Former West Hempstead resident Shalom Lamm is a military history buff, but his true calling is to ensure that Jewish-American soldiers who paid the ultimate sacrifice in defense of their country are properly recognized on their graves as Jews.

About three years ago, around the time he made aliyah, Lamm was approached by Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schachter who had just returned from leading a tour at a United States military cemetery in Normandy. Schachter was alarmed that he did not see more graves with the Star of David symbol.

He shared this quandary with Lamm, and the latter decided that he would count each grave with a Star of David one by one. He arrived at 149 such graves — or about 1.59% of the total graves — a figure that is below the statistic he quoted that Jewish soldiers accounted for 2.71% of the total military casualties of World War II. Equally perplexed, he enlisted the counsel of an amateur genealogist Stephen Lamar, and the three decided to explore this issue further.

After extensive research, they learned that hundreds of Jewish-American soldiers who fell during World War I and II were misidentified and buried under a Latin Cross. Many Jewish soldiers requested that their religious identification on their dog tags be marked as either P for Protestant or C for Catholic, rather than H for Hebrew, so they would not be identified as Jews if they were captured during their service. When they fell in battle, they were identified as Protestant or Catholic and never received a Jewish burial or Jewish grave marking.

Lamm also explained that since they were buried overseas, it was not common during that time for family members of the fallen to attend the funeral, so they never discovered that their loved one who died in defense of the United States was misidentified.

The first case the group tested was Pvt. Benjamin Garadetsky, a soldier who was killed in France in 1944 while battling the Nazis and who was buried under a cross. Lamm and his team began their journey to discover whether this soldier bearing an Ashkenazi sounding name had Jewish roots. After months of research, they were able to identify his family and determine that he was born in the Bronx to Jewish immigrants from Ukraine. The error was corrected in a moving ceremony in June 2018, when Garadetsky’s gravesite was rededicated with a Star of David. The organization the three men founded to carry out this work — Operation Benjamin — named for Garadetsky.

A federal agency by the name of the American Battle Monuments Commission oversees all United States military cemeteries located abroad. In order to replace a misidentified gravestone with a Star of David, the agency requires proof through primary documents that the soldier was Jewish, and the request to change the headstone must be brought forward by the closest living relative of the deceased service member. The latter often requires extensive searching and networking via social media networks. The process can take months, but the result is incredibly rewarding.

A ceremony typically includes upwards of 70 people, including living family members of the deceased soldier, senior military officials, and at times the United States or Israeli ambassador to the country where the soldier is buried. Psalms are recited as well as El Maleh Rahamim, and for the first time, Kaddish is recited over the deceased. A senior military officer salutes the Star of David after it is affixed to the headstone. Schachter always closes out the ceremony saying, “On behalf of the citizens of the United States of America, we thank you for your service. And on behalf of the Jewish people, we welcome you home.”

The moving procession is also an act of closure for so many descendants and remaining family members of the deceased soldier whom they often knew so little about. At the ceremony for 2nd Lt. Kenneth Robinson, who was killed in action in 1943 and buried at the Ardennes American Cemetery in Belgium, his stepsister Mariellen Miller said, “I feel him [my father] here with me, telling me, good job.”

To date, Lamm and the team have rededicated 28 headstones in military cemeteries in the Philippines, France, Belgium and Luxembourg, and another three will be rededicated in Italy this coming May. Another 14 cases are close to being submitted to the commission for approval. The names and stories of each soldier can be found on Operation Benjamin’s website.

For Lamm, this holy work is a tremendous honor — a true “chesed shel emet” — or kindness to the deceased that can never be repaid. “When you do something for a soldier who was killed in action there is nothing they can do for you. It’s so pure,” Lamm explained. He added. “I am overwhelmed by that level of commitment to a nation, to a cause. I stand surrounded by heroes every day.”

Last year, the organization took on a special case to identify a soldier who was missing in action for 79 years. First Lt. Nathan Baskind was last seen during the Battle of Cherbourg on June 23, 1944, 17 days after he landed on Utah Beach on D-Day. He was listed on the Wall of the Missing at the Normandy American Cemetery. His parents, Abraham and Lena, passed away without ever finding out the fate of their son. After extensive research of German war records, it was revealed that Baskind was buried in a mass grave with Nazi fighters that was moved to the Marigny German War Graves Cemetery.

Determined to lay Baskind to rest in a Jewish cemetery, Lamm and other volunteers spent hours exhuming thousands of bones, working in freezing conditions and through rain and sleet. After a long process that included verifying the remains at a DNA lab and transferring them in a military procession from Germany to a United States air force base, Baskind was finally laid to rest in a Jewish cemetery and he was paid one of the highest honors in the Jewish tradition.

“We don’t leave our heroes behind,” Lamm explained. He shared that more than once the superintendent of a military cemetery told him that he has never seen such dedication to a cause for people who died 80 years ago. Lamm’s response is always, “that is the Jewish people.”

For more information or to get involved, visit operationbenjamin.org.

Alisa Bodner is a Fair Lawn native who immigrated to Israel over a decade ago. She is a nonprofit management professional who enjoys writing in her free time.