THE JEWISH VETERAN Volume 72 • Number 2 • 2018 Robert Wilkie Nominated for Coming Home VA Secretary By Lance Allen Wang, Editor granted, things may have changed in the Page 4 This month’s issue is dedicated to the nearly 10 years since I left the Army). theme “Coming Home,” an important They were simply mundane briefings to Making a Difference aspect of the wartime experience. It is bored, fidgety soldiers who just wanted sometimes an occasion for celebration. to go home. Back in my Uncle Julie’s for our Jewish Service It is also sometimes its own devastat- time, the decompression of redeploy- Members Coming Home ing crucible. I had the distinct honor ment was eased in some ways by ex- Page 6 and privilege of writing the foreword to tended journeys home on troop ships. a book about my Uncle Julie’s experi- The culture shock of Vietnam veterans Project Maggid ences as a World War II B-17 navigator, – “Two days before I was in Vietnam – Page 9 One of Thousands (Lulu Publishing, then all of the sudden I was in a college 2015). I recounted my experiences classroom,” as one vet described it to South Florida Jewish growing up in awe of this man, and he me – was eased for World War II vet- was perhaps the most important influ- erans by the shared experience of be- Veterans Return from ence in my donning the uniform. But I ing on a troop ship with your comrades. Mission to Israel closed with these lines: Technological progress in transporta- Page 13 “… But equally, what I wanted to Julius Zlasner, left, with Lance Wang. tion created its own set of problems. know from him coming home from Part of my coming home was eased Welcome to the Iraq was how to be a war vet. Things by my search for historical perspective 123rd Annual change. Perspectives change. How on coming home. Actually, the inter- National Convention do you wear something so much views that resulted in the book, One of Page 16 larger than yourself, those moments Thousands, was part of that search – I’d of fear, those moments of boredom developed my rapport anew with my in a foreign land, those ‘crowded Uncle while I was overseas. He began Dr. Barry Schneider hours,’ and incorporate them into a correspondence with me, drawing Announces His who you are? Perhaps I expected the parallels between the experiences I Candidacy for more of Uncle Julie in this regard wrote about overseas with his own when National Commander than he could provide. What did he was stationed in Nuthampstead, Page 16 Uncle Julie do with his experiences England, home of his 602nd Squadron, of Europe? Where does it all go?” 398th Bomb Group (Heavy). No one teaches you how to be a My search for perspective was also veteran. My experience with redeploy- to view the 1946 Best Picture winner, ment programs found far more “check Julius Zlasner in a B-17 bomber The Best Years of Our Lives, which I CONTENTS the block” than anything else (now, circa 1943. Continued on page 6 D’vrei HaShomrim ...................2 CPL Morris Meshulam: Coming Home After 67 Years Message From the By Anna Selman, Programs and Public The little that we know of CPL Commander ..............................3 Relations Coordinator Meshulam, or Moe as he liked to be On The Hill .................................4 On June 4, 2018, JWV received a no- called, comes from his surviving fam- tification from the U.S. Army that the ily – his sister Rose and his nephews Coming Home ..........................6 remains of CPL Morris Meshulam Sam and Morris. Rose was contact Membership Corner ...............8 had been identified. CPL Meshulam, by the Army a couple of weeks ago, JWV in the Community .......10 who died 67 years earlier, was born in and she was in “total shock” that her Indianapolis, Indiana on July 11, 1931 baby brother was finally found. CPL Reviews .....................................16 to Sam and Pauline Meshulam. His Meshulam’s brother, Jack and his twin National Ladies Auxiliary ....18 parents were founding members of sister Rae gave their DNA to DOD of- the Etz Chaim Congregation, which is ficials in 2006 to help identify Moe’s Museum News ....................... 20 a small community of Sephardic Jews body. Finally, Jack, Moe and Rae will in Indianapolis. According to the fam- be brought together in the family plot in TAPS ........................................... 22 CPL Morris Meshulam ily, Morris dropped out of High School Indianapolis later this year. when he was 18 to sign up for the Army. From what we do know about Continued on page 7 D'vrei HaShomrim THE JEWISH All Israel Has a Portion in The World to Come VETERAN Near the end of the Passover Seder, we play a table full well his intended The Jewish Veteran is the Official Publication of the game called “Who knows…?” including “Who curse was false, not Jewish War Veterans of the United States of America knows six? Six sections the Mishnah has!” Following God’s. Indeed, even National Commander Paul D. Warner Passover, we begin reading one chapter a week of the donkey upon National Editor Lance Wang Mishnah Tractate Avoth, which translated means which he rode could Managing Editor Anna Selman “Ethics of the Fathers”. Avoth consists mostly of sage see the folly of his Graphics/Production Editor Christy Turner moral advice, aphorisms and a bit of theology attrib- mission to curse EDITORIAL OFFICE uted to the Tannaiem, the Rabbis of the land of Israel Israel and tried to 1811 R Street, NW • Washington, D.C. 20009 who lived up to around 200 CE. Tractate Avoth is the steer him off his fate- Telephone (202) 265-6280 x504 Fax (202) 234-5662 source for many of our most familiar rabbinic dictums ful misadventure. E-mail [email protected] such as Hillel’s statement, “If I am not for myself, who Balaam clearly knew Web Site www.jwv.org will be for me? And if I am for myself alone what am the truth, but tried to RADM Harold Robinson, The Jewish Veteran is published 4 times a year: I? And if not now, when?” We read one of its six chap- recite falsehoods. It USN Ret. Winter, Spring, Summer, and Fall, by the ters each week for six weeks, traditionally after con- seems Balaam’s will- Jewish War Veterans cluding the reading we repeat the cycle until the High ingness to say whatever suited the temporal powers of the United States of America Holidays. Consequently, the entire tractate is found around him, and his total disregard for truth and what 1811 R Street, NW Washington, DC 20009 in most weekly Jewish Prayerbooks. During this post is right makes him worthy of clear condemnation de- Periodical postage paid at Washington, DC, and at Passover reading cycle, each Chapter is preceded by a spite his beautiful liturgical poem, the one bit of truth additional mailing offices. prologue, a passage from an otherwise more difficult that he uttered only when coerced. Parenthetically, in Postmaster: Send form 3579 to Jewish War Veterans, legal tractate, Sanhedrin. “‘All Israel have a portion Avoth, the rabbis declare the donkey's ability to talk 1811 R Street, NW, Washington, DC 20009. in the world to come,’ as it is said in Isaiah 60; ‘And as not a miracle but one of the ten wonders built into Subscription price in the United States is $5.00 per year, all thy people shall be all righteous, they shall inherit creation itself just as the first Shabbat approached. included in membership. Nonmember subscriptions: $10.00. Single copies: $2.50. the land for ever…’” Thus, affirming redemption and Now more information about apikorsim- heretics. Photos and articles submitted to The Jewish Veteran resurrection to eternal life in a perfected world- for all It’s not easy to be an apikoros. You might imagine shall be used at the discretion of the organization. The our people. Judaism would declare an atheist, one who declares opinions expressed in signed articles and letters in this But our weekly reading of Sanhedrin is only a non-belief in God or one without any faith to be magazine are not necessarily those of JWV. an out of context snippet. In its original context, the an apikoros, to be outside the fold. Yet many of our Advertising information and rates available from the Editorial Office. JWV assumes no responsibility for Sanhedrin passage deals with Israelites condemned most esteemed Zionists, such as Golda Meir, David products and services advertised in this publication. to death by the court and affirms their punishment is Ben-Gurion and Berl Katznelson, who was a lead- © 2018 by the Jewish War Veterans of the USA. only human, not divine, and that in the end of days the ing founder and early intellectual leader of Labor NPA#112285 • ISSN 047-2018. Holy One will redeem them along with the rest of us. Zionism, were avowed socialist atheists. In their day, Reproduction without permission is prohibited. Moreover, the Tractate Sanhedrin passage continues some argued they were apikorosim, but who amongst by listing the exceptions, those categories of Israelites us today would declare these greats of Jewish his- such as an apikoros, a heretic, who do not have a tory to be outside the fold? Unlike these giants of our place in the world to come. More detail on apikorsim, history, one who accepts some other faith is called a Display your also known as hertics, will be given later. Included mishumad, an apostate, meaning one who lamentably JWV Membership proudly! amongst the categories is a very short list of seven has chosen to leave the fold.