RESOLUTION
WHEREAS, The Jewish War Veterans of America (JWV) will celebrate their 125th Anniversary, on March 15, 2021: and
WHEREAS, The Chicago City Council has been informed of this occasion by Alderman Thomas Tunney ofthe 44th Ward, Alderwoman Michele Smith ofthe 43rd Ward and Alderwoman Debra Silverstein ofthe 50th Ward: and
WHEREAS, the Jewish War Veterans, the oldest continuously active veterans' service organization in the United States, was founded in New York in 1896 by a group of 63 Civil War veterans after a series of anti-Semitic comments about the lack of Jewish service in the War. Since then, Jewish War Veterans of America has been working hard to be the voice of American Jewry in the veteran community: and
WHEREAS, In World War I, JWV was essential to establishing the Jewish chaplaincy within the military and fought successfully to include other grave markers in veterans' cemeteries, such as the Star of David: and
WHEREAS, Jewish War Veterans campaigned hard to have religious and racial protections added into the 1944 GI Bill, which allowed Jewish and other minority soldiers to use their GI benefits to lift themselves out of poverty: and
WHEREAS, During the Cold War, JWV fought the Ku Klux Klan and the John Birch Society. They fought hard for the rights of Jewish American soldiers during McCarthyism, when Jewish American troops were being accused or dismissed because of their Eastern European upbringing. JWV organized and established the National Museum of American Jewish Military History in Washington, DC in 1958 and helped organize the counter-demonstration to a neo-Nazi march in Skokie, Illinois in 1979: and
WHEREAS, Jewish War Veterans Post 710 was established in Chicago and its members have contributed to many civic activities locally at Veteran Administration Hospitals, in high schools through JROTC programs and have served their communities in various capacities: and
WHEREAS, Chicago has contributed four National Commanders to Jewish War Veterans of America: General Julius Klein, Herman Moses, David Hymes, and the current national commander, Jeffery Sacks: and
WHEREAS, Today, we honor Jewish military who have participated in every American conflict since the Revolution to protect Freedom and Democracy: now, therefore
BE IT RESOLVED, that we, the Mayor and members of the City Council of the City of Chicago, assembled this 27th day of January, 2021, do hereby honor the service and accomplishments of the Jewish War Veterans of America and extend our heartfelt thanks and congratulations on their 125th anniversary; and
BE IT FURTHER RESOLVED, that a suitable copy of this resolution be presented to the Jewish War Veterans Chicago Post 710 Commander, Dr. Jerry Field, as a symbol of our esteem and gratitude.