Jewish Achievement

News The Measure of Their Achievement A Summing Up - The Big Picture A Culture Of Achievement Biographies Domains Of Achievement

Greats of History Science Invention Education Aviation & Military Economics Politics, Law, & the Nobel Peace Prize Sports & Games the Written Word Performing Arts & Comedy Visual Arts & Architecture Hollywood Radio & Television High Tech Entrepreneurs & CEOS Fortune 500 CEOs Finance Real Estate Apparel, Cosmetics, Jewelry and Retail Other Consumer & Industrial Enterprises Social Activists & Union Leaders Philanthropy History's Bad Guys & Gals End of the Golden Era?

Links

© Steve Pease

Aviation & Military©

The Six Day War

From April through early June of 1967, the world's media reported a dramatic escalation of Middle Eastern tensions. On April 7, the Israelis shot down six Syrian MiGs. On May 14, Syria claimed Israel was massing troops on its border. On May 15, the Egyptians moved troops into the Sinai while Nasser demanded the withdrawal of the 4,500-man United Nations Emergency Forces separating the Israelis from the Egyptians. On May 22, Nasser declared the Straits of Tiran closed, blocking all shipping to and from Israel's Red Sea port of Eilat. On May 25, Iraq and Saudi Arabia moved troops to Israel's border, and on the 26th Nasser declared his intention to destroy Israel. On May 30, Jordan signed a pact with Egypt essentially uniting the two forces and placing Egypt in overall command. On June 4, Iraq signed a similar agreement. Egyptian, Syrians, and Jordanians appeared to be massing for an attack on Israel. Israel was preparing to respond or mount a preemptive attack.

For the Israelis, the numbers were daunting.

The Israelis had roughly 275,000 men available, most of them reservists called up because of the crisis. This represented almost 10 percent of Israel's 2.9 million people. In addition, Israel had roughly 200 combat aircraft and 1,000 tanks.

Jordan had 56,000 men, 24 Hawker Hunter aircraft, and 270 modern tanks focused mostly on the narrow choke point where Israel's eastern border is only nine miles from the Mediterranean. The Syrians had 50,000 soldiers on the Golan Heights, 125 combat aircraft, 250 tanks, and as many field guns, soon to be reinforced with Iraqi tanks. The Egyptians had 130,000 men, 900 tanks, 1,100 guns, and 420 combat aircraft. In addition, troops and materiel were available or en route from Iraq, Saudi Arabia, Morocco, Libya, and Tunisia.

While the Egyptians, Jordanians, and Syrians were expected to be the principal fighters in any war with Israel, the combined Arab force available for action included up to 500,000 troops, 900 combat aircraft, and 5,000 tanks.

When war began on June 5, the pace was simply unbelievable. In just 132 hours - slightly less than six days - Israel destroyed its enemies' armies and quadrupled the geography under its control. The Egyptians lost 10,000 to 15,000 men, with another 5,000 missing. Jordan lost 700 men, with 6,000 wounded or missing. Syria lost 450 men and had 1,800 wounded. In contrast, Israel lost fewer than 800 men. The casualty ratio was an almost incredible 25 to 1. Israel held 5,000 Egyptian POWs, 365 Syrians, and 550 Jordanians. In contrast, 15 Israeli soldiers were POWs.

All but 15 percent of Egypt's military hardware was destroyed or captured, including 700 of its 900 tanks, 286 of its 420 combat aircraft, and all of its bombers. Jordan lost 179 tanks, 1062 guns, 3,166 vehicles, and nearly 20,000 assorted arms. Syria lost 118 tanks, 470 guns, and 1,200 vehicles, not counting the 40 tanks abandoned to the Israelis. Two-thirds of Syria's air force was destroyed. By contrast, Israel lost a total of 36 planes and 18 pilots, roughly 20 percent of its air power.

The Israelis had captured all of the Golan Heights from Syria, the West Bank from Jordan and the Gaza Strip and Sinai from Egypt. From roughly 20,000 square kilometers of territory, the Israelis had expanded their control to more than 88,000 square kilometers. Moreover, the speed with which the Sinai fell led to the joke during mid-June that one should "Visit Israel to see the pyramids." In control of the eastern side of the Suez Canal, the Israeli army was less than 100 miles from Giza.

Up to that time, it was one of the most lopsided military victories ever. And for many, including the author, it was an early exposure to the remarkable accomplishments of one of the smallest groups of people on the planet.

Military

Until Israel's War of Independence and the later Six Day War, Jews were rarely thought to posses significant military talent. From 70 AD, when Romans destroyed the Second Temple and later dispersed them, until 1948 when Israel came into existence, Jews had no country of their own requiring a military defense force. Further, until the Jewish Emancipation (1791 to 1874), they were typically proscribed from military service in most countries. If they served at all, they were generally excluded from the senior ranks.

The Holocaust further slandered their reputation as warriors. That so many seemed to have marched willingly to the gas chambers, together with their small physical stature as a people, tended to reinforce the view that Jews lacked the skills and temperament to be warriors.

In fact, that view would be wrong and the story is both more complex and more interesting than expected.

It is correct that from the time of Judah Maccabee, who led the rebellion that expelled the Syrian Greeks from Palestine, and the later (first and second century) revolts against the Romans, Jews were not prominent in warfare. But that began to change when they arrived in America in 1654. The next year Asser Levy, who had arrived from Brazil with twenty-two fellow Jews, led a successful protest demanding expanded rights for Jews, among them, the right to serve in New Amsterdam's militia.

When the Declaration of Independence was signed, the commencement of Europe's Jewish Emancipation was still fifteen years in the future. Though there were only an estimated 2,500 Jews, 1/10th of 1 percent of the 2.5 million Americans, 100 or more of them served in the Continental Army. Francis Salvador, a Jew serving in the South Carolina provisional congress, was one of the War's first casualties when he was killed on August 1, 1776. Benjamin Nones served as aide-de-camp to the Marquis de Lafayette and Colonel Solomon Bush saw his brother, Lewis, mortally wounded at Brandywine in an action for which Solomon was awarded a special citation by the Continental Army for bravery and distinguished service. And while not bearing arms, Haym Solomon was critical in securing the financing America required to fight a very long Revolutionary War.

The Civil War saw an estimated 8,500 to 10,000 Jewish soldiers fighting on both sides. Of them, six fighting for the North were awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. At the time, Jews were ½ of 1 percent of the population and they earned roughly that same proportion of that war's 1522 Medals of Honor. One medal went to Edward Salomon at Gettysburg. He took command from his wounded General and became the regiment's Commanding General for the balance of the War. He later became Governor the Washington Territory. Jews also served in the Confederate Army including: David Camden De Leon, the Confederacy's Surgeon General and A.C. Myers, its Quartermaster, for whom Ft Myers, Florida is named.

World War I saw Jews fighting for every country involved in that War. Herman Becker, William Frankel, and Fritz Beckhardt all served in the German Air Force and Becker and Frankel both won the famed Blue Max, Germany's highest award for valor. During the war an inquiry, "the count," into the numbers of Jews serving in the German armed forces proved that a disproportionate number of German Jews were fighting for the German cause.

Opposing them, Lt. General Louis Bernheim commanded a Belgian brigade that fought in the Battle of the Marne. Captain David Hirsch received England's Victoria Cross, Major General Emil Von Sommer was decorated for his service to Austria, Admiral Augusto Capon commanded an Italian frigate, and Amando Bachi, was awarded an Italian Military Cross and served as a Lieutenant General in the Italian Army until forced to resign his commission in 1943.

Lieutenant General Sir John Monash led an Australian brigade at Galipoli and was the first general to be knighted on the battlefield in 200 years. Later he took command of all the Australian and New Zealand troops. Major General Sir Charles Rosenthal commanded the Australian and New Zealand artillery during the War. Also at Galipoli, Private Leonard Keysor was awarded the Victoria Cross for bravery.

Canada saw almost 5,000 Jews in its World War I service and of them, 100 were killed and 84 received decorations for valour.

In the United States, an estimated 250,000 Jews served in World War I (roughly 10 percent of the Jewish population at the time) and 3,500 of them were killed. Jews received three of the 124 Medals of Honor awarded from that action.

World War II saw huge numbers of Jews fighting for the Allies. General Ivan D. Cheryakhovski led Russia's victories in retaking Vilna, Minsk, Frodno and Kiev from the Germans. Darius Dassault commanded France's Fifth Army Corps and fought with the resistance during the war. After liberation he was named General d'Armee, the highest rank in the French army, and he was appointed Governor of Paris. Mark Edelman led the Warsaw Ghetto uprising and, later in life, he strongly supported Solidarity when it challenged Communist control of Poland. In Canada, 10 percent of the Jewish population of 170,000 and roughly 20 percent of the male population, fought and more than 500 were killed.

In the United States, estimates of Jews serving in the armed forces range from 4.3 to 8 percent. This contrasts with their 3.3 percent of the population at the time. In addition to the 550,000 serving in the armed forces, 340,000 women served as nurses or in other capacities. Major General Julius Ochs Adler commanded the 77th Infantry. General Mark Clark, born to a Jewish mother and Protestant father, commanded the Italian campaign, and later U.S. Forces at the close of the Korean War. Admiral Ben Moreil commanded the U.S. Navy "Seabees." Colonel William F. Friedman served as the War Department's chief cryptologist until January 1941 and his group helped break the Japanese diplomatic code. Major General Maurice Rose commanded the 3rd Armored Division and was the highest ranking American officer to be killed in combat during the War. Jacob Beser was the only person to serve on both the "Enola Gay" and "Bock's Car," on the missions that dropped Atom bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. Lieutenant Frances Slanger was one of four nurses who waded ashore onto the D-Day beaches of Normandy and she died there. And, of course, Rabbi Alexander Goode was one of the four chaplains who gave their life vests to service men when the troopship Dorchester was torpedoed in the Atlantic.

In all, about 11,000 Jews died fighting in the U.S. forces during World War II. Another 40,000 were wounded and 52,000 received medals for bravery. Jews received three of the 464 Medals of Honor issued for service in World War II. One of those went to Dr. Ben Salomon, a dentist, whose aid station on Saipan was attacked. Before he died, he killed more than 100 attackers and was found with seventy-six bullet holes in his body.

A similar story concerns Marine Private First Class Leonard Kravitz (uncle of rock star Lenny Kravitz), who won the Distinguished Service Cross during the Korean War. When a large Chinese force attacked, Private Kravitz ordered the rest of his platoon to retreat, which they did with few casualties. He stayed behind to man the machine gun. When the Marines re-took the position, Kravitz was dead. His machine gun had only six bullets left and in the words of his citation, "numerous enemy dead lay in and around his emplacement."

Jews won two of the 245 Medals of Honor conferred during the Viet Nam War. One of them went to John Lee Levitow. Severely wounded on a crippled aircraft, he threw himself atop a flare to save his comrades and the plane and then threw the flare from the aircraft. The other, Colonel Jack Jacobs, can be seen these days as an MSNBC military analyst. As a young Lieutenant, he assumed command of a disorganized company when his superior officer was wounded. He organized withdrawal from the exposed perimeter and then, despite severe head wounds, made repeated trips across open rice paddies to retrieve wounded comrades. Including the company commander, he saved a U.S. advisor and 13 soldiers, single handedly killing three Viet Cong and wounding several others in the process. When asked why he had done it, he said the words of Hillel kept running through his mind. "If not you, who? If not now, When?"

None of this counts others such as:

In Israel:

Aviation

Following the January 16; 2003 Columbia disaster, a few people might recall an Israeli (Ilan Ramon) amongst the seven astronauts who died that sad morning. Those who have followed the Apollo and Shuttle programs over a longer period might also remember that, in a tragic coincidence, Judith Resnik, an American Jewish astronaut, died in the January 28th 1986 Columbia disaster. If one thinks of the odds, the likelihood that two Jews would have died in the only two fatal shuttle tragedies, simply defies the laws of chance.

Jews are not identified with aeronautics. Most people would expect there to be few Jews among the astronauts or for Jews to be particularly active in aviation. Nobel prizes perhaps, scads of attorneys and doctors, tons of Hollywood producers certainly, but astronauts? Once more reality surprises. Among the 268 identified U.S. veteran space fliers shown on Exhibit 7a, there have been nine Jews rather than the five one would expect. Certainly, this is not the 30 to 40 times over-achievement of the Nobels, but a surprise, nonetheless, particularly in a domain where one might expect Jews to be under-represented. The nine

American astronauts that are Jews include:

The nine do not include Garrett Reisman who joined the astronaut program in 2000 but has yet to be assigned to a shuttle flight.

Nor does it include Ilan Ramon who flew on that fateful Challenger U.S. mission, but is an Israeli and not an American. It also excludes Boris Volynov, a Russian cosmonaut veteran of two Soyuz missions. There may have been other Russian Jewish cosmonauts as well (a long standing rumor had it that Yuri Gagarin, the world's first cosmonaut, was Jewish). Time has not corroborated that rumor and discerning who else among the cosmonauts might be Jewish is not as easy as it is in the United States.

And, as is often the case in other domains, we find Jews in positions of administrative leadership as well as serving on the front lines. To date, there have been twelve NASA Administrators. The odds say none would be Jewish. Daniel Goldin is. He was the longest serving Administrator ever, having been appointed by George Bush ("41" not "43"), and serving three presidents from April 1, 1992 to November 17, 2001. Goldin was the leader who "saved the International Space Station program" when the Clinton administration proposed terminating it by incorporating capabilities of the Russian space program. More than half of all Space Shuttle flights occurred during his tenure and he coined the expression, "smaller, cheaper, faster and better" as the guiding expression of his philosophy about how to keep the Agency alive and vital in an era of cost cutting and questions regarding the future of space flight.

In addition, Goldin's Deputy Administrator during 1992 was Aaron Cohen. (See Exhibit 3b)

Jews have also played leading roles throughout aviation. Among them:

Taken together, the history reveals Jews have played a surprisingly vital role as military warriors and as aviation and aerospace leaders for a very long time.