A Spiritual Anchor

Jews work to build a Jewish chapel at the U.S. Naval Academy.

Jeff Zell / The Jewish Times

It wasn’t always easy being Jewish in the U.S. Navy, said retired Captain Neil Block, who still remembers the time he realized that a fellow midshipman at the Naval Academy in Annapolis, Md., was staring at him.

Block, who was studying at his desk, turned and asked what was wrong. “I just wanted to see what a Jew looked like,” the man said.

Block, a Hamilton, Ga., resident who graduated from the academy in 1961, never forgot that incident. It’s one of the reasons he is helping several other Jewish Georgians to spearhead a $10 million fund-raising drive to build a Jewish chapel on the Naval Academy campus. They hope the chapel will be a place where cadets of all religions can gather and learn about each other’s beliefs.

“The Navy can be a tough place to be Jewish,” said Harvey Stein, president of the Friends of the Jewish Chapel, the group behind the fund-raising drive. “This will be a historic landmark for Jews in this country.”

The chapel would be one of the few Department of Defense buildings to bear the Star of David on its exterior, said Block, who is chairman of the organization’s Atlantic and Mid-South region fund drive. The group hopes to break ground on the building in 2003 and has already raised about $4.4 million.

Since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on Washington and New York, contributions have intensified. “We are actually getting more checks for cash instead of a pledge to be paid out over (several) years,” said Abe Wasserberger, the group’s executive vice president of development. “People are looking for an outlet to make a difference.”

Block said the Jewish chapel’s presence will correct “the general perception that we don’t serve in the military. People think that all Jewish boys do everything they can to avoid going into the service.”

In fact, out of 16.3 million U.S. military personnel who served in World War II, an estimated 550,000 were Jewish. Today, there are about 100 Jews out of 4,000 midshipmen at the academy. They — and many military personnel stationed in Washington and Baltimore — currently worship at the academy’s All-Faiths Chapel.

Rabbi Albert Slomovitz of Gesher L’Torah synagogue in Alpharetta was stationed at the Naval Academy from 1989 to 1992. He said the building will help non-Jewish midshipmen understand that “Jews and others are full participants in America’s democracy.”

That is why the project’s plans call for it to be used for ethical, moral and religious programs as well as religious services. The 28,000-square-foot facility will have two sections. The east wing will have a 350-seat chapel featuring a traditional Sephardic bima and Judaic art. The west wing will include a kitchen, canteen, social area, offices and a conference room.

According to Naval Academy Chaplain Rabbi Irving Elson, “The concept of the center is almost like a student life center, where it all comes together.”

Named for a trailblazer

Levy and his family also helped save Monticello, the home designed by Thomas Jefferson outside Charlottesville, Va., from destruction. A World War II destroyer escort, the USS Levy was named for him, as was a Jewish chapel at the Navy base in Norfolk, Va.

Throughout his career, Levy defended his faith. “My parents were Israelites,” he said in 1857. “(So) I was forced to encounter a large share of the prejudice and hostility by which, for so many ages, the Jew has been persecuted.”

Persecution against Jews in the Navy continued long after Levy’s death in 1862. For example, until 1938, Jewish midshipmen were required to attend Sunday church services.

Later, midshipman Seymour Einstein and Baptist Chaplain William Thomas created “the Jewish church party” to meet the academy’s requirement that all middies attend weekly religious services. Jewish midshipmen would gather on Sundays at the academy’s main gate and march to services at Annapolis’ Congregation Kneseth Israel. That practice continued until the academy ended mandatory attendance at religious services in 1972.

Retired Commander Marvin Becker, 75, of Macon, Ga., remembers marching to synagogue every Sunday and says the creation of a Jewish chapel on campus is necessary.

“If other religions have their own places of worship, we should have ours,” he said.

Some of the Georgians who have contributed to the chapel believe there is little prejudice in the Navy today.

Atlanta’s Meyer Rose, 75, a retired commander from the class of 1948, feels “it really is your own personality that determines if people accept you. It is not about your religion.”

Former Lt. Alan Lane of Marietta, class of 1969, agrees. He says that even though there aren’t “a lot of Jews in the Navy,” he “didn’t experience any prejudice.”

He hopes the chapel will be a “haven for young Jews” and thinks that having a greater Jewish presence on campus will increase sensitivity to Jewish issues.

Lane likens the military’s growing awareness of Jewish issues to that of professional sports.

“I remember (Los Angeles Dodgers manager) Walter Alston was asked what he learned by having a Jewish pitcher like Sandy Koufax on his team,” said Lane. “He said ‘I learned to keep a Jewish calendar on my desk.’ In that vein, (the chapel) increases awareness.”

Retired Vice Admiral Bernard Kauderer, class of 1953 and former commander of Pacific and Atlantic submarine forces, believes the chapel will be more than a house of worship.

“It will serve not only as a house of worship for the Jewish midshipmen, but also as a living monument to the Jewish graduates of the academy who have served in the armed forces throughout the history of the country,” he said in a statement.

The Friends of the Jewish Chapel, meanwhile, is doing more than raising money to build a house of worship. The group sponsors a tour of the U.S. Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington for all academy plebes (freshmen) as well as an annual heritage study tour of Israel or Eastern Europe. All of those programs, said Chaplain Elson, help give future officers a spiritual dimension. “We’re promoting one more tool in the leadership toolbox — faith,” he told the Naval publication Shipmate.

The Naval Academy’s Jewish Stars

Rear Admiral Hershel J. Goldberg: A 1935 graduate of the Naval Academy, Goldberg became chief of the Naval Supply Systems Command and chief of the Supply Corps.

Rear Admiral Sumner Shapiro: A 1949 graduate of the Naval Academy, Shapiro was the director of Naval Intelligence during the Carter and Reagan administrations.

Vice Admiral Bernard Kauderer: A 1953 graduate of the Naval Academy, Kauderer became commanding officer of a nuclear attack submarine. He later served as chief of both the Pacific and Atlantic Fleet submarine forces as well as NATO submarine forces. His son-in-law graduated from the academy in 1977 and two grandsons are currently enrolled at Annapolis.

Admiral Hyman Rickover: He directed the planning and construction of the Nautilus, the world’s first atomic-powered submarine, which was launched in 1954. One of his star recruits was Jimmy Carter, also an Annapolis graduate. Rickover became an Episcopal during his time at the academy, but requested a Jewish burial before he died.

Rear Admiral Aaron Landes: An ordained rabbi, Landes served in the Chaplain Corps from 1955-1989 and helped establish the All Faiths Chapel at the Naval Academy. When he retired, he was the director of Naval Reserve Chaplains, supervising 700 chaplains of all faiths. He is the only rabbi to have held this position.

Admiral Jeremy “Mike” Boorda: The first enlisted man to become chief of naval operations, Boorda shot himself in 1996 after his right to wear some of his military awards was called into question. President Bill Clinton praised Boorda as a man of “extraordinary energy, dedication and good humor.”

Notable Namesake

Author Marc Leepson shares insights from his new book on Uriah Levy.

Vivi Abrams / The Jewish Times

One of the more notable U.S. Naval heroes of the 1800s was also a synagogue president, a staunch defender of Judaism and religious tolerance, and one of the country’s first historical preservationists. Uriah Levy once wrote a 128-page document defending himself against a Navy dismissal he said was based on anti-Semitism. He was reinstated.

“This was not a man to be trifled with,” said Marc Leepson, a journalist and historian who recently released “Saving Monticello: The Levy Family’s Epic Quest to Rescue the House That Jefferson Built,” (The Free Press, 303 pages, $25), a book about Levy and his family’s long fight to preserve Thomas Jefferson’s Virginia home.

Leepson talked with the Jewish Times about the Naval Academy’s new synagogue, Levy’s 18-year-old wife, restoring Monticello and the Jeffersonian ideal.

Atlanta Jewish Times: In “Saving Monticello,” you talk about how Uriah Levy faced anti-Semitism in the Navy, resulting in at least one of his six court-martials (in 1816 when Lt. William Potter called him a “damned Jew,” leading to a duel between the two in which Potter died). Do you think there is still anti-Semitism in the armed services, and especially the Navy, today?

Marc Leepson: I don’t have any direct knowledge of that. I was in the Army myself from 1967 to 1969. I did not notice any. Nothing overt. Back (in Levy’s time) it was overt. You had to be a pretty strong person to survive in it. Uriah Levy was certainly a strong person — physically and mentally. The fact that the Naval Academy has opened up its first Jewish chapel is just a fabulous thing. It shows something very good about religious tolerance in the military.

AJT: In the book you depict Levy as someone who identified strongly with Judaism and was president of his congregation in Washington, D.C. Would Uriah Levy have prayed in the synagogue named after him?

Leepson: The funny thing is, he was one of the founders of the Washington Hebrew Congregation, but not a lot is known about how religious he was. We don’t know whether he attended synagogue on a regular basis. It’s just not in the material. There are indications that he wasn’t very religious, in the traditional sense. He very strongly spoke up against anti-Semitism and for his religion. We don’t even know if he had a bar mitzvah, (but) he was a very proud Jew.

AJT: How would he react to having a synagogue named after him?

Leepson: It’s a guess, an educated guess, but I think he would love it. He wasn’t shy; he had a pretty high opinion of himself. He had to be, in order to do the things that he did. He probably would have been honored and loved the idea.

AJT: Uriah Levy is famous for his ties to the Jefferson family and buying and restoring Thomas Jefferson’s home, Monticello. Jefferson wrote a famous letter to Levy’s cousin, diplomat Mordecai Noah, about religious freedom. How important was that letter?

Leepson: It’s one of the clearest expressions of Jefferson’s theories on religious tolerance ever recorded — in particular as a response to someone who was talking about anti-Semitism.

AJT: Do you think it would be fair to say Jefferson’s theory on religious tolerance is one of the main reasons Levy looked up to Jefferson?

Leepson: Yes. I think the clearest example that proves Uriah Levy was a big fan of Jefferson’s was at his commissioning a full-length statue of Jefferson, at his own expense, from (French sculptor Jean) David (D’Angers), the top sculptor of the day. It’s the only privately donated statue in the U.S. Capitol. I don’t think we have to look any further than that to see that he revered Jefferson.

AJT: What was your most interesting or remarkable finding about Uriah Levy?

Leepson: The most interesting thing? I would say marrying his 18-year old niece (at age 61). That was very interesting.

AJT: What inspired you to write about him?

Leepson:We live in Northern Virginia and while my aunt and uncle were visiting from Manhattan we took a side trip to Monticello. When they came back, my uncle ... said to me, did I know that Jews owned Monticello? I said, “I think I do.” He said, “You ought to write a book about it.”