The Jews of West Point

I’m a Jewish cadet at the United States Military Academy at West Point. We exist and we’ve been here since the beginning. This is our story.

I’m your average American Jew. My father is an Iranian immigrant and my mother’s family fled the pogroms of Eastern Europe. I had my bar mitzvah, traveled to Israel, was dragged by my parents to synagogue for the High Holy Days and observed the occasional Shabbat. My Yom Kippur fast never lasted more than a few hours and our Passover seders always took too long. 

I always saw myself as an American soldier and wanted to go to West Point. My application was rejected so I went to University of Arizona, where I majored in Arabic and Political Science while doing Army ROTC. Every Shabbat I joined other Jewish students at the Chabad just down the street from my apartment for Rabbi Yossi Winner’s Shabbat extravaganzas. But my heart remained set on West Point. Eventually I was accepted and left Arizona. It took saying goodbye for me appreciate it.

In June, 2022, I drove with my parents to West Point, the real-life Hogwarts I’d call home for four years. I was one of the 1,209 admitted students in the class of 2026 arriving for six weeks of cadet basic training. Despite two years at Arizona, all transfer students start over. 

The next day I met some of my future classmates, but felt strange without knowing why. While talking with my parents, I realized that for the first time in my life I was a Jew out of place. Nobody I’d met was Jewish and some had never even met a Jew. I longed for connection; I needed my people. 

Leave a task to a Jewish mother. Fifteen minutes later my mother called the West Point Jewish chaplain, Cantor (Maj.) David Frommer, and five minutes later, he called me. I didn’t know it at the time, but this exceptional human being would change my life. Chaplain Frommer talked about the Jewish community’s energy and the weekly Shabbat services, Tuesday Torah studies, High Holy Day services, Birthright trips, Passover seders, Hillel club, and Jewish choir. We had everything, even a Jewish chapel which I visited the next day. 

It was beautiful. Engraved on the wall outside were the words of Isaiah 32:17 “For the work of righteousness shall be peace,” a reminder of what we fight for. Chaplain Frommer welcomed me and gave me a tour. He showed me the wall with every known Jewish graduate’s name, the first being Simeon Magruder Levy in the first class of 1802. There is a memorial wall with every Jewish graduate killed in action, a Holocaust Torah, a Medal of Honor wall with every Jewish Medal of Honor recipient, a library, a kosher kitchen, and a spectacular sanctuary. 

The Chapel is the legacy of Jewish grads who wanted the dedicated Jewish prayer space they never had. As cadets, they were forced to attend Christian services every Sunday and were tired of hauling their mobile ark to the fourth-floor chemistry laboratory on Shabbat. They started the West Point Jewish Chapel Fund which raised millions to build the chapel in 1984 and still supports Jewish life at the Academy today. 

On Sunday our cadre called out worship options. When they called Jewish services, five of us stepped forward. Upon arriving at the chapel, we discovered something glorious: food. Chaplain Frommer yelled at us, but it was to make sure we took seconds … A U.S. Army officer and former IDF infantryman, he was our leader. We loved him.

The next Sunday about 15 people came forward. I was surprised we had so many Jews in basic training. The third Sunday 50 people stepped forward, at which point I caught on. The Jewish Chapel was the only religious service serving food. Through that food we built a community that was Jewish but open to all. Many weren’t Jewish, but they loved the welcoming environment, and we loved having them. 

Being Jewish at West Point is wonderful. We’re a small community, 136 of 4,400, but we’re responsible for representing our people. Many cadets never met a Jew before West Point; our job is to introduce ourselves, ensuring all cadets know that as future Army officers, we will have a Jewish soldier who, like all soldiers, is entitled to excellent leadership. 

Simultaneously we have an unspoken duty to dispel notions within the Jewish community that Jews don’t serve. We do and we have since the beginning. Francis Salvador, a Sephardic Jew known as the “Paul Revere of the South,” was the first Jew elected to public office in the Colonies and the first Jew killed in the Revolutionary War. Simeon Magruder Levy, part of West Point’s first class, served in the Indian Wars. Benjamin B. Levy of the New York infantry earned the Medal of Honor in the Civil War. Hungarian-born Tibor “Ted” Rubin, survivor of Mauthausen concentration camp, emigrated to the United States and tried enlisting in the Army to repay his new country. He failed his English test and was barred, but eventually made it and fought in the Korean War. His commander, a ruthless antisemite, sent Rubin on the most dangerous missions but he always survived. Rubin single-handedly defended a hill from North Korean soldiers and spent 30 months in a brutal Chinese prisoner-of-war camp. His commanders rejected his Medal of Honor nomination because Rubin was a Jew, but 55 years later he received the medal from President George W. Bush. Did you know that 550,000 Jews served in the U.S. military in World War II or that Col. David “Mickey” Marcus (class of 1924), a distinguished American paratrooper, volunteered in the 1948 War of Independence, becoming Israel’s first general? He died in that war. Our history is glorious.

One name you’ll never hear is Moses Casper, my great-grandfather. He came from a shtetl in Poland, escaping pogroms. He enlisted in the U.S. Army in World War I, where he was a machine gunner in the 81st Infantry Division. Like Rubin, Moses endured horrible antisemitism in the Army, but he was determined to serve his new country. Moses fought through gas attacks and trench charges and was part of the largest operation in American military history, the Meuse-Argonne Offensive. He once told my grandmother a war story where he saw his two best friends were dead. He always asked: “Why did I survive?” War is hell.

The next time you ask a Jewish servicemember, “What’s a nice Jewish boy or girl like you doing in the military?” just remember … We’ve been fighting for this country since our Revolution, we belong here, and we will continue to serve.

I love being a Jew at West Point. I never expected I’d develop my identity deeper here than anywhere else. We proudly serve the people of the United States, and we have a duty to our community. So, the next time you ask a Jewish servicemember, “What’s a nice Jewish boy or girl like you doing in the military?” just remember … We’ve been fighting for this country since our Revolution, we belong here, and we will continue to serve. Forever. 

Am Yisrael Chai.

The views expressed herein are those of the author and do not reflect the position of the United States Military Academy, the Department of the Army, or the Department of Defense.

Aidan D. Djavadi is a cadet at the U.S. Military Academy at West Point.