By Tamara Vaughn
ATLANTIC OCEAN (Press Release) — Sailors aboard the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75) had the rare opportunity to celebrate the Shavuot holiday while at sea in the ship’s chapel, May 29.
Shavuot translates into “Feast of Weeks,” which is an ancient Jewish harvest festival that celebrates the giving of the Torah at Mount Sinai seven weeks after the people of Israel’s exodus from Egypt.
“The holiday commemorates the day upon which the Ten Commandments were given to the Jewish people beneath Mount Sinai over 3,000 years ago,” said Aviation Electronics Mate 2nd Class Michael Eskenazi, from San Diego, Truman’s Jewish lay leader. “It occurs precisely seven weeks and a day after the beginning of Passover.”
The service, sponsored by Truman’s Command Religious Ministries Department was open to the entire crew, as the holiday provides an opportunity to build a community around religion and culture.
“Everyone in CRMD has been so supportive with time and effort,” said Eskenazi. “I know that the resilience of many Sailors onboard has been bolstered by our regular weekly service. We also remember to have faith during the difficult times of deployment. The Ten Commandments are about trusting God, being compassionate and kind to neighbors, and practicing self-control.”
Sailors continued the tradition started by their ancestors despite being far from their families. The service included prayer, meditation, hymns, kosher cheese cake and a rare opportunity to read from a Torah that is more than 300 years old dating back to 1703.
“One half of my family is Jewish, and I am trying to rebuild my connection with them,” said Lt. Kristina Goldstein, from Weatherford, Texas, a ceremony participant. “This was monumental to me because I have not read or participated any type of service that involved a Torah for a very long time. It brought back a lot of childhood memories, and it was enlightening that I can still have a connection with the religion.”
Torah, which means “law” or “instruction” in Hebrew, also refers to the first five books of both the Jewish and Christian Bible, known as the Five Books of Moses.
The Torah was loaned to the carrier from the Project Judaica Foundation in honor of 33rd President Harry S. Truman’s decision to recognize the newly formed state of Israel May 14, 1948. The Torah aboard Truman is one of the last recovered from the Lithuanian Holocaust and is expected to remain onboard for the next 28 years.
“This is symbolic of what these commandments and the holiday means to all Jewish people along with myself,” said Culinary Specialist 2nd Class Corey Bernstein, from Strousburg, Pennsylvania, a ceremony participant. “Reading this was honestly the best part of my deployment. It’s truly something special to have this here onboard. The guidance from working with Eskenazi this deployment brought back the joy of my religion into my life.”
Additionally, the process of making a Torah requires a lot of care and attention to detail.
“Torah scrolls are written by hand using the same materials and procedures as those written thousands of years ago,” said Eskenazi. “Scientific, archaeological and religious scholars have compared the Dead Sea Scrolls from two thousand years ago to today’s Torah scrolls and find them to be letter-perfect copies.”
Many pieces of Sailors’ daily lives on an aircraft carrier are out of the ordinary, uncertain or high stress. One way to propagate a sense of normalcy is to carry on traditions and observe religious rituals as part of their busy weekly routine.
“It is a taste of home and a reminder of why we do our work here,” said Eskenazi. “We connect spiritually with our families back home, and we remember why we volunteered to defend them.”
The Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group (HSTCSG) remains at sea in the Atlantic as a certified carrier strike group force ready for tasking in order to protect the crew from the risks posed by COVID-19, following their successful deployment to the U.S. 5th and 6th Fleet areas of operation. Keeping HSTCSG at sea in U.S. 2nd Fleet, in the sustainment phase of OFRP, allows the ship to maintain a high level of readiness during the global COVID-19 pandemic
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Tamara Vaughn is a Mass Communication Specialist 2nd Class aboard the USS Harry S. Truman (CVN 75).