wo Jima Recalled
____________Friday, March 29,1985 / The Jewish Floridian of Palm Beach County Page 15
Continued from Page 1
-reer. He then delivered his
frmon to the Jewish Marines.
|TWO PROTESTANT
jiaplains were so incensed at
[e threatened boycott by their
Cejudiced colleagues that they
liendcd the Jewish ceremony.
|ne of the chaplains asked for
Ijttlesohn's onion skin copy,
Ihich he secretly
limeographed. Afterwards
le Protestant chaplain
jstributed thousands of
Ipies to the Marines, who
Jbsequently mailed them to
families throughout the
nited States.
(The sermon, entitled "The
lrest Democracy," the
fginal copy of which is now
the American Jewish
khives in Cincinnati, has
tome what is probably the
bst famous Marine bat-
...d sermon of World War
from which the following
: excerpts:
A Rabbi Among The Foxholes
'This is perhaps the
hmmest, and surely the
ttliest, task we have faced
nee D-Day. Here before us
: the bodies of comrades and
fiends. Men who until
hterday or last week laughed
jth us, joked with us, trained
kih us. Men who were on the
Ime ships with us, and went
Jer the sides with us as we
lepared to hit the beaches of
lis island. Men who fought
lih us and feared with us.
imewhere in this plot of
ound there may lie the man
i could have discovered the
|re for cancer. Under one of
ose Christian crosses, or
th a Jewish Star of
(ivid, there may rest now a
an who was destined to be a
eat prophet ... to find the
D, perhaps, for all to live in
enty, with poverty and
[rdship for none. Now they
here silently in this sacred
and we gather to con-
nate this earth in their
emory.
I"1T IS NOT easy to do so.
Ime of us have buried our
Dsest friends here. We saw
|ese men killed before our
ry eyes. Any one of us might
ve died in their places,
deed, some of us are alive
I breathing at this very
moment only because men
who lie here benath us had the
courage and strength to give
their lives for ours .
"Here lie men who loved
America because their an-
cestors generations ago helped
in her founding, and other
men who loved her with equal
passion because they them-
selves or their own fathers
escaped from oppression to
her blessed shores. Here lie
officers and men, Negroes and
whites, rich men and poor. .
together. Here are
Protestants, Catholics and
Jews together. Here no
man prefers another because
of his faith or despises him
because of his color. Here
there are no quotas of how
many from each group are
admitted or allowed. Among
these men there is no
discrimination. No prejudice.
No hatred. Theirs is the
highest and purest democracy
"Too much blood has gone
into this soil for us to let it lie
barren. Too much pain and
heartache have fertilized the
earth on which we stand. We
here solemnly swear: this shall
not be in vain! Out of this, and
from the suffering and sorrow
of those who mourn this, will
come we s promise the
birth of a new freedom for the
sons of men everywhere.
Amen."
AN ADMIRER of Rabbi
Gittlesohn, Charles Cun-
ningham of Hinsdale, 111., a
former combat correspondent
of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch
on Iwo Jima, told this reporter
he will never forget how the
rabbi went from foxhole to
foxhole while the murderous
battle raged. Cunningham's
voice shook with emotion as
he said: "He was a down-to-
earth genuine guy. Although
we're not of the same religion,
he was a man whom I shall
always revere and respect. His
sermon was the most moving
dedication to the dead I have
ever heard."
Gittlesohn, now enjoying an
active retirement, is past
president of the Central
Conference of American
Rabbis, and founding
president of the Association of
Reform Zionists of America.
LARRY A. GERSON
Certified Public Accountant
Tax Planning & Preparation
Tax Shelter Analysis
Accounting & Auditing
5725 Corporate Way, Suite 206
West Palm Beach, Florida 33407
(305) 471-9699
Private Jewish School
Seeks professional to establish development
office. Responsibility for fundraising and
public relations. Position available immedi-
ately; deadline for applications: April 1,1985.
Send resume to:
DIRECTOR
5801 Parker Avenue
West Palm Beach, Florida 33405
s^ssf^
Drover s.^<$**
P^P^SrvW ,th mass**
and canr.9 start vvum
whulpool. sauna ^,h,enn.s
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(8V3)726-UM
HarfK)ffS
Shown left to right, Rabbi Emanucl Rackman, president of Bar
Han University; Lee Lavitt, chairman of the Palm Beach Friends
of Bar-Ilan University, in whose home the reception was held in
honor of Ambassador Naphtali Lavie, pictured right. The
fourth annual Bar-Ilan reception drew more than 100 people at
the penthouse home of Lee Lavitt, 100 Sunrise Avenue,
recently.
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