Military

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Collection
Miri Regev seated in front of an Israeli flag, wearing decorated uniform.

Miri Regev

Miriam “Miri” Regev is a former Brigadier-General in the Israel Defense Forces Spokesperson’s Unit and a current member of the Knesset in the Likud party. As a member of the Knesset, Regev has held government postings as Minister of Culture and Sport and Minister of Transportation and Road Safety.

Four Gadna participants in Sde Boker.
December 20, 2019

Gadna

Isabel Hoffman

I was en route to Gadna, a military simulation run by the Israeli Defense Forces (IDF) for camp groups, gap year programs, and high school semesters abroad.

Topics: Israel, Palestine, Military
Dahlia "Pobie" Johnston
January 8, 2019

The Unsung Jewish Women of WWII

Toshe Cecev

It is the accomplishments of everyday women that shape our world and change our collective future. Let’s tell their stories, too.

Topics: World War II, Military
Julie Schwartz

Julie Schwartz

Julie Schwartz’s decision to become the first woman rabbi to serve as an active duty chaplain in the US Military broadened women’s roles in Jewish and civic leadership.

Julie Schwartz

Julie Schwartz

Julie Schwartz broke new ground as the first woman rabbi to serve as an active duty chaplain in the US Military.
Trans Soldier Erez Shachar (media object)
July 26, 2017

Trans Bodies are Human Bodies

Emily Cataneo

Trump et al seem to believe that there exists a template for a default American. A normal American, if you will. Surprise, surprise: that American is a white, able cis man.

Topics: Law, Military

Amy Sheridan

Although American women had flown planes in WWII as civilians, Amy Sheridan helped open the skies to a new generation of women as the first Jewish woman to become an aviator in the US Armed Services.

Ethel Shilmover Grossman

While serving as a member of the Army Nurse Corps in WWII, Ethel Shilmover Grossman was moved and astonished to see the kindness with which American soldiers treated wounded German POWs.

Clara Raven

After a distinguished military career as one of the first female doctors to serve in WWII, Clara Raven went on to do pioneering research on Sudden Infant Death Syndrome.
Amanda Simpson

Amanda Simpson

A skilled pilot and aeronautics engineer, Amanda Simpson made history in 2010 when she became the first openly transgender presidential appointee, as senior technical advisor to the Bureau of Industry and Security.
New Year Postcard
April 1, 2015

Propelled into the New Year

Deborah Rubin Fields

Early in the 20th century, Jewish New Year card manufacturers began embellishing their cards with airplanes. They did so for three interrelated reasons: to call attention to the thrilling, modern invention of the airplane, to draw an analogy between the New Year and this new means of travel, and to use the airplane to highlight the changing status of women.

Topics: Jewish History, Passover, Military
Hannah Szenes in Uniform, 1944

Long-lost Poem by War Heroine Hannah Szenes is Found

September 2, 2012

A poem by WWII hero Hannah Szenes was discovered 68 years after her death.

Ruth Werner

Death of Soviet spy Ursula Kuczynski (Ruth Werner)

July 7, 2000

"I fought against fascism.  Whatever else, I can hold my head up high because of that." - Ruth Werner, Soviet spy

Lisa Stein

Lisa Stein

Lisa Stein navigated aircraft in the Cold War and Desert Storm and served as an openly Jewish American officer in Saudi Arabia.
Frances Slanger

Frances Slanger

One of four nurses to wade ashore at Normandy Beach on D-Day, Frances Slanger was the only nurse to die as a result of enemy action in the European Theater.
Marita Silverman

Marita Silverman

Marita Silverman used the compassion and strength she learned working as a nurse in a field hospital in Vietnam to fuel her work in civilian life as a pediatric nurse.
Gertrude Shapiro circa 1940s

Gertrude Shapiro

A nurse who put her patients before herself, Gertrude Shapiro travelled to Hiroshima to treat the injured after the city suffered an atomic blast.
Yetta Moskowitz and Other Flight Nurses, 1944

Yetta Moskowitz

A pioneer of air evacuation medicine, Yetta Moskowitz received an air medal for flying over 100 hours through combat zones in New Guinea and the Philippines to evacuate wounded soldiers in World War II.
Miriam Miller, cropped

Miriam "Mimi" Miller

Miriam “Mimi” Miller resisted her family’s notions of the proper life for a nice Jewish girl, not only training as a nurse but serving in a combat zone in the Philippines through some of the worst devastation of World War II.

Vicki Lewis

Lieutenant Vicki Lewis struggled with anti-Semitism throughout her time as a weapons trainer in the US Army.
Rabbi Bonnie Koppell

Bonnie Koppell

One of the first women rabbis ordained, Bonnie Koppell became the first woman rabbi to serve as a US military chaplain.
Bebe Koch

Bebe Koch

Wanting to somehow contribute to the defeat of the Nazis persecuting her fellow Jews, Bebe Koch enlisted at age nineteen and rose through the ranks to become a platoon commander.
Ethel Gladstone

Ethel Gladstone

Ethel Gladstone only joined the US Army Nurse Corps at the tail end of World War I, but her service record shows how long a war’s impact can be felt after its official end.
Cindy Gats

Cindy Gats

Gats served in Operations Desert Shield and Desert Storm in the US Marine Corps.
Bernice Sains Freid

Bernice Sains Freid

Bernice Sains Freid called her time in WAVES (Women Accepted for Volunteer Emergency Service) during WWII “the happiest days of my life.”

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