As previously noted, last year a Jewish US Army basic trainee at Fort Benning was assaulted for reasons that he claimed were related to his faith.  His assailant was discharged, and the victim, Michael Handman, was allowed to leave the Army.

Several news sources are now crediting that scandal with recent activities occurring at Fort Benning.  These actions have included the addition of Kosher MREs at the dining hall and a permanent party Jewish Chaplain.  The base has previously had a Jewish Chaplain, though the relatively small number of Jewish Chaplains limits the number of bases to which they can be permanently assigned.  (The Associated Press text also says that the drill sergeants were “disciplined,” though there is no public evidence to that effect.)

Last year the incident rose to scandal status, involving the MRFF, ADL, and NAACP.

CAPT Neil Block, a retired US Navy O-6 and Jewish lay leader, was villified by the MRFF for his involvement, in which he expressed skepticism at the speed at which people jumped to the conclusion of anti-Semitism.  Michael Weinstein’s MRFF proudly publicized its “joint letter” with the Georgia NAACP calling Block “atrocious, shameful and blatantly racist,” and demanding his “immediate removal.”  Interestingly, Edward DuBose, President of the Georgia NAACP, later retracted that statement, saying

The Georgia State Conference NAACP…rescind[s] our statement for…[Block] to be dismissed from [his] duties as Jewish Lay Leader…[The NAACP] conclusion is that [his] actions…were neither racist nor intended to minimize the incident surrounding Pvt. Handman.

Unfortunately, Mr. DuBose does not appear to have followed through on a promise to publicize a press release to that same effect; the MRFF never mentioned the NAACP’s decision to sever itself from their accusations.  As is often the case, the initial outcry drowned out the subsequent corrections.

In his typical hyperbolic fashion, Weinstein also berated the Anti-Defamation League for “claiming credit” for what he says the MRFF did:

We at the [MRFF] are thunderstruck that, after our many weeks of assiduously working around the clock to bring the perpetrators of the wretched hate crime to military justice, the ADL would suddenly come waltzing into this travesty of justice against Pvt. Handman and his family, unilaterally “declare victory” and then actually praise the Army for its hideous racist actions…It seems…the acronym ‘ADL’ now stands ignominiously for ‘Apologists Defense League.’

(In other news, however, the MRFF has decided to work with the ADL it previously maligned.)

After these recent events, the ADL continued to provide positive comments on the Army’s response:

“I felt from the start that they were fairly serious about trying to deal with some of this,” said Bill Nigut, southeast regional director for the Anti-Defamation League, who met with Fort Benning commanders after Handman was beaten. “It says they are integrating Jewish life into the base activities.”

Weinstein also failed to follow through in his promise to include the incident in his lawsuit.

Update: According to one news report,

Col. Scott Davis, head chaplain at the base, said that the improvements in religious observance for Jews is a direct result of the attack…

Also noted at the Religion Clause and Blog from the Capital.