no Jews — to Jewish culture.
"Almost all of the issues of religious
intolerance are based on ignorance,
not malice," says Maj. Elizabeth
Megan Williams, West Point's Hillel student representative with Jacob Bergman o
Robbins, who has served as the cadets'
White Plains, NY.
Jewish lay leader while West Point's
Jewish chaplain, Rabbi Carlos Huerta,
exhibits and a hallway plaque with the
Feeling More Jewish
is deployed in Iraq.
name of every known Jewish cadet grad-
Maj. Huerta, described by students
Bergman's years at West Point haven't
uate, from Levy through Lt. David
as a dynamo, is credited with galvaniz-
just educated him and taught him lead-
Bernstein, a 2001 West Point graduate
ing the West Point Jewish community
ership and military skills — ranging
who
was killed this fall in Iraq.
since he arrived in 2000.
from fieldwork in weapons training and
The most famous of the Jewish gradu-
The Jewish cadets are well aware
hand-to-hand combat, to classes in mili-
ates, David "Mickey" Marcus, is known
that they, like Huerta, could face dan-
tary strategy and ethics — they've also
for parachuting into Normandy on D-
gerous duty in Iraq once they gradu-
made him feel more Jewish.
"No matter how scared you are during Day and then helping convert the
ate.
Haganah into a regular army during
While many Jewish college students
basic training, tell them you want to go
Israel's 1948 War of Independence. He
elsewhere are at the forefront of stu-
to services on Friday nights," Bergman
was killed in the 1948 war by friendly
dent antiwar movements, Jewish stu-
remembers his friend saying.
fire.
dents here appear universally support-
Bergman did and his commanders
Like
Jewish
students
at
other
colleges,
ive of the war on terrorism.
complied, allowing him and the other
West Point cadets celebrate the Jewish
That the United States is allied with
Jewish cadets to attend services at the
holidays on campus, and they mark
Israel makes the war personal, Jewish
school's Jewish chapel.
Holocaust Remembrance Day.
cadets say. But they're clear about one
The multimillion-dollar edifice at the
thing: the United States comes first.
top of the campus "was a sanctuary dur-
"We might be very proud of Israel,
ing basic training," Bergman says.
A Yarmulke In The Foxhole
but our first and foremost duty is to
Dedicated in 1984, the chapel recent-
Living a completely observant Jewish life the United States of America,"
ly hosted the third "Jewish Warrior
at West Point is difficuli, cadets admit.
Moosey says.
Weekend" when some 40 students from
And they're as connected to God as
civilian universities, as well as some from There aren't enough observant students
the other service academies, visited West to merit making kosher food available,
to country.
and the demands of studies and military
When Bergman goes out in the
Point to get a taste of cadet life.
training make Sabbath observance near-
field, for example, he makes sure he
The tall white building features a
has his essentials, like his weapon and
sanctuary that seats several hundred peo- ly impossible.
Some Jewish students, like Matt
water. But he also carries a Bible and a
ple. The services draw cadets, faculty
Moosey, say they refrain from eating
camouflage yarmulke.
members and local Jews, including
pork and shellfish.
"You believe in religion in a fox-
members of the Jewish War Veterans of
"People do their best here," said
hole," he says.
the United States of America.
Moosey, a Sephardic Jew from a military
The building also has a library, small
12/12
2003
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