National Museum of American Jewish Military History

05/24/2026

Leading up to Memorial Day, we remember service members who died in action. Join us in posting a Memorial Day tribute and tag

William Sawelson was born in Newark, New Jersey, in 1890. During World War I, he served with Company M, 312th Infantry Regiment, 78th Division.

In the fall of 1918, American forces were fighting in the Meuse-Argonne Offensive, one of the largest campaigns undertaken by the American Expeditionary Forces in France.

On October 26, 1918, near Grand-Pré, France, Sawelson heard a wounded soldier calling for water from a shell hole exposed to enemy machine-gun fire. He crawled through the fire-swept battlefield and gave the wounded soldier all the water he carried. Realizing more was needed, Sawelson returned to refill his canteen and again crossed the battlefield toward the wounded man.

Before he could reach him, he was struck by enemy fire and killed.

For his courage and selfless devotion to a fellow soldier, William Sawelson was posthumously awarded the Medal of Honor.

05/24/2026

Leading up to Memorial Day, we remember service members who died in action. Join us in posting a Memorial Day tribute and tag

1st Lieutenant Roslyn "Roz" Schulte, U.S. Air Force, was killed in Afghanistan on May 20, 2009, at the age of 25. She died from a roadside bomb near Kabul while traveling to a meeting with Afghan officials to help train their military in intelligence gathering.

A graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy, Roslyn was the first female Air Force Academy graduate to be killed by enemy action in combat. She was posthumously awarded the Bronze Star, Purple Heart, the Air Force Commendation Medal and the National Intelligence Medal for Valor.

05/22/2026

Leading up to Memorial Day, we remember service members who died in action. Join us in posting a Memorial Day tribute and tag

Loveman Noa was a Jewish American naval officer who died in service to his country in 1901, killed in action in the Philippines during the Philippine–American War.

Born in Alabama in 1878, he was a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and served with distinction aboard the USS Mariveles.

Lt. Noa was mortally wounded while leading a landing party against Filipino insurgents on Samar Island. He was just 23 years old. The Navy later honored his sacrifice by naming two ships USS Noa in his memory.

05/21/2026

Leading up to Memorial Day, we remember service members who died in action. Join us in posting a Memorial Day tribute and tag

Meyer Levin was born in 1916 in Rochester, New York, his family later moved to Brooklyn. He graduated from high school and saved up money for aviation school, which he passed near top of his class.

Levin enlisted in the Army Air Corps in 1939. He was soon deployed to the Philippines, where he worked for a ground crew. After Pearl Harbor in December 1941, he became a bombardier with the 19th Operations Group.

As a bombardier, he was credited with scoring the first American bomb hit on a Japanese warship after the attack on Pearl Harbor. He flew aboard a B-17 Flying Fortress and was awarded the Distinguished Flying Cross for his accuracy and heroism in early Pacific missions.

On January 7, 1943, during a rescue mission near Papua New Guinea, his aircraft was forced to ditch. Despite the danger, Levin insisted others bail out first, ensuring the survival of the crew — but he was unable to escape himself and was killed in the crash.

Levin is remembered as one of the most decorated Jewish American aviators of World War II.

05/20/2026

Leading up to Memorial Day, we remember service members who died in action. Join us in posting a Memorial Day tribute and tag

Maurice Rose was born in 1899 to a Jewish family. His father and grandfather were both rabbis—his father at a congregation in Denver, Colorado, and his grandfather in Poland.

Rose was so passionate about joining the military that he lied about his age and joined the Colorado National Guard just after high school. His superiors found out and he was discharged, and he re-enlisted a year later in 1917 to fight in World War I. During WWI, he served as a second lieutenant in the 89th Infantry Division. Rose was wounded in Saint-Mihiel, France, and he left the hospital without authorization to rejoin his unit.

Throughout his time in the Army, Rose listed his religion as Protestant. Although, there is no record he actually converted.

During WWII, Rose served as chief of staff for the 2nd Armored Division in North Africa and received his first Silver Star. As Brigadier General, he led his troops across Sicily and France after D-Day. As commander of the 3rd Armored Division in 1944, Rose was promoted to Major General. He led his unit across France and Belgium and was the first armored unit to enter Germany and breech the Siegfried Line. On March 29, the Division made the longest one-day advance through enemy territory by any Allied division during the war.

Rose died in a German attack in 1945. He was buried in the Netherlands under a Star of David, but the Army later replaced it with a cross due to his records.

05/18/2026

Leading up to Memorial Day, we remember service members who died in action. Join us in posting a Memorial Day tribute and tag

Christopher Celiz was born in 1986 and grew up in Summerville, South Carolina. He was married to Katie Celiz, and had a daughter. Celiz enlisted in the U.S. Army in January 2008 and was deployed to Iraq the same year for Operation Iraqi Freedom.

In 2011 to 2012, he was deployed in support of Operation Enduring Freedom.

As a Sergeant First Class and the leader of a special purpose unit composed of partnered forces and members of the 1st Battalion, 75th Ranger Regiment, he led an operation to clear an area of enemy forces and thereby disrupt future attacks against the government of Afghanistan and allied forces.

Celiz was killed in Afghanistan in 2018.

With his final reposition, Sergeant First Class Celiz placed himself directly between the cockpit and the enemy, ensuring the aircraft was able to depart. As the helicopter lifted off, Celiz was hit by enemy fire.

Fully aware of his own injury but understanding the peril to the aircraft from the intense enemy machine gun fire Celiz motioned to the aircraft to depart rather than remain behind to load him. His selfless actions saved the life of the evacuated partnered force member, and almost certainly prevented further casualties among other members of his team and the aircrew.

Celiz was awarded multiple honors, including the Medal of Honor for his bravery and service.

05/15/2026

Leading up to Memorial Day, we remember service member who died in action. Join us in posting a Memorial Day tribute and tag

Francis Salvador was born in London in 1747 to a prominent Sephardic Jewish family. He worked for the British East India Company and moved to South Carolina in 1773 after his family lost their wealth to an earthquake. Salvador was involved in setting up Jewish communities in the New World. The family owned 20,000 acres of land in South Carolina, which they called “Jew land.”

Salvador was the first Jew elected to office in the American colonies; he served as a delegate for South Carolina’s Provincial Congress. He was then re-elected in 1775 to the state’s First Continental Congress and helped compose South Carolina’s bill of rights and Constitution. He was outspokenly opposed to British rule, and raised money for South Carolina’s militia.

Nicknamed the “Southern Paul Revere,” Salvador rode on horseback to warn the Continental Army of a British attack. In the summer of 1776, Salvador’s troops were led into a Cherokee and Tory ambush, and Salvador was killed.

Salvador was the first recognized Jew to die in the fight for American independence.

05/14/2026

102-year-old May Brill, a WWII veteran from South Jersey, has blazed a trail for generations of women who have served in the military.

05/13/2026

Leading up to Memorial Day, we remember Jewish service members who died in action. Join us in posting a Memorial Day tribute and tag

Frances Slanger was born in 1913 in Poland to Jewish parents. She came with her family to the United States in 1920, and graduated from nursing school in Boston in 1937. Slanger enlisted in the Army Nurse Corps in 1943, and fought to be deployed overseas, where the need for nurses was greater. She was deployed to Europe in 1944. As part of the 45th Field Hospital to aid with casualties from the allied invasion of France, Slanger was one of only four nurses who went ashore at Normandy after D-Day.

Slanger was shot in the field, the only U.S. Army nurse to be killed by enemy action in the European theater. Reports say that even as she lay dying, she was more concerned with the soldiers and other injured nurses receiving medical attention and treatment, as she had accepted her fate. Slanger was initially buried in a military cemetery in France under a Star of David, until 1947 when her remains were returned to the United States, and was reburied in her hometown Roxbury, Massachusetts.

Before Slanger died, she submitted a letter to "Stars and Stripes," which the magazine printed as an editorial. Read the rest at https://nmajmh.org/education/individual-profiles/frances-slanger/

05/12/2026

May is Jewish American Heritage Month (JAHM), proclaimed in 2006 by President George W. Bush in response to resolutions passed by both the House and Senate. We are featuring prominent Jewish historical figures and modern day leaders throughout the month:

Tibor Rubin’s life was a testament to resilience, courage, and the enduring strength of the human spirit. He was liberated from a N**i concentration camp by American soldiers and emigrated to the United States. Driven by gratitude and a sense of duty, Rubin enlisted in the U.S. Army during the Korean War.
While deployed, Corporal Rubin was ordered to hold the front line as his unit retreated. For 24 hours, he single-handedly held the enemy at bay, but was eventually captured. Rubin spent the next 30 months in a POW camp, where he risked death night after night stealing food from enemy supply depots to share with fellow prisoners.
Despite being nominated for the Medal of Honor, antisemitism kept him from being recognized for decades. Thanks to the efforts of Jewish War Veterans and others, Tibor Rubin was finally honored with the medal by President George W. Bush in 2005.
After the war, he settled in California, started a family, joined JWV, and spent thousands of hours helping fellow veterans at the Long Beach VA Hospital. It was renamed the Tibor Rubin VA Medical Center in 2016 — a lasting tribute to a remarkable Jewish-American hero.

05/10/2026

Museum Walk Weekend is coming up!

Visit five cultural institutions in the Dupont Circle and Kalorama neighborhoods during the annual Walk Weekend!