2 weeks Ago By Alison Bath
Sailors with the Norfolk-based Harry S. Truman Carrier Strike Group are celebrating an ancient story of liberation this week as they battle Iran-backed Houthi militants intent on throttling freedom of navigation in the Red Sea. On Saturday, about 25 Truman sailors gathered to celebrate Passover with a Seder.
The traditional meal highlights the seven- to eight-day celebration, which recalls a Red Sea crossing thousands of years ago. The strike group , which comprises the aircraft carrier USS Harry S. Truman, the cruiser USS Gettysburg and destroyers USS Stout, USS Jason Dunham and USS The Sullivans, has been on duty in the Middle East since December.
For more than a month, Truman has conducted daily flight operations as part of a U.S. campaign to destroy Houthi military facilities and capabilities with the goal of undercutting the group’s ability to attack military and commercial ships in the vital waterway.
Retelling the Passover story offers Jewish sailors the comforts of home while they are away from friends and family, said Lt. Cmdr. Yonatan Warren, a rabbi assigned to Truman.
He’ll conduct four more seders over the week on other strike group ships. The sailors — Jewish and non-Jewish — who attend the observances will take away their own interpretations of Passover’s message, but the commemoration also reinforces their call to serve, he said. “We’re still out here engaged because we believe that freedom is a valuable and holy institution that should be expressed,” Warren said.
The overall message “has always meant that we were going to have to work hard to build a society that values freedom,” he added. Celebration of another feast with religious origins is slated for the end of this week, with Easter services planned aboard the ships. Warren estimates there are as many as 50 Jewish sailors across the strike group, but the Seders are open to all service members.
Participants dine on matzo ball soup, kosher Meals, Ready to Eat of beef goulash or chicken, and Warren’s own recipe of haroseth, or charoset, a fruit-and-nut dish specific to Passover, he said. Each Seder is an opportunity to remind sailors of their importance and value, said Warren, adding that this will be the second time he’s celebrated Passover in the Red Sea. “I strive for everyone to find their meaning and purpose in this great enterprise,” he said.
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