White Plains Post 191 Jewish War Veterans of the USA Celebrate Anniversaries
The Hebrew Institute on Greenridge Avenue in White Plains hosted the White Plains Post 191 Jewish War Veterans of the USA and the Ladies Auxiliary for the celebration of their 75th and 70th (respective) anniversaries Sunday.
Local veterans with their families and friends, and members of the Ladies Auxiliary were joined by members of local government for a tasty lunch and to share stories and talk about the important role of the military in past and present conflicts.
A journal commemorating the anniversaries carried an article about the Jewish American veterans who started Post 191 JWV in 1938.
“Twenty years after a band of Jewish American veterans laid down their guns at the end of World War I and marched home to peace, they were confronted with the specter of Nazi monsters stalking Europe while their brown-shirted henchmen and sympathizers appeared at Bund rallies in Westchester and conducting marches down Mamaroneck Avenue in White Plains. The events of 1938 induced these Jewish craftsmen, professionals and shopkeepers to form White Plains Post 191, Jewish War Veterans of the United States, dedicated to uphold the fair name of the Jew and to fight his battles wherever unjustly assailed,” the article read.
Former president of the National Auxiliary, Adele Zucker, whose husband Mort had been an integral part of Post 191 activities for many years, spoke about the establishment of the National Jewish War Veterans organization in 1896, when at that time it commemorated Jewish veterans from U.S. wars going back to the Revolutionary War.
Zucker noted that the National Museum of American Jewish Military History in Washington, DC, presented a pictorial history of patriotic American Jews in the military with information supplied by the veterans organization.
Aaron Silver, Commander of Post 191, was presented with an American flag from Afghanistan and Operation Enduring Freedom, and proclamations from New York State and White Plains were delivered in honor of the anniversaries.
Congresswoman Nita Lowey, the principal speaker for the event, referring to the image of brown-shirts marching down Mamaroneck Avenue, said: “We always have to be vigilant and speak out when anyone violates the values of the United States.”
“We owe a debt of gratitude to the 23 million veterans in this country,” Lowey continued, noting that the claims backlog at the Veterans Administration was unacceptable. “When a vet leaves service, a plan should be in place,” she emphasized.
Lowey blames the backlog directly on Eric Shinseki, Secretary of the Department of Veterans Affairs (VA) and Chuck Hagel, Secretary of Defense and encourages any local vets experiencing difficulties with the processing of their claims to contact her office in White Plains.
