David Goldberg Dead at 91

Funeral services will be held tomorrow for Rabbi David Goldberg, the first Jewish chaplain in the U.S. Navy, who died Tuesday at the age of 91. Born in Russia, he came to the U.S. at the age of 22 and settled in Texas. Rabbi Henry Cohen, who had gained national recognition for his relief work in the Galveston Flood of 1900, persuaded the young Goldberg to choose the rabbinate as his career. After his ordination, he became rabbi of Temple Beth El in Corsicana, Texas.

The Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy of JWB accredited Goldberg as a chaplain to serve military and naval personnel. On Oct. 30, 1917, he was commissioned and served as the first Jewish chaplain in the United States Navy and the only one in World War I. After spending a month at the Washington Navy Yard for his indoctrination, Goldberg was assigned to the USS Grant. In June, 1918, he was transferred to the Great Lakes Naval Training Station in Illinois where he served until November 21, 1919.

Goldberg requested permission from the Bureau of Navigation to substitute the Shield of David, the insignia then worn by Army Chaplains of the Jewish faith, for the Latin Cross which was the insignia of the Chaplains Corps. The request was denied by the Bureau which invited Goldberg to submit other suggestions.

Since the shepherd’s crook was the first insignia of the United States Army Chaplaincy, Goldberg said that he would accept the shepherd’s crook as it was a universal symbol. He added that if this were impractical, perhaps the two tablets of the Ten Commandments would be acceptable. Goldberg entered the United States Naval Reserve in 1925 and kept his commission until March, 1941, when he was honorably retired in the rank of Lieutenant Commander.