US/World News

Naval Academy student buried with military honors

NEW YORK (JTA) – A Jewish 20-year-old sophomore at the U.S. Naval Academy who was killed in the Amtrak train derailment in Philadelphia was given full military honors at his funeral, which was attended by 160 Navy midshipmen. The funeral for Justin Zemser of Rockaway, Queens, who aspired to be a Navy SEAL, was held at the Boulevard-Riverside-Hewlett chapel on Long Island Friday morning, May 15. Zemser’s commanding officer, Capt. Brady Soublet called the sophomore a “phenomenal young man” at the ceremony, which featured a bugler and a naval burial detail, the Baltimore Sun reported. The Naval Academy’s Jewish chaplain, Lt. Yonatan Warren, served as burial rabbi.

Zemser was vice president of the Naval Academy’s Jewish Midshipmen Club and a wide receiver on the school’s sprint football team. He was a popular student who was lauded as mature and intelligent by friends, family and Naval Academy colleagues, NBC New York reported, and was en route to his home in Queens on Tuesday night. “He was the captain. He was the kid. He was basically like the face of Rockaway,” said Frank Kalnberg, Zemser’s friend and football teammate at Beach Channel High School in Rockaway Park, Queens for three years.

The funeral for Jewish 39-year-old Rachel Jacobs, a start-up CEO who was also killed in the crash, was Monday, May 18 in her hometown of Southfield, Michigan, a Detroit suburb. A memorial service for Jacobs, who lived in Manhattan with her husband and young son, was held Saturday, May 16 at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Manhattan.

SHARE
RELATED POSTS
White House national security team to visit Israel
Boston-based Ruderman Foundation launches ‘American Jewish Studies’ program in Haifa
Hamas blames Israel after operative killed in Gaza tunnel collapse               

Leave Your Reply