Remembering Capt. Benjamin Sklaver
October 8, 2009
Lifecycle | Social Action
(7 comments)
 Rabbi Harold L. Robinson, Rear Admiral CHC USN Ret, is the Director of JWB Jewish Chaplains Council.
The world, and specifically the community of Reform Judaism, lost a very special neshama with the death by enemy action in Afghanistan of Captain Benjamin Sklaver, US Army, 32, of Hamden, Conn.
Ben was a product of Mishkan Israel of Hamden, Vice President of NFTY-NE in 1994-95 and was a graduate of both Tufts and the Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts.
While employed at the Centers for Disease Control, he joined the Army Reserve in 2003 as a civil affairs expert and deployed to the Horn of Africa where he was touched by the high rates of child mortality linked to dirty drinking water. After his demobilization and return to civilian life, Ben founded ClearWater Initiative, an organization based in New Haven that sought to provide potable water in underdeveloped Ugandan villages. In northern Uganda, Ben was known as "Moses Ben." According to its Web site, ClearWater Initiative has constructed wells for more than 6,500 people since 2007.
Ben moved back to New England to be near his fiancée but was again
mobilized even though his Army Reserve commitment was nearly complete.
He was still on active duty since the "stop loss" rules do not allow
for release of a solder during a period of mobilization.
As a NFTY friend of my son (now our colleague) Yair and
daughter Dori, Ben had been a guest in our home. He was kind, humble,
tall, blonde, athletic, clever and a committed Jew. He was an immense
credit to his family, our movement, our people and our country a very
special and gutina neshama.
Yihi zecher tsadeek Livracha. Moadeem lisimcha.
Photo from the Connecticut Jewish Ledger.
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Our prayers go out to the family of Capt. Sklaver, a man who lived and died in the finest tradition of American Jews. People like that make the world a better place.