20 | MARCH 23 • 2023 

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EPILOGUE
Ensign Jerauld Olmsted 
died unexpectedly a little 
over a year later on Aug. 21, 
1923, two days before his 
wedding. Polio was most-
likely the cause of death. 
Leonard Kaplan served 
27 years in the U.S. Navy, 
attaining the rank of cap-
tain, and was awarded the 
Legion of Merit. Following 
his graduation from the 
Academy, Kaplan earned 
a master’s degree in Naval 
Architecture from the 
Massachusetts Institute of 
Technology. He went on to 
supervise the construction 
of major ships, including the USS Enterprise, 
the USS North Carolina and the USS Ranger.
In two oral histories, naval officers who 
knew Capt. Kaplan during his distinguished 
naval career had praise for him. Rear Adm. 
Albert Mumma said Kaplan was “a very 
fine man” whom “he liked very much.
” 
Adm. Elliott Strauss described Kaplan as 
“very easy to get along with.
”
Two of the most famous graduates of 
the U.S. Naval Academy were Jews. Albert 
Michaelson, class of 1873, was the first 
American to win the Nobel Prize in Physics. 
He received the prize for inventing an 
instrument that made it possible to deter-
mine the speed of light. 
Adm. Hyman Rickover, also of Kaplan’s 
class of 1922, served an extraordinary 62 
years in the U.S. Navy and is heralded as the 
“father of the nuclear navy.
” Rickover was 
known to be a maverick, and some indi-
viduals mistakenly believed for many years 
that Rickover, rather than Kaplan, was the 
victim of the perforated page.

MICHIGAN'S PERSPECTIVES
The story recieved wide attention in 
Michigan, particularly from the state’s 
Jewish community.

Prior to founding the Detroit Jewish 
News, Philip Slomovitz had a column in the 
Detroit Jewish Chronicle. As a result of the 

Kaplan incident, he devoted his June 30, 
1922, column to the situation of Jewish stu-
dents in Michigan’s colleges and universi-
ties. He wrote that Jews were allegedly being 
discriminated in terms of admission to the 
Detroit College of Medicine (which later 
merged with the City College of Detroit and 
is now known as the Wayne State University 
School of Medicine).
He also reported that a student said the 
Michigan College of Agriculture (which 
later became Michigan State University) was 
a hotbed of antisemitism, resulting in Jews 
being “driven out of the college.
” The student 
cited an incident in which a Jew was called a 
“damn Jew” in a military science class.
With regard to the University of 
Michigan, Slomovitz’s sources suggested 
that there was no “anti-Jewish movement 
except for social class.
” While a student at 
U-M, Slomovitz was a night editor of the 
student newspaper, the Michigan Daily.
On July 28, 1922, a month after its inital 
reporting on the controversy, the Detroit 
Jewish Chronicle reported it had completed 
an investigation on the Kaplan incident 
(although it is not clear how comprehensive 
the investigation actually was). 
The investigation concluded there was 
no antisemitism at the Naval Academy and 
that Kaplan was disliked because of his 
negative character. The Chronicle concluded 

its investigation with 
the following: “The 
Chronicle is happy 
to correct a wrong 
against a Government 
Naval school.
”
The incident was 
extensively covered in 
Michigan daily news-
papers. A number of 
Michigan newspapers 
devoted editorials to 
the story. For exam-
ple, an editorial in 
the Lansing State 
Journal concluded 
that Kaplan’s “Hebraic 
descent” precipitated 
the “indignity” that he 
experienced.
The Detroit Free Press concluded that 
the treatment Kaplan received was because 
of his “Jewish blood.
” The newspaper also 
observed that the academy was turning out 
officers but not gentlemen. It also suggested 
that there was a “fundamental defect in the 
institution which must be remedied.
”
The Muskegon Chronicle concluded that 
Kaplan was ostracized because of his race, 
because he was a grind and unpopular. 
The Grand Rapids Press said the insult 
to Kaplan was due to the “unfortunate dis-
position of young men … to an unpopular 
and rather pestiferous comrade.
” The daily 
newspaper in Escanaba noted that since in 
previous years “gentiles” were “maliciously 
lampooned” in the Lucky Bag, the attack on 
Kaplan did not reflect “racial malice.
”
This 1922 Naval Academy incident con-
tributed to a robust debate pertaining to 
issues of Jewish identity, antisemitism, the 
role of Jews in the military and the contribu-
tions that Jews have made to America. 
These are issues that we continue to strug-
gle with today. 

Sidney Heisler of West Bloomfield is a retired psychia-

trist with a long interest in history. He spent more than 

a year researching this story and visited the U.S. Naval 

Academy archives in Annapolis to view original docu-

ments. Dr. Heisler enjoys speaking to groups about his 

research. His email is sheisle1@gmail.com.

OUR COMMUNITY
ON THE COVER

LEFT: Nobel Prize winner Albert Michaelson, USNA class of 1873. 
RIGHT: Adm. Hyman Rickover, also of Kaplan’s USNA class of 1922.

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