Thousands of Jewish military personnel on duty at U.S. missile rocket, jet and aircraft warning stations in this country will join their fellow Jews at military posts round the globe in the celebration of Chanukah which begins Saturday evening. The world-wide Chanukah programs will be conducted by Jewish chaplains and USO-JWB field men under the auspices of the National Jewish Welfare Board–sponsor of global “Operation Chanukah.” Programs will take place at more than 600 military posts and veterans hospitals in the U.S., and in 65 overseas lands.
Chanukah candle lighting services, latke parties, dreidel spins and children’s programs will be the rule in the U.S. and overseas. Adding zest to the many programs to be held in army posts, synagogues and USO clubs, will be the gifts furnished by Serve-A committees of JWB’s Women’s Organizations’ Division. Some of these gifts, for example, will be distributed at a Chanukah party in Nuremberg, Germany, at a special candle lighting service for GI children, when the youngsters will be hosts to 20 German children from the city of Furth. JWB gifts will also find their way to lonely stations in Germany, where U.S. GI’s are on patrol along the Communist East Zone border.
The story of Chanukah will be told at Vandenberg Missile Base, Cal., Huntsville Missile Arsenal, Ala., the Army Chemical Center, Baltimore–which houses the Nike Hercules Missile base–and at the Aberdeen Proving Ground, Baltimore, where scientists are at work on the Bomarc missile and the new moon rockets. Chaplains will read the services at the aircraft warning sites in Kure Beach, Winston-Salem, and Roanoke Rapids. N.C.
Cadets at the U.S. Air Force Academy in Colorado Springs will celebrate at a party to be held at the school. On the West Coast, Chanukah will come to such lonely desert places as Camp Pendleton, largest Marine base in the U.S., Twenty Nine Palms Marine Base, Camp Irwin, and George and Edwards Air Force Bases, thanks to the efforts of the Los Angeles JWB Committee.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
