US House passes bill to identify Jewish American soldiers buried under crosses

The US House on Monday passed a bill that aims to identify fallen Jewish-American soldiers who are buried under Christian markers in overseas military cemeteries, paving the way for those markers to be replaced with Stars of David.

US Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, a Jewish Democrat from Florida who co-sponsored the bill, said in a statement that the graves of as many as 900 Jewish American soldiers are marked by crosses.

The Jews were buried under crosses, mostly by mistake, due to the massive scale of casualties during World War I and World War II, the bill said.

“American-Jewish servicemembers played a vital role in the Allied victories,” the bill said. “American-Jewish servicemembers who fought and died for the United States must have their heritage properly recognized and honored.”

The bill will, if passed into law, have the American Battle Monuments Commission, a government agency that administers military cemeteries, establish a program to identify the improperly marked graves.

The commission will task a nonprofit with identifying the graves and award the nonprofit $500,000 for the five-year effort.

The bill, called the Fallen Servicemembers Religious Heritage Restoration Act, does not stipulate that the markers be changed to Stars of David, but would allow the families of the fallen to request the change.

To replace a grave marker at the cemeteries, the fallen soldier’s next of kin must present the commission with evidence of the soldier’s religion and request the change, Wasserman Schultz said.

“This bill is an important step to allow for the research necessary to correct these errors and ensure there are resources for that work,” Wasserman Schultz said in a statement. “This will make it possible for these brave Jewish servicemembers’ descendants to know that their loved one’s military service, life and religious heritage are properly honored.”

More than 2 million visitors went to the overseas cemeteries in 2022, according to the bill.

The bill passed with bipartisan support by a voice vote in the House. The measure was led by Wasserman Schultz and Max Miller, a Jewish Republican from Ohio. The legislation must now pass the Senate before it heads to US President Donald Trump for final approval.

The bill was supported by the Jewish Federations of North America, the Jewish War Veterans group, and several non-Jewish military organizations.

The American Battle Monuments Commission oversees 26 military cemeteries with 124,000 fallen soldiers in 17 countries.

More than 30,000 of the soldiers were killed in World War I, nearly 93,000 in World War II and 750 in the Mexican-American War, according to the commission’s website.

The cemeteries are located in countries including France, the UK, the Philippines, Panama, Belgium, Italy, the Solomon Islands, Luxembourg, Mexico, the Netherlands and Tunisia.