A Jewish Chaplain in FranceLevinger, Lee J. (Lee Joseph)
Religion
A Jewish Chaplain in France
Levinger, Lee J. (Lee Joseph)
World War, 1914-1918 -- Jews
I now settled down at Le Mans for the work of the Embarkation Center. Le
Mans is too well known to Americans who have recently been in France to
require much description. It is a city of about 75,000 people, with the
customary narrow streets in the heart of the town, the fine parks and
boulevards of every French city, and the very interesting cathedral
overlooking the whole. There are fragments of the old Roman walls of the
third century, and as an ironic contrast a fine street running through a
tunnel which is named after Wilbur Wright, whose decisive experiments in
aerial navigation were carried on nearby. My billet was a pleasant home
opposite the very lovely park, the English Gardens, and my landlady a
tiny old gentlewoman, who used to bring me a French breakfast and a
French newspaper every morning, and indulge in the most formal
compliments, reminding me of a romance of the Third Empire. And for some
time Le Mans was the center of 200,000 American troops on their way
home!
Instead of one division to cover, I now had from three to six, varying
as units came from their old locations and departed on their way to
America. And if it had been impossible to cover one division thoroughly,
in a great area such as this a chaplain could do only day labor. I
traveled from one point to another, had a schedule of services almost
every night of the week in a different camp, visited the transient
divisions as they came in, and thus came into the intimate contact with
the men by which alone I could be of use to them. The territory was an
immense one, though much of the time I did not have to cover it alone.
The 77th and 26th Divisions had Jewish chaplains while they were with
us; Chaplain James G. Heller was associated with me until he was
transferred to the Second Army (in fact, he was in Le Mans while I was
still with the 27th), and after his departure Rabbi Reuben Kaufman of
the J. W. B. was assigned to religious work under my direction. But even
so the task was staggering. So many regiments and companies scattered
over an area eighty miles long and sixty miles wide was no feasible
proposition, even with the best of cars and a sergeant to drive it for
me.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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