About PFC Morris Silver

Morris Silver was born on May 27, 1913, in Sparta, Georgia, to Rose and Samuel Silver. The eldest of eight children, Morris was raised in a family shaped by immigration and perseverance. His father, Samuel, emigrated from Poland and married Rosa shortly after arriving in the United States. The family later relocated to New York, where Morris enlisted in the U.S. Army in 1941. Morris was assigned to the 22nd Infantry Regiment in the Allied invasion of Normandy on June 6, 1944.
 

Landing at Utah Beach in the early hours of D-Day, his regiment encountered unexpectedly light resistance due in part to airborne operations that had disrupted German defenses inland. Despite landing south of their intended sector, the 22nd Infantry quickly reorganized under fire, pushed off the beach, and advanced through flooded lowlands, causeways, and hedgerows to secure key exits. In the days that followed, the regiment fought continuously as part of the drive across the Cotentin Peninsula, facing entrenched German forces in brutal close-quarters combat. Their actions were instrumental in isolating and capturing the strategic port city of Cherbourg, a critical objective for sustaining the Allied advance into occupied France.

On June 23, 1944, during the strategically vital Battle of Cherbourg, PFC Silver was killed in action. His remains were recovered two days later and he was buried on June 25, 1944, at the U.S. Military Cemetery in Sainte-Mère-Église, France. 

His parents, Samuel and Rose Silver were distraught by the death of their son and unable to deal the deep emotional pain. His parents entrusted Rabbi David Bergson of the Hebron Yeshiva in New York to act on their behalf after the War Department denied the request for burial in Jerusalem under Public Law 368. Rabbi Bergson secured approval for Morris’s repatriation to the United States and subsequent private transfer to Israel. In 1950, his remains arrived in New York and were sent aboard the SS Akko. Because the Mount of Olives was inaccessible following Israel’s War of Independence, Rabbi Bergson arranged for PFC Morris Silver to be laid to rest at Jerusalem’s Sheik Badr (Givat Ram) Cemetery beside the Israeli Soldiers who lost their lives in the War of Independence. The Military cemetery at Mount Herzl was not established until 1952.

As PFC Silver had no family in Israel, his grave was soon forgotten and only rediscovered in 2023 when his niece Rosa Silver contacted Operation Benjamin and asked for assistance in locating her long-lost uncle. The  grave was discovered in poor and deteriorating condition . Operation Benjamin worked with Rosa Silver and her family  to redesign and properly memorialize  her uncle. Operation Benjamin is honored to lead the effort to properly memorialize PFC Morris Silver a heroic Jewish American Soldier.