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
To the military man the subject is extremely simple. There is no mystery
about it. The chaplain is in the army as the physician is, as the
thousands of other non-combatants are, for a strictly military purpose.
It happens that the non-combatants may use non-military methods. One may
drive a locomotive, another carry a stretcher, another sit in an office
and make out papers. All are essential to the military machine; none is
in the service for any special humanitarian purpose; none is present as
a survival of mediaevalism, but all to take part in the grim conflict of
the twentieth century. The work of a physician in the military service
is the very utilitarian one of saving men's lives and returning them to
the front. The work of a chaplain is the equally essential and practical
one of stimulating the morale of the troops.
Many factors bear upon the morale of a body of men,--their physical
environment, the strength and spirit of their individual units, the
temper and ability of their leaders. In our army we were very fortunate
in the activity of various civilian organizations which labored among
the men in the service with the backing of our entire citizenry, or at
least of large and influential groups. The home service of the Red Cross
and other non-military organizations was of great importance in keeping
up the morale of the families left behind and through them of the men
overseas. These important organizations, however, were under the
handicap of doing civilian work among soldiers--a handicap whose
seriousness only a soldier himself can ever realize. Some months after
the war was over, the army recognized its obligation by appointing
morale officers for both larger and smaller units, with others under
them to supervise athletics, entertainment, and the like. The civilian
organizations then conducted their activities under the orders of the
morale officer.
But nearest of all to the men, because themselves a part of the actual
military machine, were their own chaplains. The chaplain was under the
same orders as the men, took the same risk, wore the same uniform, and
naturally was regarded in every way as one of their own. I have even
heard old army men scorning the new advances of all these new war-time
societies. "We have our own chaplain," they said, "He looks after us all
right."
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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