Seventy years ago this month, US Marines slogged onto Iwo Jima, an island some 600-miles from the Japanese mainland. Nearly 6,000 Americans died and more than 17,000 were wounded in the month-long battle. As was the practice at the time, the dead were buried on the island in cemeteries designated for each Marine Division.

The Division chaplain reportedly asked US Navy Reserve Chaplain (Lt) Roland Gittelsohn to speak at the memorial dedicating the Fifth Marine Division cemetery on Iwo Jima. Chaplain Gittelsohn was the first Jewish chaplain to serve US Marines.

There was apparently resistance among the Christian chaplains to a Jewish chaplain presiding over the graves of Christians. Gittelsohn reportedly bowed out, instead delivering a eulogy to a smaller, 70-person Jewish ceremony — a ceremony attended by at least three Christian chaplains incensed by the intolerance of their fellow chaplains.

The chaplain’s eulogy was apparently Read more