LETTER
OPINION
The Jews of Easy Company hooked...He had been a clothing salesBy Jim Nathanson man and knew nothing of the out-ofEd Shames died Dec. 3. He was 99 doors. He was ungainly, uncoordinated, years old, the last surviving officer in no way athletic. Every man in the of Easy Company, the World War II combat unit (E Company, 2nd Battalion, company was in better physical condition. His mannerisms were ‘funny,’ he 506th Regiment, 101st Airborne Divi‘talked different.’ He exuded arrogance. sion) made famous by Stephen AmBehind his back, men cursed him, ‘f… brose’s 1992 book Band of Brothers and ing Jew’ being the most common epithe 2001 HBO miniseries of the same thet.” name. He was criticized most for his harsh Shames jumped behind enemy lines training methods. But what goes unwith the 101st on D-Day, receiving the noticed by Ambrose is that Sobel truly regiment’s first battlefield commission led the men throughout their training. a week later. His company commander If they went on a brutal hike without also recommended him for the army’s Distinguished Service Cross for bravery sleep, Sobel led them. If they were forced to run with full packs up and under fire. down the infamous Mt. Currahee loHe fought in all of the 101st major cated near their primary training base, engagements, including a second comSobel led them. Only well after the war bat jump during the ill-fated Market did some of the men acknowledge that Garden campaign where he served as a Sobel had made Easy Company. They frontline intelligence officer, making at least one foray behind enemy lines in ci- were the tough, well-trained outfit they were largely because of Capt. Herbert vilian clothing, before taking command Sobel. of Easy Company’s 3rd Platoon in The fact that they hated him is no October 1944. Shames volunteered for surprise; he was uncomOperation Pegasus, a darPaul Morigi/Getty Images promisingly tough on ing mission that rescued them and, yes, probably 138 allied soldiers trapped more than a bit of a jerk. behind enemy lines, and Soldiers almost always was part of the defense hate their drill instructors. of Bastogne during the That they were antisebitter monthlong Battle mitic in their attacks on of the Bulge. Shames was him is also not surprising; with Easy Company when after all, most were rural it took Hitler’s fabled or small-town gentiles. mountain retreat, Eagle’s Sobel could well have Nest, and he was one of been the first Jew most the first members of the of them had ever known. 101st to enter Dachau One can forgive the men shortly after it was liberEd Shames, the last surviving of Easy Company for how ated. At war’s end, his they reacted to Sobel. combat record earned him officer and oldest surviving member of Easy Company What one needs to ask is a bronze star. Based on his performance as an intel- why Ambrose, in writing Easy’s story, didn’t make those connections. ligence officer and a combat leader, he After all, Sobel had earned his parawas recruited by one of our nation’s troop wings just as they had. While he intelligence services, where he worked lost command of Easy Company, he did for the next 30 years. jump with the 101st in the early mornEd Shames was Jewish — a practicing Jew. According to his obituary in the ing hours of June 6 and fought in many of the same battles as did Easy CompaNorfolk Virginian-Pilot, “He served cognac he had liberated from Eagle’s Nest ny, earning, like Shames, a bronze star in the process. After the war he entered at his son’s Bar Mitzvah. The bottle was the reserves, was called up during the labeled ‘for the Führer’s use only!’” Korean conflict, and retired with the However, one would never realize rank of lieutenant colonel. Shames was Jewish by reading AmAmbrose even casts a horrible tragbrose’s book. He is referenced a number of times but his religious affiliation goes edy in Sobel’s life in the worst possible light. In 1970, he tried to kill himself unnoted. with a pistol shot to his head. Ambrose This omission becomes significant writes he “bungled” his own suicide. only because of the way Ambrose treats The bullet entered his temple, severed other Easy Company Jews. both optic nerves and exited through The villain of the story, the most the opposite side of his head. Somehow, hated officer in Easy Company, was a he survived. An unsuccessful attempt, Jew, Capt. Herbert Sobel, the man who led Easy Company throughout its state- yes, but a “bungled” attempt — well, that leaves a whole different impresside training. sion. Here is how Ambrose describes him: The only other Jew noted by Am“(He was) fairly tall, slim in build... brose was a private named Joseph His eyes were slits, his nose large and
So, what do you think?
Liebgott. A good soldier, he was said to be one of the funniest guys in Easy, except when it came to financial matters. Sound familiar? And, as reported by Ambrose, Liebgott was one of the very few Jews in Easy Company — no mention of Ed Shames. Actually, unknown to Ambrose, Liebgott wasn’t even Jewish. He was a Catholic though his mother may have been Jewish. Ambrose may have also erred in his description of Sobel’s physical abilities. He writes that Sobel could barely complete 30 pushups with “arms trembling,” yet his son reports that his dad regularly did 50 or more pushups every evening with little or no effort. Ambrose also claims, as quoted above, that Sobel was in no way athletic, yet his son points out he was on his high school’s swim team where he did quite well . While Ambrose’s writing is blind to its antisemitic elements, I think there is a broader issue at play here. In many ways, how Ambrose and the men of Easy Company thought of Sobel simply fits the stereotype of the weak Jew that so many, Jews included, cling to even today. He was “unathletic,” “physically weak,” and “uncoordinated,” In a phrase, not fit to be a combat officer. Ed Shames, fitting less the stereotype, his Jewishness goes unnoticed. Over the last few years, I’ve given talks at Beth Abraham Synagogue that focused on Jewish physicality. The first, Mobsters and Athletes, discussed an unbelievable outburst of Jewish physicality on both sides of the law during the first half of the 20th century, especially in the years between the two world wars. The emergence, if you will, of tough Jews. The second talk tried to explain why Jewish physicality comes as such a surprise to both Jew and non-Jew alike. I traced it back to the earliest years of rabbinic Judaism and the reaction of the rabbis to the horrific losses suffered in the Bar Kokhba revolt of 132-136 C.E. Fearing that further armed resistance to outside rule could lead to the destruction of the Jewish people, they set out quite deliberately to “defang” what it meant to be Jewish — a process accelerated by the emergence of rabid antisemitism in Europe and the Arab world in the centuries that followed. The consequence of early rabbinic intention and antisemitism was a Judaism that was inward looking and rejected much of the secular world and a Jewish culture that valued learning over physicality. This view is succinctly summed up in the advice Rabbi Yitchak Rasofsky of Chicago gave his son, Beryl Rasofsky in the early 1920s: Jews do not resort to violence, he said, “let the (goyim) be the fighters…we are the scholars.” Beryl Rasofsky, by the way, didn’t listen to his father’s advice. Also known Continued on Page 17
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THE DAYTON JEWISH OBSERVER • FEBRUARY 2022
Nonviolent resistance
In Texas, hostages were taken inside a synagogue. The following Monday was Martin Luther King Jr. Day. I studied literature in college and currently I study law, perhaps because I have never believed in coincidences. Only important details. The Rev. Martin Luther King’s children Bernice King and Martin Luther King III have called to halt the formal celebration of their father’s namesake holiday until voting rights legislation is passed. We are living in a pivotal moment. When I say we, I do mean we literally, unlike the preamble’s opening, “We the People.” The men spilling that ink were also drinking warm beer in the high heat of summer and trying to start a nation. Many of them also owned slaves. Rev. King’s message of nonviolent resistance was clear when he wrote from a Birmingham jail cell in 1963. This letter to the clergymen of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference discussed unsolved bombings of Alabama churches with Black congregants and the methodology and spiritual significance of nonviolent protest. King’s fellow clergymen in the Southern Christian Leadership Conference criticized his decision to conduct nonviolent protests in Birmingham — a risk that landed him in jail. Rev. King replied, “I am in Birmingham because injustice is here.” The brutality Rev. King protested in Birmingham happened in the streets, it happened in court houses, in voting booths, and in shops displaying signs designed to humiliate and intimidate. He combatted this vitriol with self purification, resilience, and careful identification of systemic oppression and its widespread impact on his community. He wrote, “there is a type of constructive, nonviolent tension which is necessary for growth.” Rev. King was a Baptist minister and president of the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. His message of nonviolence and justice knows no creed. As Jews, we are renegades and wanderers through the desert. Some call this juxtaposition cognitive dissonance. Others call it faith. Our story of Exodus and oppression is not singular. Our joy, together, is an act of nonviolent resistance. I know where the corners of my field are. The fruit there belongs to the wanderer and the stranger. — Claire Gaglione, Cincinnati
Views expressed by columnists, in readers’ letters, and in opinion pieces do not necessarily reflect the opinion of staff or layleaders of The Dayton Jewish Observer or the Jewish Federation of Greater Dayton.
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