Fallen Jewish American Soldiers To Be Honored With New Headstones

Fallen Jewish American soldiers will be honored with new headstones Tuesday at Arlington National Cemetery.

Three Jewish-American soldiers who died fighting in World War I will receive new Star of David headstones because of the work of Operation Benjamin, a nonprofit dedicated to honoring fallen Jewish American servicemen and women. Operation Benjamin seeks to identify fallen Jewish American soldiers who were mistakenly buried with a cross instead of a Star of David headstone.

“Operation Benjamin is a nonprofit named for Private Benjamin Garadetsky, a World War II soldier whose headstone at Normandy American Cemetery was our first correction, in 2018. By September of this year, we had helped replace 70 headstones, with dozens more cases under investigation. Thirty-five of those corrections were for Jewish American soldiers at Arlington and in Europe and the Philippines. The other 35 were for German Jewish soldiers who died in World War I, through Operation Levi, our partnership with the German War Graves Commission,” Shalom Lamm, co-founder of Operation Benjamin, told the Daily Caller News Foundation.

PVT. David Latken, CPL. Jacob Liefer and PFC. Benjamin Yarish will receive new headstones Tuesday.

David Latken was born in New York City around 1891. He fought with the 28th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France. Latken died from wounds he received in battle on Oct. 11, 1918, and was buried in Arlington National Cemetery in 1922.

Jacob Leifer was born in 1897 in what is now modern-day Ukraine, and emigrated to New York City when he was age 17. He enlisted with the US Army when he was 20 and fought with the 16th Infantry Regiment of the 1st Infantry Division. Leifer lost his life on Oct. 10, 1918, fighting in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France.

Benjamin Yarish was born in 1896 in New York City and was drafted into the US Army in 1917. He fought with Company D of the 306th Machine Gun Battalion, 77th Division, in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France. Yarish was a part of the “Lost Battalion,” surrounded by German forces in the Argonne Forest, and died Oct. 5, 1918.

“On this Veterans Day, it’s worth remembering how many Americans share the story of those three men. American Jews have served in every major American war since the Revolution. About 225,000 served in World War I, and an early postwar study estimated that some 3,500 died in service. In World War II, about 550,000 Jewish men and women served, and the Jewish Welfare Board reported approximately 11,000 deaths. When America went to war, American Jews were all in,” Lamm told the DCNF.

“We’ll also pay tribute at the grave of Johann “Hans” Kasten, the American POW who refused to identify his Jewish comrades to his German captors,” Lamm said.

PFC. Johann “Hans” Kasten was a non-Jewish American soldier who fought in World War II and was captured at the Battle of Bulge by German forces. When Germans demanded that Kasten identify captured American soldiers who were Jewish, Kasten refused and told his captors, “We are all Americans.” Kasten was beaten and sent to a concentration camp for his noncompliance.

Operation Benjamin leverages expertise in family and military history to identify Jewish soldiers who require Star of David headstones.

“We have four expert genealogists on staff who are seasoned detectives in both military history and Jewish genealogy. In our World War I and World War II cases, they piece together evidence from military burial files, Jewish Welfare Board records, and synagogue and family records. We trace surviving relatives and work with them to submit the evidence. We have excellent working relationships with the American Battle Monuments Commission overseas and Arlington National Cemetery here at home. These are remarkable organizations dedicated to preserving the memory of America’s sons and daughters who died in conflict. They review the cases and make the corrections,” Lamm told the DCNF.

“We also help restore graves, investigate the cases of missing servicemembers, and share their stories through films and public programs. One of those investigations concerned First Lieutenant Nathan B. Baskind, a Jewish American officer who landed at Utah Beach five days after D-Day. He died of wounds sustained in the Battle of Cherbourg on June 23, 1944, and his remains went unaccounted for for 79 years. In 2023, we worked with our partners to recover his remains from a mass grave at the Marigny German War Cemetery in France and establish his identity. On June 23, 2024, eighty years to the day after his death, he was laid to rest with full military honors at Normandy American Cemetery,” Lamm said.

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