International Business Development Consultant
North America’s Individual Sacrifices for Israel
In the synagogue in the Bronx where I grew up, as in most synagogues in the US, there were two flags in the sanctuary, one on each side of the bimah, or central platform. To the speaker’s right was the flag of the USA and to the left was the flag of the Jewish people, as it was then called. However, everyone knew in those heady days between the end of World War II and 1948 that it would ultimately become the flag of the nascent State of Israel.
What no one knew or thought much about as we paraded regularly up the Grand Concourse in support of Israeli independence, was the steep cost in human lives that would need to be paid from the first day of the state’s existence. Even those who did realize that it would be the blood of our young people that would be shed in the long, long fight for the survival of the new state, it was always something that would occur “over there,” or “not to our boys here.”
Sadly, we were all somewhat naïve as it did not take long for an American World War II army veteran to be the very first US casualty in the war for independence.
It was, of course, US Army colonel David Daniel “Mickey” Marcus, a Brooklyn-born attorney who volunteered to assist the newly organized Israel Defense Forces during the 1948 Arab-Israeli War. He became Israel’s first modern general (Aluf) in nearly 2,000 years, helping to organize the military and break the siege of Jerusalem before he was tragically killed by friendly fire. That made him the first American or Canadian who had given his life in the defense of modern Israel.
A 1924 West Point graduate and Brooklyn Law School alumnus, with a distinguished military career in World War II, participating in the D-Day invasion of Normandy (Operation Overlord), helping draft surrender terms for Italy and Germany, and assisting with planning for the Nuremberg Trials of the Nazi perpetrators, he was recruited informally by David Ben Gurion as a military adviser in 1948 under the alias “Michael Stone.”
He then reorganized the IDF and engineered the crucial “Burma Road” bypass to supply besieged Jerusalem. Sadly, he was fatally shot by an Israeli sentry on June 10, 1948, given his inability to understand the challenge of the Hebrew-speaking chayal during a standard nighttime password request. Today his remains are at rest at the United States Military Academy cemetery at West Point, where his gravestone reads simply, “A Soldier for All Humanity.”
That was the beginning of a long line of young men and women from the US and Canada who have volunteered to serve in the IDF, usually as lone soldiers, without any family to support them in Israel. No single official tracking agency maintains a definitive, aggregated tally of every North American who has volunteered for Israel’s military since 1948, but historical and modern data allows for a clear picture across different eras.
During Israel’s War of Independence, out of roughly 3,500 to 4,500 total global volunteers, the American Veterans of Israel archives indicate that between 1,250 and 1,500 were Americans and Canadians. That number continued to grow over the years and the IDF Spokesperson’s Unit and immigration tracking studies report that approximately 800 to 1,000 foreign lone soldiers enlist in the military every year. Roughly 30% of these foreign recruits originate from the United States and Canada.
Statistics show that at any given time over the last decade, there have been roughly 2,000 active-duty lone soldiers from the United States serving simultaneously in the IDF.
We who hail from North America can be rightly proud of these numbers, but, of course, there is a sad side as well. Since the first war fought for our independence in 1948 (sadly there have been so many others that followed) a combined total of almost 500 Americans and Canadians have given their lives in defense of this country or have been victims of terror by anti-Israel forces.
Each year for more than 50 years, AACI (i.e. Association of Americans and Canadians in Israel) has been holding an annual memorial service in memory of those who have died in the defense of the state or have been victims of terror during the preceding twelve months. The names of all who have perished since 1948 are engraved on a permanent stone memorial in the forest above Shar Hagai, which is maintained by the Association.
Since October 7th, 115 names have been added to the wall, while this year, 11 new names will be added as well. The names to be added this year include: First Sgt. Barak Binyamin Ouzeri, Sgt. 1st Class Yakir Shmuel Tatelbaum, DC shooting victims Yaron Lischinsky and Sara Milgram, Sgt. Major Betzalel Yehoshua Mosbacher, Staff Sgt. Moshe Shmuel Noll, Master Sgt. Yona Efraim Feldbaum, Ramot Junction terror victim Rabbi Dr. Mordechai Steintzag, Master Sgt. Ran Hirschhorn, Elon Moreh resident Yehuda Shmuel Sherman, and Sgt. Moshe Yitzchak HaCohen Katz.
This year’s memorial service will be held on Sunday, September 6th at 1930 at the Ohel Nechama Synagogue, conveniently located at 3 Chopin Street, around the corner from Beit HaNassi. Rav Yosef Ote, the rabbi of the synagogue, will deliver the main address and US Ambassador to Israel, Mike Huckabee will be there and address the gathering as well.
There is no fee to attend and hopefully given that the event is “in town” will make it easier for people to be there and honor the memory of those who did indeed, give us their last full measure of devotion. AACI is to be commended for continuing this worthy endeavor to highlight the high price we who hail from North America have paid. May the memories of the fallen be for a blessing.