For Dan Berkovitz, it’s not easy to talk about his time as a Marine.
Like many who have served in combat, the things he saw continue to stick with him decades later, no matter how badly he wants to forget.
When he talks about his time in Iraq in the early 2000s, he chooses not to delve into details. He said he tends to “keep private” about “particular things” but did sum it all up with one important conclusion: “I’m alive, and I could likely not be.”
Berkovitz, who lives in Greenspring in northwest Baltimore, entered the Marine Corps a few weeks before the 9/11 terror attacks in 2001. Quickly, his job became intense every day. He served in the Marines from 2001 to 2005 and saw two tours in Iraq. He survived combat and mortar fire raining down on his base in Fallujah.
Those four years had an immeasurable impact on his life. When Berkovitz returned to civilian life in the United States, he took advantage of his military benefits and attended college.
“That was very difficult for me,” he said. “I was in a combat environment, high operational tempo, and then I went out to the civilian sector. School took me a lot longer, and I had difficulty concentrating, and there were other issues as well.”
Now, Berkovitz’s main focus is his family and his work with the Jewish War Veterans of the U.S.A. With that group, Berkovitz can connect with people who are like him: not just in the sense that they served, or in the sense that they are Jewish, but also because they served as Jews.
“For some veterans, it’s really difficult to get along with other people. Sometimes they can just get along on a surface level,” he said. “Veterans are generally able to connect with each other because of shared experiences, and a lot of veterans see each other as family. It’s a very strong bond.”
Antisemitism exists in the United States military. Berkovitz said that what he experienced was relatively benign — mostly just the same type of teasing endured by any other minority in the service. People also made fun of Latino, Asian and African American soldiers. That’s just how it works, he said.
However, he has heard stories from other Jewish vets that are much worse. Some men, he said, have described beatings administered by fellow soldiers once those soldiers found out about a given man’s Jewish heritage.
Berkovitz has gone through periods of intense religiosity, as well as periods of living more secularly. In the Marines, he said he practiced his religion, just like lots of other Jewish, Christian and Muslim soldiers.
“There’s no atheists in a foxhole,” Betkovitz said.
He added that observing the Sabbath in boot camp was tough because the allotted time to do so was always on Sunday, which works for Christians, but not Jews.
However, he said, there was one time that showed him that the higher-ups were considerate of their individual soldiers’ needs. It was the fall, around the High Holidays, although Berkovitz doesn’t remember the exact date. He said that there is a “cloud of information” in boot camp that is designed to keep the soldiers uninformed so they can focus on the task at hand. Outside noise is screened out.
“I was called to the front of the quarterdeck, then I was told to meet someone outside, and I met a chaplain. The chaplain took me off base to a place where we broke the [Yom Kippur] fast,” he said. “I was not expecting that. And that was one small thing [that meant a lot].”
Berkovitz was raised attending Chabad, and that’s where he went when he chose to dive back into Judaism. Now, he attends Chabad in Baltimore. He said he came back to his roots because he likes the Chabad tenet of not judging what Judaism looks like for different people. While Judaism takes many forms, for Berkovitz, it is all-encompassing. His children are Jewish, and as a descendant of the Levite tribe, he has taken it upon himself to carry on the rich tradition of those before him.
“Choosing to practice is a matter of faith, and it’s something that I chose,” he said.
Looking back on his time in the military isn’t easy, but Berkovitz is thankful that it helped bring him closer to God. He said he saw some horrid things on his two tours in Iraq, things that have led him to appreciate how simple life can be as a civilian.
“You thank God that you’re able to get through those situations and that they were what they were, and not worse,” he said.
