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
On the whole, considering the many individual differences in an army of
two million men, religious prejudice was not engendered by the army;
some persisted in spite of it, and much was lessened by the comradeship
and enforced intimacy of army life. In most commands prejudice against
the Jew was a very small item indeed. It was so rare as to be almost
non-existent in places of responsibility. It was often overcome by the
acid test of battle when men appeared in their true colors and won
respect for themselves alone. It was occasionally the fault of the man
himself, who turned a personal matter into an accusation of
anti-Semitism, and sometimes without cause. One Jewish corporal
complained to me of discrimination on the part of his commanding
officer, who had recommended his reduction to the ranks. On
investigation, I found that the officer might have been unfair in his
judgment, but had recommended the same for two non-Jews at the same
time; the case may therefore have been one of personal dislike but was
certainly not a matter of religious prejudice. When I found authentic
cases of discrimination, they were usually in the case of some ignorant
non-commissioned officer, who presumed on his scanty authority at the
expense of some Jewish private. Or it might be a sort of hazing, when a
group of "rough necks" selected a foreigner with a small command of
English as the butt of their jokes. When men complain of prejudice
against Jews in the army, it usually means that they met there a group
of prejudiced people with whom they would not have come into contact in
civil life. The tendency of the American army during the World War was
definitely against prejudice of any kind; prejudice made against
efficiency, and the higher one went the more difficult it became to find
any traces of it.
In the army and especially in overseas service men went naturally to the
nearest chaplain or welfare organization for any benefit except worship,
and sometimes for that also. From my first religious service in a
hospital with the crowd of non-Jews and sprinkling of Jews in the Red
Cross room, I found that the men went to the entertainment hut for
whatever it might offer. Every large service afterward, especially if
held in a convenient place, included a proportion of non-Jews, and
invariably they were both respectful and interested.
The burial work of the Twenty-Seventh Division at St. Souplet was the
climax of cooeperation among chaplains, where the five of us represented
five different churches. Our service was a three-fold one, as was the
later one held at the larger cemeteries at Bony and Guillemont Farm. I
have already referred to the meetings held by the chaplains of our
division to discuss our common work and arrange to do that work most
effectively together. My very last duty in France was to read the burial
service over four Christian sailors drowned outside Brest harbor.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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