Des Moines, Iowa - Jewish Veterans Will Leave No Stone Unmarked

Des Moines, Iowa - More graves of Jewish military veterans will be marked with an American flag this Memorial Day, thanks to a campaign to identify those veterans and create a registry.

The campaign is being coordinated to carry on and enlarge the work done for years by an aging group of Jewish veterans. Close to 200 flags at were put out Glendale Cemetery on Memorial Day last year, but none were decorated in the Jewish section of Woodland Cemetery or on graves in the cemetery located at the corner of Easton and Delaware avenues, said Ted Block, 82, of West Des Moines. Block is a World War II veteran, inducted into the Army in 1943 at the age of 18.

When the group began gathering information, there were about 150 known veterans buried in the Jewish section of Woodland Cemetery. About 50 more names have been added to the list, with more being discovered daily, according to Block.

Those who mark and decorate the graves know that an important part of the history of Judaism in Iowa - the record of military service - is slipping away. The campaign to research and document the names of all Jews who served in the U.S. military began in January. "Jews fought in the Revolutionary War," Block said. "In Des Moines' Jewish cemeteries there are graves of Jewish war veterans who fought in the Spanish-American War, World War I and II, Korea and Vietnam. We served our country, and the record of that sacrifice should not be lost."

In addition to preserving history, the Jewish veterans believe they must defend themselves against falsehoods spread by anti-Semites who continue to claim that Jews have not served in the U.S. armed forces, Block said. "Thousands of Jews have died in combat for their country and thousands more have been wounded," said Cheryl Waldman, the Washington, D.C., national program coordinator of Jewish War Veterans of the United States. Writing for a 350-year history of Jewish military service in this country, Waldman noted, "During the 20th century, nearly a million Jews served in the armed services. It continues today, with Jews serving and dying for their country in the wars in Iraq and Afghanistan."

"Every day we find more," Block said.