When JNF-USA CEO Russell Robinson approached me years ago about the opportunity to honor Jewish soldiers of the Diaspora at Israel's Ammunition Hill, I wanted to participate.
I've always been fascinated by the history of Jews who served in the armed forces. In World War I, 12,000 Jews would die for Germany. Australian forces were led by Sir John Monash, a Jew who graces Australia’s $100 bank note today. Some 225,000 American Jews served in World War I, according to the National Museum of American Jewish Military History. In World War II, approximately 550,000 American Jews served; the Red Army had 500,000 Jewish soldiers. The only soldier to be Hero of the Soviet Union twice was a Jew. Maurice Rose, a rabbi’s son and two-star general, was the highest-ranking American killed in the European theater.
In the last 25 years, American Jews have been the head of the US Navy, National Guard, Air Force -- twice, and second in command of the Marine Corps.
My father was a Conservative rabbi in the Philadelphia area serving for 37 years as the senior rabbi at Beth Shalom Congregation, designed by Frank Lloyd Wright. He had served in the 1950s active duty for two years in the US Navy at Norfolk, Va., as a chaplain. He stayed in the reserves for 32 years raising to rear admiral in charge of all reserve chaplains. He was instrumental in building the Uriah P. Levy Jewish Chapel at the US Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md. My super mother Sora (until 120 years!) lives in the same house I grew up in since 1964.
My wife Bryna Shuchat's uncle, Colonel Bernard J. Finestone, was a true war hero, helping to liberate Italy as a Canadian tank officer. He was severely injured in 1944 and spent three years recuperating. He went on to be a prominent business and Jewish leader in Canada who was feted annually on his birthday in Montreal with a parade of bagpipers as he wore his British Columbia Dragoons kilt. I personally spoke with an elderly Pierre Elliott Trudeau cheering from the sidewalk at one of these gatherings.
Uncle Bernard was a proud fearless Jew and a proud Canadian who represented the Jewish community in national affairs. We love his wife, our dear Aunt Rita. 
The story of Jewish contributions in military matters is vast -- IDF and Diaspora. These were two wonderful men I loved and respected tremendously who were productive, proud Jews who gave much more than they took from this world.
By Joshua H. Landes
