Project M.O.T. Prepares to Send Passover Packages to Deployed Troops

Reprinted from the blog at www.OperationSupportJewsintheMilitary.com:

Project M.O.T. has announced the packing date for Passover packages this year is March 4th. All donations must be received by February 26th.

If you are not in Los Angeles where Project M.O.T. is based, you can still send donations to be included in the packages (or funds to help with expenses).

Some of the items wanted (and these items must fit into boxes that are 8.5″ x 11″):

Small puzzle and game books

Small packages of Passover candies, cookies, gum and treats

Kipot

Matzah covers

(Haggadot are NOT needed.)

Email projectmot@aol.com if you would like to participate on March 4th and/or send donations.

Reminder: Donations must be received by February 27th to be placed in the assembly line on prep day.

Visit www.projectMOT.org to learn more.

P.S. This year the first seder is Friday evening, April 6th. Read the Passover chapter from the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION now.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the eBook technothriller LT. COMMANDER MOLLIE SANDERS. Phyllis is the co-founder of the marketing consulting company Miller Mosaic LLC, which works with clients to attract more business. Read her posts at the company's social media marketing blog.

Taking My Show on the Road: Films That Support Our Troops

Even though I have plenty to do 24/7 with the Internet marketing business I run with co-founder Yael K. Miller, I can't wait any longer sitting at my computer and trying to connect with a corporate sponsor for my site www.FilmsThatSupportOurTroops.com in order to get wider distribution for the compelling documentaries and feature films on this site.

My 2010 New Year's resolution is to take my cause on the road, hoping to attract nationwide attention for this project. Read my "pitch" in the sidebars here at MrsLieutenant.blogpsot.com and at FilmsThatSupportOurTroops.com and OperationSupportJewsintheMilitary.com. If you can help, contact me at pzmiller@millermosaicllc.com
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of the novel MRS. LIEUTENANT and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. Her newest project is www.FilmsThatSupportOurTroops.com.

Phyllis' company MillerMosaicLLC.com does power marketing that combines traditional marketing principles and Internet marketing strategies to put power in your hands.

THE YANKEE AT THE SEDER: What Difference Does the Color of a Coat Make?

THE YANKEE AT THE SEDER is a new children's picture book that I reviewed for OperationSupportJewsintheMilitary.com. The book is written by Elka Weber and illustrated by Adam Gustavson.

What makes this book particularly interesting is that it is based on a true story of a Union soldier sharing the seder with a Confederate family right after General Lee surrendered to General Grant on April 9, 1965.

At the seder that begins the week-long holiday of Pesach (Passover) we recount the story of the Israelites escaping slavery in Egypt. Since the Civil War was fought in part over the issue of slavery, how amazing it must have been for this Union soldier to celebrate Pesach with a Confederate family!

In the book the 10-year-old son says:

"Mother," I whispered. "Mother, how could you let a Yankee into our house?"

"Jacob, every year we begin the seder the same way. We say, 'All who are hungry, let them come and eat; all who are in need, let them join us for the Passover meal.' A hungry man needing a seder has come to our home. Would you send him away for wearing a blue coat?"

I hope those of you reading this blog post will think of our military personnel in harm's way and contribute to one or more military-support organizations. If you don't have a favorite one of your own, see some organizations at MrsLieutenant.com.

At the end of THE YANKEE AT THE SEDER there's a section "The Real Story." According to Weber: "During the war, six thousand to nine thousand Jews fought for the North and about two thousand Jews fought for the South. Nearly one-third of all adult Jewish men in America fought in the Civil War."

You can read my review of THE YANKEE AT THE SEDER.

P.S. If you want to know more about the holiday of Pesach (this year the first seder is the evening of April 8th), read this Pesach chapter from the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION that I co-wrote with Rabbi Karen L. Fox.
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Phyllis Zimbler Miller is the author of MRS. LIEUTENANT: A SHARON GOLD NOVEL and the co-author of the Jewish holiday book SEASONS FOR CELEBRATION. She also blogs at PZ the Do-Gooder Scrooge and Operation Support Jews in the Military, and she is the co-host of the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. Her company Miller Mosaic LLC builds call-to-action websites for book authors and small businesses.

High School Students Want to Study with Jews in Uniform

I was so touched by the email that I got from high school student Shira Telushkin about wanting to participate with Jews in uniform for the Jewish holiday of Shavuot that I published Shira's email on the blog at OperationSupportJewsintheMilitary.com.

It's worth taking the time to read Shira's guest post to see what high school students can offer to do if motivated to support military personnel.

In my Feb. 15th Mrs. Lieutenant blog post Proposal to Add U.S. Military Unit to Elementary School Curriculum I proposed the following:

Teaching about the U.S. military and its branches today be part of 5th or 6th grade required curriculum throughout the U.S. -- just as learning U.S. history is a required school subject at some point in a student's school career.

Imagine if this proposal had been in effect when Shira Telushkin was in 5th or 6th grade so that she wouldn't have to write now "none of us has ever had serious exposure to the U.S. Army."

What would it take for my proposal to get serious consideration in the halls of national educational policy?

England’s Ministry of Defense to Appoint First Full-Time Jewish Chaplain

(Jewish Chronicle photo of British Colonel Martin Newman)

This past weekend I spoke at a conference about my project Operation Support Jews in the Military. And I met two young men from London who shared with me a February 12th newspaper article from the U.K.’s The Jewish Chronicle – “Wanted: a chaplain for the armed forces” by Marcus Dysch.

The Ministry of Defence [MoD] is to appoint its first full-time Jewish chaplain to the armed forces.

He will be expected to advise on religious issues, organise services for Jewish personnel and arrange kosher rations.

Jewish servicemen and women are the last to receive a dedicated chaplain, with Christian, Muslim, Buddhist and Sikh padres already employed by the MoD.

Jonathan Woodhouse, MoD deputy chaplain-general, said the appointment was “essential”.

The number of Jewish personnel in the armed forces is thought to be in the low hundreds, but includes troops now serving in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Martin Newman, of the Jewish Committee for HM [Her Majesty's] Forces, believes the number of troops is “small but significant”, and growing.

Now as an American Jew, here’s the part of the article that I found most interesting, and this also perhaps explains why the U.K. already had Buddhist and Sikh chaplains and no Jewish chaplain.

“Because the [forces] community has become more active in recent years, people are coming out of the woodwork and changing their records to show they are Jewish,” he [Newman} said.

“If someone in the forces says they are Jewish then we need to be in a position to give them the best possible support we can.”

Lynette Nusbacher, senior lecturer in war studies at the Royal Military Academy, Sandhurst, said: “For a very long time service personnel hid the fact they were Jewish. They are a bit less likely to do that now the MoD’s commitment to diversity has been demonstrated.

“For many years members of the services would take leave for Rosh Hashanah or Yom Kippur and go back to their family. So rather than be affiliated with a Jewish community in the armed forces, they were affiliated with their family synagogue.”

But with personnel now regularly serving in operational theatres of war around the world, Dr. Nusbacher said, demands had changed.

“It has become much more intense, so ordinary members of the forces need more assistance. We need chaplains who can go to those theatres, make sure kosher rations are available and do whatever is necessary. The idea that there has not been a full-time chaplain is pathetic.”

Here in the U.S., American Jews believe that there is more anti-Semitism in England than in the U.S. Thus I shouldn’t have been surprised to learn that, until recently, Jewish military personnel in the U.K. hid their religious affiliation.

And in connection with this U.K. newspaper article, I’d like to share with you a February 6-12th article I just received from my parents in the mail – “Rabbi Abraham on the occasion of his 200th birthday, a look at Lincoln and the Jews” by Pauline Dubkin Yearwood in the Chicago Jewish News. Here’s the section circled by my parents:

When the Civil War broke out in 1861, Congress passed legislation allowing the Union to raise a voluntary army. The same bill allowed for the provision of military chaplains, who by law could only be bona fide Christian ministers.

But with many Jews serving in the army, a delegation of Jewish soldiers' families soon appealed to Lincoln to allow rabbis to serve as chaplains to provide appropriate religious services for Jewish soldiers.

"The debate about the chaplains went on for months," [historian Gary] Zola says. "The issue distressed American Jewry greatly. They had people in service; they were appalled." Eventually, the law was changed and rabbis were allowed to serve as chaplains.

Two different English-speaking countries. Two different responses. And today there’s a shortage of Jewish chaplains in the U.S. military, which is the impetus for my new site www.OperationSupportJewsintheMilitary.com.

Check out this site now, and you can read the entire Jewish Chronicle article and the entire Chicago Jewish News article.

U.S. Merchant Marines Bring the Bread, Butter and Bullets to Servicemen and Women

On January 27th the Merchant Marine Academy was mentioned on the BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life that I co-host, and I have to admit I hadn’t known that the U.S. had a Merchant Marine Academy or even what the U.S. merchant marine does. And then two days later I unexpectedly got an email from Joseph Schwartzstein, Captain, U.S. Merchant Marine, LTJG, USNR/MMR, thanks to my new project Operation Support Jews in the Military.

I immediately asked Captain Schwartzstein to write for this blog about the history of the merchant marines, what responsibilities the service has today, and his own personal experiences. The first part of his response is below.

The picture above is of Captain Schwartzstein using a sextant. The U.S. Merchant Marine Academy still teaches celestial navigation as this navigation system is used on merchant ships for daily work at sea.

I always get asked "So you're in the Marines?" Which I reply actually it's the Merchant Marines, I'm a merchant mariner, the next response is "What is a merchant mariner?"

Which is always kind of funny to me because the U.S. is a maritime nation and 90% of all cargo travels by ship. But not many people know what the Merchant Marine is or what I as a mariner do.

Oh, and I'm Jewish, which usually gets "Jews don't do that!" In fact, on a recent trip to Israel during the High Holidays, I was sitting in shul (synagogue) next to an Israeli and he asked me what I did for a living. I told him I was a chief mate (first officer) aboard an oil tanker. He looked at me and said "I think you are the only one in the world," which struck me as odd to even hear in Israel where everyone wears a uniform.

So what is the merchant marine, and how did a "nice" Jewish boy end up being a merchant marine and graduating from the U.S. Merchant Marine Academy, (Yes, there is an academy and five state maritime schools, just like West Point, Annapolis, the Air Force Academy, and the Coast Guard Academy.)

Civilian licensed officers and crew

The merchant mariners are the civilian licensed and/or documented officers and crew aboard commercial and military vessels. These vessels can range from tankers, car carriers, containerships, cable layers, survey vessels, tugs, ferries and anything else on the water! We bring the bread, butter and bullets to our servicemen and women all over the world in addition to the gas you put in your car, the car you drive or anything that might be in your house that comes from anywhere but where you live.

We have served in every war. In fact America's first naval officers were merchant mariners! That's right. Commodore John Barry and the famous Captain John Paul Jones (who is buried at the Naval Academy) all started as merchant mariners. In fact, during WWII, the merchant marine had the highest casualty rate out of any other service. The rate was 1:26 as compared to the next closest one, the Marines, which was 1:34.

What is licensed or documented? All mariners have to be licensed (officers) and documented (crew) by the U.S. Coast Guard. In order to sail on ships you have to meet certain educational and training requirements set by the U.S. Coast Guard. Once you meet these standards you are given a series of exams.

You "sit" for the exams, and once passed are given your "Merchant Mariners Document" or Z-Card, which is your unlicensed rating, such as able seaman, QMED (qualified member of the engine department), oilier, fireman, wiper, ordinary seamen, or food handler to name a few. If you are an officer you "sit" for your officer's license exam, and each time you want to move up you have to take another exam.

I have to mention that most people either go deck or engine, i.e. you either sail as a third mate to work your way to captain or you sail third engineer to work your way to chief engineer. (If you are wondering, I was one of the weird guys at the Merchant Marine Academy and went dual, meaning I got both my third mate's and third engineer's licenses. Not many do it because it's hard.)

What is the Merchant Marine Academy?

The next question is what is the Merchant Marine Academy and where is it? Is it in New London? No, that's the Coast Guard Academy, our rival. The Merchant Marine Academy – "America's best kept secret" – is located in Kings Point, NY. (West Egg for all you "Great Gatsby" fans.) It is a four-year federally funded education just like our sister service academies.

We do have a service obligation too. You have to obtain a congressional appointment to attend just like West Point or Annapolis. You have to pass a navy physical because at graduation you get a commission as an ensign in the reserves.

However, you can go active duty in any branch of service. When you graduate from the Merchant Marine Academy you either have to go into the merchant marine and also take a commission as an officer in the reserves or go active duty in any branch of the service. I have classmates serving in the army, navy (as pilots, submariners and surface warfare officers), air force (a classmate is a bomber pilot), or Coast Guard (a classmate is a helicopter pilot).

I always tell people that, if you want to go navy flight, don't waste your time at the Naval Academy, go to Kings Point. My first class year the school had so many flight and NFO (naval flight officer, the men or women who sit in the back like "Goose" from the movie “Top Gun”) slots that announcements were made for anyone who wanted to go flight to report to naval science.

Stay tuned for the second half of this guest post from Joseph Schwartzstein, Captain, U.S. Merchant Marine, LTJG, USNR/MMR.

Operation Support Jews in the Military: Raising Awareness, Not Money

In September 1970, before the most important Jewish holidays of Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur, my husband, 2LT Mitchell R. Miller, and I arrived at our permanent duty station of Munich, Germany. Although we were uncomfortable as American Jews to be living in a country that only 25 years before had murdered six million Jews and millions of others, we were happy to have this respite to live in Europe before Mitch would get orders for Vietnam.

When we arrived in Munich, we were warmly welcomed by the Orthodox Jewish chaplain, his wife and children. Even today, as I re-read the letters I sent home, I realize how important the chaplain and his family were to our adjustment at our duty station. And when the chaplain and his family were rotated back to the States, my husband became lay leader of the tiny military Jewish community in Munich as the replacement Jewish chaplain was assigned to Augsburg.

My husband finished serving his ROTC commitment in May 1972, and it wasn't until April 2008 that my novel MRS. LIEUTENANT -- based on my husband's nine weeks at Armor Officers Basic at Ft. Knox, Kentucky -- was published. And at that same time I started this blog.

My immersion since this April in the world of the U.S. military has been significant, including becoming the co-host of the new BlogTalkRadio show Your Military Life. So it's not surprising, having learned that there's a shortage of Jewish military chaplains, that in September this year, as Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur approached, I thought about the Jews on scattered military bases through the world who would have no Jewish chaplains to lead services.

Since then I have been trying to connect with people interested in helping with this problem of the shortage of Jewish military chaplains. Then on December 31st I had an epiphany -- I wouldn't wait any longer for others to take action. I would take action myself.

And thus was born the website Operation Support Jews in the Military. My younger daughter Yael built the website, as the company in which she and I partner builds websites for clients. And now I've set off to ask people to spread the word about this site.

I hope you'll share this blog post or the website address with those who you think would be willing to help. And do visit Operation Support Jews in the Military to learn how the American Jewish community can support Jews in the U.S. military.

P.S. For those of you who enjoy small world stories: Mitch's and my exposure to the Orthodox Jewish chaplain and his wife led us to become observant Conservative Jews on our return to the States. And at the ceremony where our daughter Yael graduated an Orthodox high school in Los Angeles, I was seated directly behind the chaplain's sister, whose daughter was in the same graduating high school class. I would not have been sitting there if it were not for that Jewish army chaplain. Such strange paths our lives take.