Dr. Deborah Eiferman, a 102-year-old resident of the Riverdale section of the Bronx, has wanted for much of her adult life to have the headstone of her “baby uncle” replaced.
Pvt. David Moser, who died of influenza during the Spanish flu pandemic while serving in Germany, was a World War I veteran. He was buried at Arlington National Cemetery in Washington with a Latin cross on his gravestone despite being a “a proud American Jew who loved his country.”
Eiferman never knew her uncle, who died in 1919 at age 20, but she got to give a speech April 7 and watch as a new headstone with a Star of David was unveiled at his grave at Arlington.
The effort was facilitated by Project Benjamin, a nonprofit dedicated to correcting burial errors of Jewish American soldiers who gave their lives while serving. The ceremony was attended by political leaders, family and military representatives and students and alumni from the Yeshivah of Flatbush in Brooklyn, which Eiferman once attended.
“It was one of the most moving things I have ever participated in,” said Project Benjamin spokesperson Ariella Noveck. She said it was the first time the organization had corrected a religious identity on a headstone in the United States. Most have been in Europe, with an upcoming ceremony slated for next month in Italy.
As part of the day’s ceremonies at Arlington, a new headstone replacing the Latin cross with a Star of David was also unveiled for another soldier, PFC Adolph Hanf, who was killed in action in 1918 during World War I during the Battle of Fismes. Hanf has no living relatives so Eiferman’s family and others in the crowd of 150 present stood in for them.
Noveck said the organization estimates there are 700-800 such mismarked headstones and many times relatives here don’t even know they have family buried overseas under the wrong headstones until informed by Project Benjamin. Having the error corrected brings the family a sense of closure.
“We are honored to work with the families of the fallen and alongside the leadership of Arlington National Cemetery to honor these soldiers,” said Shalom Lamm, co-founder and chief historian of Operation Benjamin. “Their leadership has been crucial in ensuring the legacies of these young American heroes are accurately remembered.”
Eiferman is a constituent of Rep. Ritchie Torres (D-N.Y.), who was among the politicians who spoke during the ceremony.
Torres said there was something especially poignant about standing there just days before Passover, a holiday celebrating liberation and redemption because “in a profound sense we are engaged in a form of redemption, a reaffirmation that these men belong to their families, their faiths and to their country and that none of these are mutually exclusive. As we approach Passover, we are redeeming ourselves by liberating the memory of these Jewish American heroes from the enslavement of an engraved error. Today, we are not rewriting history, we are rectifying it.”
Other officials who attended included Rep. Laura Gillen (D-N.Y.) and Rep. Debbie Wasserman Schultz (D-Fla.), who recited a blessing.
Eiferman said in a video interview posted on Project Benjamin’s website that her uncle was the youngest of six sons thought of by her zayde as his baby son, a name by which her family would always refer to him because he died at such a young age. To her, he became her baby uncle.
“I will tell you that when he [her grandfather] learned that his baby son had died in World War I not from the Germans, but from the Spanish flu he had a stroke and never spoke again,” she said. “I never heard him talk.”
However, Eiferman said her zayde wrote in English to the cemetery to say he wanted to visit his son’s grave, but never got an answer. Her mother followed up on her father’s behalf inquiring about her brother’s grave, but also never got a response.
“Now we can fill in with a bit of history why they never got the answer,” she said. “If my zayde had ever seen his son’s grave he would have had another stroke.”
Eiferman also spoke of losing her fiancé, Jerome Robbins, whom she had known since they were 10 and later fell “madly in love with” but who was killed in action during World War II. She described “Jerry” as being “an amazing, ethical young man” who had been attending Yeshiva College and was set to graduate in 1944. Although he had an exemption as a graduating senior, he enlisted, telling her that “he could not be a passive observer in this fight after what’s being done to my people.” She later wed Irving Eiferman, who died in 2012 after 64 years of marriage.
“Our issue is to bring people who have been long dead back to life and to give their families a sense of peace and closure and rest all within the Jewish faith,” said Noveck.
Debra Rubin has had a long career in journalism writing for secular weekly and daily newspapers and Jewish publications. She most recently served as Middlesex/Monmouth bureau chief for the New Jersey Jewish News. She also worked with the media at several nonprofits, including serving as assistant public relations director of HIAS and assistant director of media relations at Yeshiva University.
