Memorial Day Commemoration at the Sandler Family Campus.
A community Memorial Day Weekend observance in appreciation of those who paid the ultimate sacrifice for America’s freedom, took place on the morning of Thursday, May 25 in front of the Jewish War Veterans Flagpole on the Sandler Family Campus. The event was hosted by the Board of Rabbis and Cantors of Hampton Roads and the Jewish War Veterans (Post 158).
Local Navy Jewish Chaplains, Rabbi Yoni Warren, BCC, Lieutenant Commander, U.S. Navy Chaplain Corps and Rabbi Aaron Kleinman, CDR, CHC, USN, planned the event, with Rabbi Warren serving as emcee.
The packed program included welcoming remarks from Vice Admiral Herm Shelanski, USN (Ret.) and Betty Ann Levin, executive vice president/CEO, United Jewish Federation of Tidewater. Area rabbis participated by reading poems and prayers, and area cantors led attendees in song and prayer.
The keynote speaker, Rabbi Mitchell Schranz, CDR, CHC, USN-Ret., delivered an emotional and inspiring talk about Memorial Day – his early recollections of the holiday as a young boy in the Bronx, N.Y., where Veterans solemnly marched in parades – as well as the true desires of Gold Star Families and of Veterans – not to be treated as political props, but to make certain the United States is a good nation filled with good people. Rabbi Schranz also spoke of his personal dreams for a peaceful nation and world, so that those who have given their lives for their country have not died in vain.
Rabbi Warren closed the event with noting the importance of the military to Tidewater and that both he and Rabbi Kleinman grew up in the area.
-Terri Denison