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Lenny Kravitz’s Hero Uncle and Other Lesser Known American Heroes

Khalid Elhassan August 18, 2020 35 min

American Revolutionary War - United States — The British surrender at Yorktown. Library of Congress

34. “They Don’t Give Jews the Medal of Honor“

For his heroism on March 6-7, 1951, PFC Leonard M. Kravitz was posthumously awarded a Distinguished Service Cross, the nation’s second-highest award for valor. Mitch Libman, who served in Korea a few years after the death of his her friend, was convinced that Kravitz deserved the nation’s highest award, the Medal of Honor.

Libman reached that conclusion after reading other Medal of Honor citations that described conduct similar to Kravitz’s. One Medal of Honor citation for a machinegunner in Korea described heroics identical to those for which Kravitz was awarded a DSC. Comparing the citations, Libman figured out why Kravitz did not get a Medal of Honor: he was a Jew. As he put it: “I came to the conclusion that they don’t give Jews the Medal of Honor“.

Written by

Khalid Elhassan

A lifelong history buff, I developed a particular passion for WW2 history as a child, when I spent hours listening to my grandfather, enraptured, as he recounted his wartime experiences in the British East African Campaign and with the British 8th Army in North Africa.

I graduated with a history BA from George Mason University, then went on to get a JD from the University of Virginia School of Law. After lawyering for a decade, I moved to sunny Rio de Janeiro and a less demanding career, opening a tourism agency in Copacabana.

A big chunk of my free time is spent blogging (you can follow me on Quora https://www.quora.com/profile/Khalid-Elhassan ) or freelance writing, mostly about my favorite subject, history.