‘The next generation isn’t coming along…No one else is stepping up.’

By Marshall Weiss, The Dayton Jewish Observer

At Jewish War Veterans Dayton Post 587’s brunch on May 17, Commander Alex Pearl announced the executive board had decided to disband the post. The gathering marked its final program.

“The next generation isn’t coming along,” Pearl explained to The Observer. “And those of us veterans are aging.”

The Jewish War Veterans, founded in 1896, is the oldest continuing veteran service organization in the United States. Dayton’s JWV post was established April 11, 1948. Dayton Mayor Edward Breen attended the ceremony. Its first commander was J.L. Cunix. At the time, Dayton’s Jewish Federation documented that more than 400 Jewish Daytonians had served in World War II.

Pearl said approximately 20 JWV members were on the post’s roster in May.

The post’s executive board began thinking about disbanding in January, he said.

“We reached out to all the members, telling them what we were thinking and asking them to contribute their time, come forward, be the next generation. But the individuals weren’t able to, for whatever reason. We didn’t get the response we would have liked. And so, that’s what brought it on. We cannot continue physically and mentally.”

Pearl, who soon turns 80, was the post’s third commander in three years.

When Commander Steve Markman presided over the post’s 75th anniversary brunch in 2023, organizers made a point to honor their few remaining World War II veterans.

The four World War II Jewish veterans who attended — twin brothers Al and Lou Levin, Dr. Mort Levine, and Holocaust survivor Bob Kahn — have since died, as have Markman and his successor as post commander, Neil Kahn. Other post members who attended the celebration have since died.

“We’re not the only veteran organization that’s hurting. Go to the VFW — they’re all hurting,” said post executive board member Gina Kahn, Neil Kahn’s wife. “Because there are so many other things that people are getting involved in.”

The Kahns met and married when they were in the Air Force.

“He was going here to Wright-Patt, and they were going to send me to LA, so I got out and came here,” she said. “They had the Voluntary Separation Incentive, so they paid me to get out so I could come with him.”

Kahn said she and her husband started attending JWV’s brunches when they were held at the Dayton Marriott. When it was his time to serve as post commander, he was proud to do so.

“But due to health issues, he turned it over to Alex,” she said. “He really looked forward to the brunches and to being with other people who were Jewish. It meant a lot to him.”

Kahn noted that Dayton’s JWV post had absorbed Cincinnati’s into its membership about a decade ago.

Pearl said the post has reached out “on a number of occasions and in a variety of ways” to active-duty military.

“We’ve had some contact with the base, and it just hasn’t been fruitful for us.”

“Certainly, there are Jewish active-duty across all the branches,” said executive board member Leslie Buerki. “How they assemble, my assumption is, if somebody wants to (Jewishly) connect, they’ll go to the respective synagogues that give them comfort.”

Buerki had several assignments on active duty at Wright-Patt. When she retired, she settled here.

“I sought out the post and began attending, becoming more active, enjoying the brunches and the speakers,” she said.

“We got to hear everyone’s very interesting life journey. Serving in the military, you meet so many people, and you keep that curiosity to want to know people. It adds to our life experience, just hearing the stories.”

Pearl said he became involved with JWV in his later years for the socializing.

“I was drafted back in the ’60s, and I did not stay in,” he said. It was Markman who got Pearl involved.

“He asked me to help out: ‘Hey, come along and meet some other veterans and solders.’ And I did. There were a number of projects at the VA, and one of them was bingo. My wife, Jane, and I were among the cadre.

“As a group, up until Covid, we did a lot of things. We had scholarships, we visited at bedsides at the VA. We did get back to the VA this December. We visited with veterans.”

Dayton’s JWV members have welcomed and presented new U.S. citizens with copies of the Bill of Rights at naturalization ceremonies and have served as volunteers and docents at the National Museum of the U.S. Air Force and Prejudice & Memory: A Holocaust Exhibit on display there.

One long-standing tradition — leading volunteers to place U.S. flags at the graves of veterans in the Dayton area’s Jewish cemeteries for Memorial Day — will now fall on each congregation to organize.

Pearl said he even got himself a bugle, found a music teacher, and learned to play taps for the cemetery flag placements.

“A number of years ago, when I retired, before Covid, I wanted to learn. It’s exceedingly moving when it’s done well.”

In the absence of a local JWV post, individual Jewish veterans will continue to volunteer as they are able, Buerki said.

Pearl added that he and the executive board of the now defunct post want to find a way for future generations to know about 587’s legacy of service to the community.

“Our plans right now are still being formulated to be able to leave some artifacts displayed,” he said. “We’d like to leave some sort of legacy that Jewish War Veterans, for nearly 80 years, were an active participant in Jewish life here in Dayton, Ohio.”

Editor’s note: It’s been an honor to cover JWV Post 587’s service to area veterans and the community over the years. Even without a local post, it’s possible to have a JWV membership: as a member-at-large on the national level, or via JWV’s national Online Post 77. For information, go to jwv.org/membership or onlinepost77.jwv.org.

To read the complete August 2026 Dayton Jewish Observer, click here.