Giving heroes their rightful honor

Burial of Lt. Nathan Baskind with full military honors and in accordance with Jewish law and tradition, Normandy American Cemetery, June 23, 2024. (Photo courtesy of Operation Benjamin)

Born in London to a Sephardic family, Francis Salvador landed in South Carolina in 1773. Three years later, having joined the fight for independence, Salvador became the first Jewish casualty of the American Revolution. 

Jewish soldiers have served the U.S. for all of its 250 years. During the Civil War, some 7,000 Jews fought to preserve the Union. Approximately 250,000 Jewish Americans enlisted in World War I. That figure more than doubled during World War II. 

Today, some 200,000 U.S. servicemembers are buried or memorialized in American military cemeteries overseas, most laid to rest under rows of white marble gravestones. In some cases, however, those gravestones do not reflect a soldier’s heritage or faith. Due to misidentification or accidents of fate, an unknown number of Jewish service members were buried under Latin Crosses.  

For 12 years, a nonprofit organization has worked to right these wrongs. “This all started with a question,” recalled Shalom Lamm, Co-founder of Operation Benjamin. In 2014, Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter of Yeshiva University told Lamm about a visit to Normandy American Cemetery, where Schacter had expected to see more Stars of David. Lamm, a military historian, analyzed photos of Normandy and discovered that the number of graves featuring Stars of David was far below the estimate of Jewish troops killed during the D-Day invasion. 

“What happened to the Jews?” Lamm asked. “That became the big question.”  

Lamm and Schachter were joined by a third co-founder, Stephen Lamar. In 2018, partnering with the American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC), the team replaced the headstone of Private Benjamin Garadetsky with a Star of David.  

His was the first of 70 markers replaced to date by Operation Benjamin in seven countries, leading hundreds of descendants to travel overseas to recite Kaddish for relatives they never met. 

Operation Benjamin has profoundly impacted families of soldiers with ties to Chicago, including Technician Fourth Grade Ben Zion Bernstein, who was raised here alongside five siblings.  

His nephew, David Rottman, said that Bernstein was “very patriotic, both for the Jewish people and for America.” He worked on a kibbutz before joining the First Special Service Force, an elite U.S.-Canadian commando unit. He was killed in action on Italy’s Monte La Difensa in 1943.  

Jewish soldiers were frequently cautioned against placing an “H” for “Hebrew” on their dog tags in case of capture. As a result, Bernstein was identified as Christian upon his death. 

In 2024, Lamm located Bernstein’s descendants. Rottman said Lamm demonstrated “true dedication to the service of the Jewish people.” A rededication was held in Italy in 2025. 

Rich Sheridan, a nephew of Bernstein who, last year, climbed the same mountain where his uncle had died, said that his sacrifice illustrates how “Jewish people fought for our democracy,” a powerful message in an age of rising antisemitism. 

Born in Pittsburgh, Nathan Baskind would travel to Illinois to visit relatives in Waukegan. By 1940, Nathan became engaged to a woman from Chicago. War intervened, however. Lt. Baskind landed at Utah Beach within days of D-Day. Two weeks later, he was ambushed near Cherbourg, wounded, and taken prisoner. He died in a Luftwaffe field hospital.  

In 1957, Baskind’s dog tags, unit patch, and lieutenant bars were found in a mass grave in which nearly two dozen German soldiers had also been entombed. Because Baskind’s remains could not be individually identified, the commingled contents of the grave were transferred to a German military cemetery in France and buried with the remains of more than 50 German soldiers. 

Baskind’s whereabouts remained a mystery to his family until 2023, when Lamm contacted Samantha Baskind, Nathan’s great-niece. After the German War Graves Commission (Volksbund) and French authorities granted approval, the grave was exhumed. DNA tests proved a match. Nathan Baskind had finally been found. 

While locating Nathan was a “miracle,” Baskind found it “horrifying and incomprehensible” to learn that he had been buried alongside Nazis and SS members. The discovery was particularly poignant for Baskind, a professor specializing in art of the Holocaust. Today, she tells her students Nathan’s remarkable story, which culminated in a burial on June 23, 2024, the 80th anniversary of his death. 

Baskind praised Volksbund officials, including General Dirk Backen, whose efforts give her “hope that former enemies can collaborate.” Lamm also values Backen’s partnership. “If you had told me, 40 years ago, that one of my closest and dearest colleagues would be a German brigadier general,” says Lamm, “I’d have told you that you had lost your mind.” 

 Operation Benjamin, a 501(c)(3) charitable organization, is supported by private donations. The organization refuses to solicit funds from the families it assists.  

This November at Arlington National Cemetery, Operation Benjamin will honor Benjamin Yarish, who died during the bloody Meuse-Argonne Offensive in 1918 and whose relatives live in Chicago.  His new headstone will bear a Star of David and signify the rank of Private First Class, reflecting a promotion he received just over a month before his death. 

William Weinberg is JUF’s Director of Communications.