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“What Memorial Day Means to Me”

“What Memorial Day Means to Me”
Jewish students put pen to paper

This year, three Hartford-area schools participated in an annual contest sponsored by the Jewish War Veterans of America, Hartford-Laurel Post #45, in which students are asked to write an essay describing “What Memorial Day Means to Me.” Each school – Temple Sinai religious school in Newington, the Bess & Paul Sigel Hebrew Academy in Bloomfield, and Solomon Schechter Day School (SSDS) in West Hartford – chooses its own winning essays. All participants receive a certificate. First prize is a $100 U.S. Savings Bond; second- and third-place winners receive a $50 bond. Several members from the JWV post come to the classroom in uniform to hear the kids read their essays and to speak about their wartime experiences and answer students’ questions.
As the Ledger went to press, the Hebrew Academy and SSDS had not yet chosen the winning essays from their respective schools. Temple Sinai had.
The following is the first-place essay from Noah Drazen, a West Hartford resident and a student at Temple Sinai religious school. Noah is the son of Lauren and Brad Drazen.


First Place Essay
“What Memorial Day Means to Me” By Noah Drazen

By Noah Drazen

I interviewed my grandfather. His name is Robert Dwartz, but I call him Poppy. In 1968, my grandfather enlisted in the Air Force as a captain during the Vietnam War. He had the choice of either enlisting as an officer or being drafted to be a private. There are many privileges of being an officer, so my grandfather (Poppy) enlisted.
Poppy remembers waiting to see where he was stationed. Biloxi, Miss. was considered the worst place to be stationed in the United States. It was a surgery center and all of the people in the military who had lost limbs or gotten parts of their bodies blown up went to Biloxi for reconstructive surgery. It was a very depressing place. Unfortunately, that is where Poppy was stationed.
Poppy and my grandmother, Lois (I call her Mimi), had just gotten married. Their honeymoon was driving down to Texas for Poppy’s basic training. From Texas, they went to the Air Force base in Biloxi. Poppy found out that the fact that the Biloxi base was a surgery center was not the only reason why it was a bad place to be stationed. The other reason is that there was a lot of prejudice against Jews in the South. Because of this, Judaism did impact his military experience.
He had many experiences in the army. My grandfather told me, “Lois and I only had one car so I went to buy a motorcycle. We walked into the dealership. The person saw that I was in the Air Force because I was in my uniform. He looked at my name tag and said, ‘Dwartz…Dwartz… that’s a Jew name. Take off your hat so I can see your horns.'” Poppy explained that a lot of people in the South thought Jewish people had horns like the devil. My grandparents left the dealership and told the Air Force about what happened. The Air Force banned all the people on the Air Force base from doing business with the motorcycle dealership and the dealership probably went out of business.
Another experience my grandfather told me about was during Hurricane Camille. When my grandparents had to go into the bunker for safety, they were not allowed to take their dog. Poppy went back to their house and set up a series of steps for their dog so that if there was flooding, the dog could get up high away from the water.
After the hurricane, they went back to their house and their dog was fine. But the hurricane had caused a lot of other problems, including rats. Poppy had never used a gun other than in training, but after the hurricane, the Air Force issued 45’s to all of the officers in order to go out and kill rats! Poppy told me that the rats in Biloxi were as big as cats and were the cause of the Bubonic Plague. He said it was really weird shooting a gun. He didn’t like it.
Poppy did not like his experiences in the Air Force. His first medical report said, “Dr. Dwartz (my grandfather is a dentist) has severe difficulty in adjusting to military life.” Although he didn’t really like the military, Poppy told me that for many people who cannot get jobs, the military helps a lot. They can go to school, get training, have food and shelter and many other things. For my grandfather, he already had a career so he did not need the military’s help.
Interviewing my grandfather really opened my eyes to how much Jews went through and, sadly, still go through now. This Memorial Day is now much more important to me and will always be important.


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