Leonard Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act

Sometimes the world, the country profoundly shocks me.  Above shows President George W. Bush giving the US Medal of Honor to Tibor Rubin, who just passed away.  The obit in the paper said that there had been an over 50 year delay in awarding the medal because Rubin was Jewish.

What?

Why would there be a huge delay in honoring a war hero?  Because he was Jewish?

I never heard of such a thing.

Tibor Rubin (born in Hunary) was sent to the Mauthhausen concentration camp when he was 14 years old.  The rest of his family perished but he was liberated by the Americans.  He came to the US and immediately joined the army.  He insisted on being sent to Korea stating "I can't leave my fellow brothers."  Despite antisemitism in his unit, he served with great bravery, protecting others at grave danger to himself.  He was captured and ended up in a POW camp. He continued to serve others, using his own experiences in an enemy camp to his advantage often obtaining food for his fellow prisoners.

He was recommended for a high military honor but never received.one.

Turns out that hardly any Jews received the highest military honor.  It took the Leonard Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act passed by Congress in 2002 directing that Jewish (and Hispanic) veterans files be reviewed for possible medals.  As you might imagine, it took a lot of persistent work by many people. to get this passed.

In 2005, Tibor Rubin was awared the Medal of Honor.

I had no idea that this was a problem!  That it even existed.