Five Jewish service members recently had their headstones altered, and they may be just the beginning.
The American Battle Monuments Commission (ABMC) has partnered with the nonprofit Operation Benjamin to provide funding for the partnership to identify, research and correct burial mistakes for such service members.
It comes on the heels of changes made at families’ requests to fix the headstones of five Jewish veterans after they were incorrectly buried at Meuse-Argonne American Cemetery in France under Latin crosses. The new headstones feature Stars of David.
“Each headstone at our sites represents a father, a sister, an individual whose hopes and dreams were cut short,” Robert Dalessandro, ABMC’s acting secretary, said in a statement shared with Military.com. “Learning more about their stories and ensuring they are at rest in accordance with their religious traditions remains an important part of our mission even all these years later.
It helps us bring a deeper meaning to the sacrifices lying beneath each of those headstones.
On June 2, the ABMC in coordination with Operation Benjamin and in the presence of U.S. Ambassador to France, Charles Kushner, changed five headstones.
The changes, conducted at the request of the service members’ families who along with Operation Benjamin presented required research to ABMC to warrant the revision, affected the headstones of the following service members: Pvt. Samuel Tamkin, Pfc. Barney Bardman, Pvt. Samuel A. Backer, Pvt. Hyman Aronoff, and Pfc. Maurice W. Akabas.
ABMC spokesperson Anna Morelock told Military.com that Latin crosses and Stars of David are the only headstones in their cemeteries based on original designs.
“The Latin cross was meant to be a universal symbol for all other faiths,” Morelock said. “Families also had the option after each war to repatriate their service member’s remains.”
In July 2025, ABMC replaced three headstones at its two cemeteries in Italy.
‘Sacred Work’
The exact number of service members mistakenly buried under Latin crosses is unknown, though both groups believe there are hundreds of headstones that apply.
The burial errors, which may date as far back as a century to the aftermath of World War I, are attributed to missing service members’ religious records. Or, “in many cases,” Jewish service members identified themselves as Protestant for fear of retribution or persecution if they were captured due to their faith and belief systems.
On Thursday, Military.com broke a story about how the U.S. Department of Defense drastically reduced its recognized list of faiths and beliefs by 180—from 211 to 31—as part of an internal memo disseminated among the ranks in May but not publicly released. Judaism was one of the 31 to maintain recognition.
“The American Battle Monuments Commission understands that memory is not symbolic work; it is sacred work,” Operation Benjamin chief historian and co-founder Shalom Lamm said in a statement shared with Military.com.
ABMC and Operation Benjamin are ensuring that Jewish American service members who gave their lives for our country are remembered truthfully and honored beneath the symbol of faith that shaped their lives.
Operation Benjamin and ABMC have partnered since 2018. The first service member to have his headstone changed, at Normandy American Cemetery, was Pvt. Benjamin Garadetsky—the namesake of the nonprofit.
ABMC, enacted March 4, 1923, operates and maintains 26 cemeteries and 31 memorials and monuments in 17 countries. The three memorials in the United States are the Honolulu Memorial located within the National Memorial Cemetery of the Pacific in Honolulu; the West Coast Memorial located within the Presidio National Park in San Francisco; and the East Coast Memorial located within The Battery in New York City.
Operation Benjamin identifies and corrects burial errors of Jewish American service members buried under Latin crosses.
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