As the United States marks Jewish American Heritage Month and approaches its 250th anniversary, the country is preparing to reflect on its founding ideals: equality, service, and freedom. But reflection requires more than celebration. It requires accuracy. And in some cases, the historical record of those who served is still wrong and should be corrected.
At a moment when debates over how America remembers its past have become increasingly politicized, correcting the record is not about rewriting history. It is about getting it right.
For more than a century, some American soldiers who died in World War I and World War II have been buried under the wrong religious markers. Jewish servicemen, in certain cases, were laid to rest beneath Latin crosses, their identities lost to clerical error, battlefield confusion, or incomplete records. Jewish American Heritage Month is meant to recognize the contributions of Jewish Americans to the country, and that recognition must include ensuring that those who served are remembered accurately.
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That is not just a historical oversight. It is a responsibility.
Operation Benjamin, a nonprofit organization led by historian Shalom Lamm, is working to correct those errors. Through archival research, coordination with U.S. authorities, and outreach to families, the organization is identifying Jewish American soldiers buried under incorrect headstones and restoring their proper identity with Star of David markers.
In the upcoming mission to France, one of the cases involves an American soldier killed in the final battle of World War I in the Meuse Argonne Offensive, whose identity is only now being fully restored more than a century later.
One of the challenges, Lamm explains, is that World War I itself has become difficult for modern audiences to grasp fully.
“This is not because there is too little written about it. Quite the opposite,” Lamm has said. “Entire libraries have been devoted to the war by some of the finest historians of the last century. And yet, despite all of that scholarship, the war can still feel distant, abstract, and almost incomprehensible to the modern mind.”
Unlike World War II, which is often framed in clearer moral terms, the First World War left behind something far more ambiguous: grief, exhaustion, and a sense that an entire civilization had lost its bearings.
“The First World War was not merely tragic. It was civilizationally traumatic,” Lamm said. “Millions of men disappeared into mud, artillery fire, disease, and mass industrialized killing on a scale humanity had never before experienced. Entire generations were altered or simply erased.”
That scale of loss is difficult to grasp even today. But the numbers tell part of the story.
About 4.7 million Americans served in World War I, with more than 116,000 killed and over 200,000 wounded in less than two years of combat. Many were buried quickly in newly established cemeteries across France, often far from next of kin.
In the Meuse-Argonne Offensive alone, more than 26,000 Americans were killed and over 95,000 wounded, making it the deadliest battle in U.S. military history. Today, more than 100,000 American war dead remain interred in U.S. military cemeteries overseas, maintained in perpetuity.
More than a century later, reviews of burial records continue to uncover discrepancies tied to wartime recordkeeping and battlefield conditions.
That is why accuracy matters.
When a soldier is buried incorrectly, the mistake is not symbolic. It alters the story of who that person was and what they believed. It severs a connection between identity and sacrifice.
Operation Benjamin’s work does more than correct headstones. It restores truth and ensures that the story of American sacrifice is told in full.
“History is not just something we study, it is something we are entrusted to preserve,” Lamm said. “When we have the ability to correct the record, we have an obligation to do so, not as an act of politics, but as an act of respect for those who served.”
As the country prepares to mark a milestone anniversary, that effort carries broader meaning.
“As we approach America’s 250th anniversary, efforts like this remind us that patriotism isn’t just about honoring the past; it’s about getting the past right,” said CNN contributor Scott Jennings. “Correcting these records ensures that the story we pass on to the next generation is one grounded in truth, dignity, and the full measure of sacrifice made by those who served.”
Patriotism is often framed as celebration. But real patriotism is also accountability. It requires correcting what was wrong and ensuring that the historical record reflects reality.
At cemeteries such as Meuse-Argonne, where thousands of Americans are buried, the scale of sacrifice is overwhelming. Row after row of headstones stretch across quiet, manicured grounds.
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Each corrected grave is a reminder that history is not static. It is something we are responsible for maintaining.
As the U.S. approaches its 250th anniversary, the question is not just how the country remembers its past, but whether it is willing to correct it. Because honoring the fallen is not only about remembrance. It is about truth and the responsibility to uphold it.
Ariella Noveck is a journalist specializing in antisemitism and Middle East affairs, with extensive experience covering Jewish communities worldwide.