After the October 7th attack on Israel, the USS Gerald R. Ford Carrier Strike Group was dispatched to the Mediterranean to support Israel as a deterrence maneuver against hostile forces. This strategic convoy included a sacred religious item highlighting a unique connection between the US and Israel sailing proudly aboard the Ford.
Back in 2014, a $36,000 Torah scroll was donated by the Kamaras family as part of a “Torah for our Troops” campaign. They commissioned this Torah to honor the legacy and 50th yahrzeit of patriarch and military veteran Jacob Kamaras. Kamaras passed away on October 6th, 1964, a day that became the anniversary of the Yom Kippur War, and was buried on October 7th, ironically, the day that later marked the beginning of the current Israel-Hamas War.
Jacob Kamaras was born in 1908 in Providence, Rhode Island, the second of four children. He learned how to sew from his father, a tailor with Greek-Jewish ancestry. He dropped out of high school to start working, selling newspapers and magazines in front of the Industrial National Bank.
At the outset of World War II, Kamaras was working a blue-collar job when he received his draft notice at age 34. This came as a surprise because 35 was the age limit for the draft. Nevertheless, Kamaras served proudly in the Army Air Corps through World War II, using his tailoring skills to work on the paratroopers’ equipment in the lead-up to D-Day.
After the war, Kamaras and his wife, Dora, had two children, Deborah and Philip. Although Jacob tragically passed away from a heart attack at age 56 when his children were still very young, they remember their father as a hardworking American man who owned and ran a haberdashery. “He was a good, average man, an average Joe, an average GI Joe,” his daughter Deborah Markowitz says of her father. “A good, honest American-Jewish person.” Their mother kept the family together and went back to work a week after her husband passed away.
For 50 years, they honored their father’s memory whenever they could, but wanted to find another way to create a lasting legacy.
As Philip Kamaras explained, “When our family dedicated and donated this Torah in 2014, we were hopeful it would serve with my father’s neshama [soul] looking down. To have this mighty carrier arrive in the Mediterranean looking out over our homeland, Israel, is a powerful and humbling honor. Never would I have expected this when we filled in the final letters a decade ago, with the last word, Israel (which is Jacob), being filled in by his grandson, also Jacob.”
The donated Torah, which took a year to write and was obtained through the Jewish Welfare Board (JWB), is one-third the size of a regular Torah scroll and weighs about eight pounds. It is smaller than those in most synagogues, and as such, is designed for smooth handling aboard aircraft carriers, ensuring that active-duty Jewish Sailors and Marines aboard the ship have a portable Torah wherever they go.
“We are very honored to accept this unique and special donation,” said Cmdr. Steven Barstow, Ford’s command chaplain. “We will cherish this Torah as an entire command, protect it, and use it to deepen the faith journeys of our Sailors for generations to come.”
At the dedication ceremony, Vice Adm. Herman Shelanski, then the US Navy’s Inspector General and himself formerly a captain of an aircraft carrier, was a guest speaker at the dedication ceremony.
“It’s a place for Jews to come and to open the Ark, to find that light, that spark, even for thirty minutes every week,” Shelanski said. “There’s an intensity there, a need, and a beauty that this brings to the people that are here on this ship.”
Shelanski also said that Sailors need those moments of spirituality to remind them there is something bigger and greater for them. The Torah is a symbol of that and how they tie that day’s efforts into what they’re doing in their life.
“The Torah is the cornerstone religious text in the Jewish religion, and having it onboard is a huge statement of support for religious diversity and spirituality,” said Lt. Matthew Golub, assigned to the Ford’s nuclear reactor department. “It provides a physical connection of my Jewish life to the proud tradition of Jews in the Navy and in America.”
The Kamaras Torah will stay in the ship’s chapel and be used by about 1% of the ship’s personnel, roughly 30 to 40 Jewish service members that serve aboard the carrier for six- to eight-month stretches. At the moment, there is no Jewish chaplain but there are trained lay leaders who read from it.
Kamaras’ legacy lives on in this Torah, giving other service members strength and inspiration during their tours of duty.
USS Ford’s Sefer Torah
To all of you who have been involved with Jewish observance on the USS Gerald Ford, many, many heartfelt thanks.
When our family dedicated and donated this Torah in 2014, we were hopeful it would serve with my father’s neshama looking down. To have this mighty carrier arrive in the Mediterranean looking out over our homeland, Israel, is a powerful and humbling honor. Never would I have expected this when we filled in the final letters a decade ago, with the last word, Israel (which is Jacob), being filled in by his grandson, also Jacob.
In 2014 it was 50 years since Dad’s passing, a veteran sergeant who served in the Army Air Corp in World War II. The Torah was a fitting tribute, selected by grandson who was a journalist and wrote about the program. We were able to have a beautiful dedication with a color guard at the Jewish Heritage Museum in New York City and another ceremony, on the Ford in Norfolk, well attended by many jewish veterans who resided locally. They wanted to witness the event. A full tour followed.
Ironically, Dad died on October 6, the date of the Yom Kippur War and buried on October 7, the day of the current conflict.
With much gratitude and appreciation,
Philip Kamaras
Originally published in the Shavous/Three Weeks 2024 issue of The Jewish American Warrior.
