16 | AUGUST 4 • 2022 

said. “I don’t want to put my life on pause.” 
She will always have that option. For now 
laser-focused, she says: “I want to live my 
life. I want to start progressing my life.” 
It was a decision that had the blessing of 
her longtime, now retired, FJA counselor 
Ella Dunajsky, who met Rachel in her 
freshman year. “She has a genuine heart 
for her country,” says Ella, “who never 
saw her enlistment in the Army National 
Guard as anything other than a helping, 
guiding, force of goodness.”

BASIC TRAINING
With service comes sacrifice. In the final 
days of her senior year at JFA in June 
2021, Rachel was preparing to leave for 
basic training. With training officially 
starting on June 1, Rachel had to forgo 
attending her June 7 prom and June 10 
graduation ceremony. She was literally 
going to go from Frankel to fatigues and 
off to the Fort Leonard Wood U.S. Army 
Installation in the Missouri Ozarks, where 
she would spend the next two and a half 
months.
Rachel quickly faced more than just 
physical challenges in her basic training 
stint. She acknowledged that it was “hard 
physically and mentally, but not that 
difficult” but it was also “very much of a 
culture shock.”

Rachel encountered young people who 
came from broken homes, kicked out of 
their houses at 18-years old and lacking 
supportive parents. It was all very eye-
opening but as she told me, “I enjoyed the 
challenge,” which included marching 10 
miles with 35 lbs. on her back, holding an 
M-4 rifle, and waking up every day at 5 
a.m. for physical training.
“It pushed me,” she added, “and it 
made me realize I’m a lot more capable 
of dealing with stressful matters. I had to 
wade through pain without being able to 
quit, and I learned to be patient. It teaches 
you what’s really important in life.”
And when the dust settled, Rachel said 
it was still “one of my happiest times. You 
learn a lot of coping mechanisms and you 
learn to laugh a lot.” 
But there would be no rest for the 
weary. Only 10 hours after her basic 
training graduation ceremony on Aug. 
12, 2021, witnessed by her parents and 
brother Daniel, Rachel was off to Fort 
Huachuca, in Arizona for Advanced 
Individual Training (AIT).
For the next four months she would 
receive the intense training that 
would qualify her to be a specialist 
responsible for analyzing, processing 
and distributing intelligence to Army 
personnel. Since completing AIT in 

December 2021, Rachel has been 
conducting drills with her unit, often in 
the field.

WELCOME TO THE JWV
Don Wagner, an attorney and partner 
with Couzens, Lansky, P.C, is the Judge 
Advocate for the JWV Department of 
Michigan. Wagner served as a Special 
Operations Officer in the office of the 
Provost Marshal General in Washington, 
D.C., from 1970-1972. 
While in attendance at a Shabbat 
service at Congregation Shaarey Zedek 
this past May, Wagner watched as Pfc. 
Rachel Baker received the honor of 
delivering the Prayer for Our Country. 
She had been invited up to the bimah 
earlier by Rabbi Aaron Starr.
“Rachel’s a wonderful young lady,” 
Rabbi Starr said. “She grew up at 
Shaarey Zedek, and I had the honor 
of officiating at her bat mitzvah. I 
obviously know of her dedication to our 
country; and the moment I saw her, I 
wanted to both honor her and allow us 
to be honored by her presence.”
So impressed by Rabbi Starr’s Shabbat 
introduction of Rachel, Wagner made 
sure to introduce himself after the 
service and do a little bit of recruiting in 
his own right — for the JWV.

continued from page 15

ON THE COVER

LEFT: Pfc. Rachel Baker joins fellow JWV members at the June 26 JWV-Dept. of MI annual meeting and installation of officers at Temple Shir 
Shalom. RIGHT: Pfc. Rachel Baker with JWV-Dept. of MI Judge Advocate Don Wagner, who recruited Rachel for membership into the JWV.

ALAN MUSKOVITZ

ART FISHMAN

