An unexpected surprise awaits the casual visitor: the Jewish grave of the only officer in the entire cemetery who died fighting under another nation’s flag
Rising above the picturesque Hudson River Valley, immortalized in the stories of Washington Irving, is the United States Military Academy at West Point. Its sprawling campus encompasses the hallowed grounds of the West Point cemetery, historic final resting place for war heroes, decorated officers, academy graduates, and those who fell in the line of duty.
A stroll through the monuments, tombstones, and cenotaphs gives a who’s who of US military history: Lieutenant General Winfield Scott, who led US forces to victory in the Mexican War; Major General Robert Anderson, who commanded Fort Sumter at the outbreak of the Civil War; cavalry officer George Armstrong Custer, killed in the ill-fated battle of Little Bighorn; Lieutenant General James Gavin, “the jumping general” of the legendary 82nd Airborne Division in World War II; the controversial Chief of Staff William Westmoreland, blamed for many setbacks in the Vietnam War; and immensely popular General Norman Schwarzkopf Jr., who commanded US troops during the First Gulf War.
An unexpected surprise awaits the casual visitor, however: the Jewish grave of the only officer in the entire cemetery who died fighting under another nation’s flag. This is the final resting place of David “Mickey” Marcus (1901–1948), who achieved the rank of colonel in the US Army and that of general in the Israel Defense Forces. A child of Eastern European Jewish immigrants, West Point graduate, lawyer, World War II combat veteran, planner of the legal procedures during the Nuremberg Trials, and first general of the nascent IDF, Mickey Marcus lived an adventurous life before tragically falling to friendly fire in Israel’s War of Independence.
Mordechai and Leah Marcus came to the United States from Iasi, Romania, at the end of the 19th century. Settling on Hester Street on the Lower East Side, their son David, known as Mickey, was not observant but grew up with a strong Jewish identity and quickly integrated into American society. Graduating from West Point in 1924, he served for several years on active duty before continuing in the reserves. He then attended law school, and subsequently worked as an attorney in New York, where he prosecuted Mafia bosses such as Lucky Luciano.
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