Marines Honor Fallen Heroes at Jewish Center

Via The Forward Magazine:

“In front of the Torah, we pay tribute to those who served our country,” said Rabbi Yosie Levine of the Jewish Center, in Manhattan, which hosted the May 30 Jewish Community Memorial Day Event, “An Appreciation of America’s Service Members.” With a U.S. Marine Corps Color Guard on the bimah, Levine told the guests: “Each Shabbat we pray and say todah [thank you]…. May God bless America.”

Event chair Daniel Oppenheim, a vice president at DGA Security Systems, said, “Many of the 50 Marines in the sanctuary here for Fleet Week … will be deployed to Afghanistan this year.”
Robert Magnus, a retired general of the United States Marine Corps and the evening’s keynote speaker, lit a candle. Magnus was honoring fallen soldiers’ mothers and spouses who hung the Gold Star in a window in commemoration of a member who gave his or her life in the service of the United States. Jacob Goldstein, senior Jewish chaplain of the armed forces of the U.S. Army Reserve and of Active Duty, lit a candle in memory of Daniel Agami, private first class, who was killed in action in Iraq in 2007.

Read the full article on The Forward. Photo credit to Karen Leon.