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ISRAEL AT WAR - DAY 588

Jewish war veterans

Israel Barsuk poses in his Brighton Beach, New York, apartment, circa 2005-2015. Barsuk fought for the Red Army against the invading Germans and Axis allies. (Jonathan Alpeyrie)
May 8, 2025, 8:18 am
To mark 80 years to Germany’s surrender, a war photographer chronicles Jewish WWII veterans
As Victory in Europe Day is celebrated on May 8, the stories of those who fought in the Red Army for freedom are captured in photos and interviews on the battles against Axis forces
By Jonathan Alpeyrie
101-year-old Hilbert Margol, a World War II veteran who served in the US Army's 42nd Infantry Division, which liberated Dachau. (Benjamin Mack-Jackson)
April 14, 2025, 3:47 pm
101-year-old WWII veteran recalls US Army’s seder night, weeks before liberating Dachau
Hilbert Margol still regularly speaks about the atrocities he saw firsthand at the notorious Nazi concentration camp as a young US soldier: ‘We didn’t understand what we were seeing’
By Benjamin Mack-Jackson
US soldiers carry the coffin of 1st. Lt. Nathan B. Baskind, who was buried in a German mass grave after being killed in WWII and recently reburied after DNA testing proved his identity, in Normandy, France, June 23, 2024. (Benjamin Mack-Jackson)
June 30, 2024, 4:59 pm
After 80 years in a Nazi grave, Jewish American WWII hero reburied under Star of David
1st Lt. Nathan B. Baskind was killed in Normandy after D-Day. His body was never returned, but thanks to dedication and new technology, his is one of the site’s few Jewish funerals
By Benjamin Mack-Jackson
Mervyn Kersh, a Jewish World War II veteran who took part in 1944's Normandy Campaign, at his home in London, Great Britain, April 8, 2024. (AP Photo/Kirsty Wigglesworth)
June 5, 2024, 1:09 am
‘How lucky I am’: UK-Jewish vet, aged 99, prepares to mark 80th anniversary of D-Day
Mervyn Kersh recalls giving out sweets at Bergen-Belsen, near-arrest for skipping non-kosher rations; ‘I could almost say it was a crusade,’ says Normandy campaign veteran
By DANICA KIRKA
Right: An illustrative photo of Isidore Isaacs in Grand Army of the Republic uniform. He served that organization as Commander of the Department of New York in 1921. Left: The original HUVA (Hebrew Union Veterans of America) badge, produced in 1896. (Courtesy of National Museum of American Jewish Military History/ NYU Press/ Shapell Foundation)
November 14, 2022, 6:03 pm
Braving bigotry and enemy fire, Jews served the Union valiantly during the Civil War
Book ‘Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War,’ out November 15, shows how Jewish troops fought in an army that served pork, rested Sundays and was led by a general who didn’t want them
By Rich Tenorio
Mark and Felice Feldstein with their family, on their wedding day in 1955 and later in life. (Courtesy Mark Feldstein; collage by Mollie Suss)
February 18, 2022, 4:27 am
Marrying at Nazis’ old resort, Alan Feldstein’s life was a ‘middle finger’ to Hitler
Feldstein and Felice Jacobs held defiant nuptials at the Eagle’s Nest a decade after WWII, but that symbolic act was just the beginning of a lifelong fight against bigotry
By PHILISSA CRAMER
Edward Shames, center, hugs Ed McClung, center left, both members of the World War II Army Company E of the 506th Regiment of the 101st Airborne, with veterans Jack Foley, left, Joe Lesniewski, right, and Shifty Powers, far right, at the Library of Congress in Washington, on July 16, 2003. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert, File)
December 5, 2021, 8:41 pm
Dead at 99, WWII vet who used cognac from Hitler’s Eagle’s Nest at son’s bar mitzvah
Edward Shames, last surviving ‘Band of Brothers’ officer, was the first member of the 101st Airborne Division to enter Dachau concentration camp
By AP
US Army Captain Warren Gross (L) at an Afghan military hospital with an Afghan coalition force soldier who suffered an eye injury, August 2011 (courtesy)
August 23, 2021, 3:36 pm
In ToI interviews, Jewish veterans of Afghanistan speak of relief…and betrayal
As America’s longest war ends in chaos, US officers recall fond memories of fellow soldiers, Afghan allies, and kiddush wine, but wonder what all the sacrifice was ultimately for
By Lazar Berman
RAF Spitfires based at the Biggin Hill airbase in southern England. (Public domain)
May 8, 2020, 11:42 am
Unsung Jewish heroes who helped UK to victory in Battle of Britain finally heard
As the battle’s 80th anniversary approaches, London’s Royal Air Force museum seeks to capture the stories of Jews who risked their lives to help repel the massive Nazi invasion
By Robert Philpot
World War II veteran Philip Kahn, who died from the coronavirus on April 17, 2020. (Facebook)
April 25, 2020, 1:54 pm
WWII veteran dies from coronavirus 100 years after his twin died of Spanish Flu
Grandson of Philip Kahn says he would often warn that history repeats itself, ‘knew the irony of what was going on’ after he began coughing
By ToI Staff
Illustrative: The entrance of the SS concentration camp at Ohrdruf in Thuringia, Germany on April 8, 1945, in which yet more damming proof of atrocities committed by Hitler’s SS was uncovered when units of the fourth armoured division of General Patton’s Third US army overran the district and liberated those inmates who were still alive. (AP Photo)
April 16, 2020, 5:13 pm
Jewish liberator of Nazi camp, wife of 78 years die hours apart
Daughter of Muriel and David Cohen, an American WWII veteran, says the couple chose not to be separated after her mom tested positive for virus: ‘They were always together’
By AP
Howard and Jean Somers testify about their son's suicide following during a House Committee on Veterans Affairs hearing on Capitol Hill. Washington, DC, July 10, 2014. (Saul Loeb/AFP/Getty Images/via JTA)
August 5, 2019, 3:38 pm
6 years on, parents of Jewish Army vet who took own life still fight for change
Howard and Jean Somers of Arizona have become tireless advocates for reform in what they see as a system that failed their son
By Josefin Dolsten
Five of the 12 Jewish cadets who graduated from West Point stand together together with Lt. Gen. Darryl A. Williams, superintendent of West Point. The cadets are, from left to right: Joshua Fernquist, Andrew Zinner, Noah Carlen, Rachelle David and Ryan Oppenheim (Courtesy Glenn Goldman)
May 28, 2019, 1:54 am
As it sets diversity record, West Point quietly graduates 1,000th Jewish student
America’s most famous military academy made headlines Saturday with 34 African American women cadets in its most diverse graduating class — but US Jews also celebrated a milestone
By Cathryn J. Prince
The unfinished museum honoring Jewish World War II veterans, in Latrun, Israel, April 18, 2017. (AP Photo/Tsafrir Abayov)
February 17, 2019, 2:34 pm
Netanyahu pledges funds to finally finish museum honoring Jewish WWII soldiers
After years of stalemate over funding, PM vows Latrun project will be completed to honor the 1.5 million Jews who fought the Nazis
By Agencies
US President Donald Trump gives his State of the Union address to a joint session of Congress, February 5, 2019, at the Capitol in Washington, as Vice President Mike Pence, left, and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi look on. (Doug Mills/The New York Times via AP, Pool)
February 6, 2019, 1:30 pm
Jewish organizations react to Trump speech, ask for rewrite of asylum policy
Trump bookends his speech with references to Tree of Life shooting and D-Day, including salutes to troops, among them Jewish American veterans
By Ron Kampeas
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