Pvt. Samuel Abraham Backer was one of five American soldiers killed in World War I who were mistakenly buried as Christians, with crosses on their graves.
The injustice has now been corrected for Backer and four fellow soldiers buried near him in France, as well as for 12 Jewish soldiers from the German army whose graves also bore crosses.
The operation took place simultaneously on Wednesday at the Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery, the largest U.S. military cemetery in France, and at the German military cemetery in Consenvoye.
It was made possible through a unique partnership among several international organizations, including Operation Benjamin, an American group that works to correct mistaken identities of Jewish fallen soldiers; the American Battle Monuments Commission; and Operation Levi, a special initiative of the German War Graves Commission.
The fact that an American organization and a German organization joined forces to place Stars of David on the graves of men who had been bitter enemies on the battlefield underscored for participants the shared fate of the Jewish people and the supreme importance of honoring the dead.
Alongside relatives of the fallen, public figures, researchers and students from around the world took part in the historic event. Participants included U.S. Ambassador to France Charles Kushner, who recited Kaddish at the graves; historian and former Israeli Ambassador to the U.S. Dr. Michael Oren; Operation Benjamin honorary president Rabbi Dr. Jacob J. Schacter; Rabbi Dr. Meir Soloveitchik, head of the Straus Center at Yeshiva University; and Shalom Lamm, Operation Benjamin’s chief historian.
Hiday Biran speaks at the grave of Pvt. Samuel Abraham Backer
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US Ambassador to France Charles Kushner recited Kaddish at the ceremony
(Photo: anibas)
Representatives of the next generation also attended, including students from Yeshiva University, cadets from the Virginia Military Institute and students from Bundeswehr University Munich, representing Germany’s federal armed forces, among them a Jewish doctor and chaplain.
The event marked a moving full-circle moment for the families of the fallen and for the Jewish people as a whole, serving as living testimony that time does not dull the commitment to restoring truth and dignity to those who sacrificed their lives.