‘Holy’ work: Stars of David replace crosses on stones of two WWI soldiers at national cemetery
Published: 8 April 2025
By Andrew Bernard and Menachem Wecker
via the Jewish News Syndicate (JNS) website
JNS WWI headstone
A new tombstone with a Star of David rather than a Latin cross is unveiled for Pvt. David Moser at Arlington National Cemetery in Arlington, Va., April 7, 2025. (Photo by Menachem Wecker.)
“We have a sense, I think, of paying a long overdue debt to these men,” Shalom Lamm, the chief historian of Operation Benjamin, told attendees about Pfc. Adolph Hanf and Pvt. David Moser.
“We take a moment out of our busy lives to remember two men of the Jewish faith, long at rest in this cemetery but mistakenly commemorated,” said Rob Dalessandro, deputy secretary of the American Battle Monuments Commission. “Today, thanks to the efforts of Operation Benjamin and their team, we can better appreciate the shared Jewish sacrifice in the cause of democracy and freedom.”
Rabbi Jacob J. Schacter, the president of Operation Benjamin, told the attendees that his organization’s work is “very important and precious and I would even say holy.”
Schacter told JNS that the new headstones finally provided the two men with a grave marker that was appropriate for them as Jews.
“What we have seen today is an extraordinary expression of the commitment of the Jewish people and of the leadership of the United States of America to set the historical record straight, to bring soldiers who gave their lives for America, as Americans and as Jews, under the marker that represents their ancestral faith,” he said.
Shalom Lamm, the chief historian of Operation Benjamin, noted that few people gathered at the cemetery had even heard of Moser and Hanf prior to two months ago. “What is it about their story that stirs the human soul?” he said. “I’d like to suggest that we all feel a sense of justice being done after all these years for two young men, who sacrificed all for an idea bigger than themselves.”
“We instinctively know that when they lost their lives, they lost the ability to fight for their own identity. Our sense of fair play is aroused by our ability to make things right after all of these years,” Lamm said. “We have a sense, I think, of paying a long overdue debt to these men. We got it wrong for over 100 years. We buried them incorrectly for over 10 decades.”
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