The summer of 1961, the place—the Federal Justice Building in Connecticut, the courtroom for hearings before the Selective Service hearing officer, me.

By refusing to accept the legitimacy of the draft, I received a federal order to appear before a judge who would accept my refusal or punish me with a two-year prison sentence for illegally avoiding the draft.

Months before the FBI my argument questioned my position as a Jewish conscientious objector. Was my Jewish defense adequate to avoid the draft based on my faith?

The judge began the inquisition by challenging my Jewish beliefs. He said, “The Bible is full of stories of warfare.”  Certain that he was ignorant of Judaism, I pointed out that the Levites were exempt from military service, the Mishnah did not glorify war, and exemplary Jewish Rabbis, and philosophers, such as Martin Buber promoted pacifism.

Then he used the seemingly “gotcha” argument. “Would you have joined the war against Hitler?”

This question tried to undermine me either as a Jew who did not care about genocide, or a closet an antiwar Marxist. I defended myself from the first assumption, and remained silent on the second, fully aware it was a trap.

I explained that the strategy and purpose of the Allies was not to save the Jews. The first two years of the war

A portrait of me from my anti-war days

did not attempt to rescue the Jewish population. The military and State Department even sealed or concealed reports on genocide. They refused to destroy the train tracks that conveyed Jews, among others, to their death in the camps. After the war, ex Nazis received government and economic posts in Europe, but there scant Jews in high policy positions. The main support of the survivors was to support them in the exodus to Israel and the establishment of a Jewish state outside Europe.

I did not take the bait of providing a Marxist argument. Namely the war was between two capitalist systems. Victory for either one would not bring either peace or justice to minorities, especially African Americans, Jews, and women. The Soviet’s loss of life of twenty plus million was the major effort and sacrifice against Hitler. American post war policies threatened the safety of the Soviet Union. Rather than forcing Germany to pay adequate reparations to the Soviet Union, Europe supported the revival of Germany with the argument that this was necessary to contain Russia. American Marxists argued that Europe had regularly invaded the country:  Napoleonic, Crimean War, the White Russian uprising, and recently the threats from NATO. Russian socialism with its emphasis on equality, social justice, anti-capitalism, and anti-colonialism provided an alternative to Western hegemony, hypocrisy, and wars against the working class and the western imperialism.

The Hearing officer spent further time pestering me. A month later, I received his decision. The negative FBI report had diluted my appeal. But since I was on Pre-med track in college, he gave me the option to be a non combatant medic.

I refused this compromise. The position was still under military authority.

Consequently, a year later my appeal to the California State Board of Selective Service Appeals decided I was truly a conscientious objector, ordering a two-year commitment to community service.

However, my local board in Los Angeles had the final say. They determined I was unfit to serve in any capacity. They did not want me to take advantage of the conscientious objection status. So, they officially labeled me as a 4-F reject. I was physically, mentally, and morally unfit to serve in the U.S. armed forces.

For the next forty years I threw myself into antiwar movements. I establish friendships with such leaders s as Noam Chomsky, Howard Zinn, antiwar movements such as the Committee of Concerned Asian Scholars, and the American Friends Service Committee.

In Prague in 2019

But in 2014, during Russia’s claim to Crimea, I actively favored political and military policies in favor of Ukraine. I opposed the pacifist and left socialist support for Russia to maintain its occupation of Crimea and southern Ukraine.

During my trip to the Czech Republic in 2019, I demonstrated in Prague for solidarity against Russian threats to Ukraine.

If I were 20 years old today, I would find a way to support the Ukrainians. I would even enlist to become a medic!

Doing My Civic Duty

I’ve been called for jury service four or five times over the years,  and once was even appointed forelady and tasked with announcing the jury’s verdict to the judge.

One case I remember was about an accused shoplifter charged with taking clothing into a department store dressing room,  removing all the price tags,  and attempting to flee the store with the stolen goods.

The judge instructed us that jurors may not visit the crime scene and therefore Bloomingdales would be off limits for the duration of the trial.

That’s when I realized that doing one’s civic duty can demand real sacrifice!

RetroFlash / 100 Words

– Dana Susan Lehrman

When I started blogging, I named my blog “Still Advocating” — and indeed I am.
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The Pavilion 

In March 2020 on the cusp of the Covid outbreak my husband was scheduled for surgery,  but the prospect of him spending even a few days in a large New York hospital was worrisome.  Luckily his doctor discharged him one day post-op,  I took him home,  and the next day we left Manhattan and drove to rural Connecticut to what had been – until then – our weekend house.

Thus we began our Covid quarantine as full-time country folks,  and in fact we didn’t return to the city for over a year.  During that time,  other than our son we had no visitors,  had all our groceries delivered,  baked lots of banana bread,  and learned to live in lock-down.  (See Sheltering in Place and The Summer of My Discontent)

Our house is in a resort community where we have a circle of friends,  mostly weekenders like ourselves.   But during those early months of 2020 as New York rapidly became a Covid epicenter,  many of them  – like us –  came up to sit out the pandemic away from the city.

Each night on the TV news,  with office buildings nearly empty,  and shops and restaurants and Broadway theaters shuttered,  we watched the city that never sleeps gradually become a ghost town.   And even our country community seemed deserted as we all stayed indoors, venturing out only occasionally to the local markets and shops,  while on the roads only a few intrepid souls could be seen out driving or biking or jogging.

And locked down with only my spouse for company led to some martial strife,  and I realized how much I craved the companionship of other women.

I was certainly not alone in those feelings,  and one day a friend called and asked me to join her and other women in the pavilion where summer parties and outdoor concerts were usually held.  “Bring a folding chair and we’ll sit six feet apart and talk.”

And so the pavilion became a safe place to share our pandemic fears and our feelings of isolation,  and of course to talk about so much more.  We met weekly,  and sometimes only six or seven of us were there, and sometimes more than a dozen women showed up.  We began to bring bag lunches and often stayed together for most of the afternoon.

And there in the pavilion old friendships were strengthened and new ones forged,  and during that first spring and summer we all looked forward to those gatherings.  In the fall we continued to meet as long as the weather permitted,  and then over the winter we Zoomed,  and in the spring we returned to the pavilion.

But as time passed and with the advent of vaccines our Covid concerns lessened.  After that second pandemic summer many of us moved back to the city,  we resumed our old routines and responsibilities,  and we came to accept the new normal of post-pandemic life.  And altho our bonds remained strong,  we eventually stopped meeting as a group.

But those gatherings in the pavilion had been an antidote to our isolation,  an affirmation of our sisterhood,  and a lifeline when we needed it most.

– Dana Susan Lehrman