TPR: The Public Record "In-Depth, Investigative, Independent"

The parents of a Fort Benning Army soldier who was brutally beaten by other soldiers two months ago in what appeared to be a case of anti-Semitism are upset that criminal charges were not leveled against the individuals responsible for the attack.

Moreover, Randi and Jonathan Handman criticized the director of the southeast chapter of the Anti-Defamation League for entering into secret discussions with Fort Benning officials earlier this month to apparently negotiate closure of the matter without including them or the head of the military watchdog organization that first exposed the attack and had been working closely with the family on a more severe course of action.

The discussions Fort Benning officials had with Bill Nigut, the ADL's southeast regional director, were coincident with one soldier being kicked out of the Army under Article 15 of the Uniform Code of Military Justice and "administratively separated for misconduct."

That solider, whose name was not released by Fort Benning officials, was believed to be the one primarily responsible for the assault on Pvt. Michael Handman Sept. 24, which occurred after Handman was lured into a laundry room by other soldiers.

Weinstein, the founder and president of the Military Religious Freedom Foundation (MRFF), had spent several weeks in late September and early October working very closely with the Handmans pursuing a more severe form of punishment against the soldiers who attacked Pvt. Handman, the drill sergeants who used anti-Semitic slurs against him, and the Jewish Lay Leaders who Weinstein said did not take the case seriously.

"We at the Military Religious Freedom Foundation are thunderstruck that, after our many weeks of assiduously working around the clock to bring the perpetrators of the wretched hate crime to military justice, the ADL would suddenly come waltzing into this travesty of justice against Pvt. Handman and his family, unilaterally "declare victory" and then actually praise the Army for its hideous racist actions," Weinstein said. "Sadly, it seems that in this pathetic matter the acronym 'ADL' now stands ignominiously for 'Apologists Defense League.'"

Weinstein had become involved in the case just days after Jonathan Handman received a telephone call in late September from a Fort Benning official alerting him that his son was hospitalized with a concussion and severe facial bruising.

Handman reached out to Weinstein because he said he did not receive help from other organizations he contacted, including the ADL.

Weinstein said as soon as he got the call "MRFF did what it always does in these ever more frequent, tragic matters of unbridled, military-sponsored Christian religious oppression; we moved at light speed to ensure the victim's immediate safety."

"Next, we demanded that the victim's chain of command comprehensively and fairly investigate and punish those responsible," Weinstein said. "As that would only happen "when hell freezes over", I wanted the Army to understand that MRFF will now use this entire incident in our just-filed Federal litigation against the Department of Defense."

Weinstein's involvement led the U.S. Army's Chief of Staff, General George W. Casey, to make an unprecedented, personal phone call to Fort Benning shortly after Pvt. Handman's beating was reported by The Public Record, and others, to inquire about Pvt. Handman's safety, the Pentagon confirmed.

Then, in an interview with The Public Record about the case, Neil Block, Fort Benning's Jewish Lay Leader, seemed to place blame for the brutal attack and the prior incidents of anti-Semitism on Pvt. Handman for naively believing that wearing a yarmulke would not invite ridicule by his fellow soldiers.

Block also fired off a harshly worded email to Weinstein accusing him of creating a "disaster for us as Jews in and out of the military" due to Weinstein's alleged failure to verify or substantiate the information.

"When he told me that he was going to wear a keepah (the Hebrew word for yarmulke) I said God bless you, but be prepared, there's a consequence to it and you're going to be challenged," said Block, who has been the advocate for Jewish soldiers at Fort Benning for the past eight years. The military uses volunteer Jewish lay leaders due to the shortage of rabbis at the nearly 1,000 Department of Defense military installations around the world.

"He has a drill sergeant who has never seen a keepah in his life and treated him less than mommy and daddy would and made some derogatory comments about his faith," Block said. "This whole thing is an issue of overreaction. Should his drill sergeants have known better? Yeah. But they didn't. I was at a party where people talking about Jewing somebody down. It goes on. Does it make it right? No. But it's basic training. You can't control 100 or so soldiers. I mean everybody uses the "N" word now and then" to refer to African Americans."

In addition, Block suggested that Pvt. Handman used his "minority status" as a Jew to play the "Jew card," in other words, a "victim."

"Any young Jew who uses his minority status to play the system is villainous," Block said. "There's that element that I am being discriminated against."

Outraged that he would trivialize the matter, Weinstein contacted the NAACP to get involved as a result of Block's example about the use of the "N" word. Additionally, Weinstein contacted the rabbi who oversees the Jewish Lay Leaders at military installations.

"It's the New York based Jewish Welfare Board which administratively oversees military Jewish Lay Leaders. But the board ignored our pleas for aid and intervention," Weinstein said.

The board's head rabbi said he was not inclined to replace Block or discipline him other than issuing a verbal reprimand for the way in which he handled the Handman case.

"Block's scurrilous written and verbal attacks on Pvt. Handman, his family and even MRFF clearly provided the substantial basis for MRFF's demand that he and his co-Jewish Lay Leader be immediately removed from their positions at Fort Benning," Weinstein said. "The NAACP joined MRFF in demanding that [Secretary of Defense] Robert Gates expeditiously effectuate this corrective action and that appropriate justice be done to those who committed these crimes. The Army's resultant reaction has been nothing short of a disgusting, if not predictable, travesty."

As Weinstein and his foundation were working on the matter and the incident began to receive media coverage, Nigut, the ADL's southeast director, met with Fort Benning officials as well as the Army's Chief of Chaplains Major General Douglas Carver, Senior Army Rabbi Jacob Goldstein, and Col. Chuck Durr, Fort Benning Chief of Staff.

But Nigut nor anyone else at the ADL invited Weinstein or representatives from MRFF to participate nor did the organization alert the Handmans that they had become involved.

"It seems the Army and the ADL had an eleventh hour, secret, get-together 'star chamber' which specifically excluded MRFF and the Handman family," Weinstein said. "The net result was the ADL thanking the Army for its fine efforts and walking off into the sunset claiming yet another ADL triumph; except there has been no such thing, save a 'triumph' for a disgraceful miscarriage of justice. MRFF and the Handman family were conveniently, deliberately and completely shut out."

Jonathan Handman said he believes the ADL did not contact him "because they knew I would not be happy with the bare minimum that they could do to look good in the press."

Weinstein, meanwhile, said he would continue to work with Pvt. Handman and his parents to ensure "they get the justice they deserve."

"Indeed, Pvt. Handman at this very hour continues to suffer in a Byzantine, Army-directed purgatory of static administrative limbo," Weinstein said. "Thus, we are strongly considering the initiation of federal civil rights litigation to end the Army's unbridled, unconstitutional intolerance. Stay tuned."

TrackBack URI for this entry

Comments (0)

Subscribe to this comment's feed