Reply to comment

From 19 year old Harrison Greenberg’s family room window, you can see the broad athletic fields of Highland Park High School. In his backyard there’s a basketball hoop set up for him and his two younger brothers, Henry and Jeremy. One grandmother lives just down the block; another lives with him and his parents, brothers, and several pets. This is the scene that has greeted Harry on his first visit from the Navy in ten months.

On a recent December morning, days before he would return to the Navy to continue training for marine engineering, Fireman Harrison Greenberg reflected on his life-altering experience, from boot camp to the combat training center in Illinois.

 

When Harry graduated from his high school, Moshe Aaron Yeshiva in South River in 2008, he had a revelation. “I was halfway through the process of applying to college -- the plan was go to Middlesex County College, get straight A's and then complete my schooling at Rutgers,” Harry said. “But I was sick of all the schooling. I wasn’t ready for college and I didn’t want to work at Best Buy. I wanted to experience something life-altering.”

After his father brought home a brochure from the U.S. Navy, Harry met with a recruiter, ENI (Engineman) McKinny, and signed up.

On a chilly March morning ENI McKinny came to the Greenbergs’ home, which Harry had not been away from for more than a few days at a time, not even to sleepaway camp. “It was time for the kid to leave the nest,” Harry said. “I had to overcome a lot of things.”

Harry left the friends he made at Rabbi Pesach Raymon Yeshiva, from Congregation Etz Ahaim Sephardic where he had made Bar Mitzvah, from the town library where he had been an avid reader from a young age.

One of the first things he had to get used to was being with eighty other people in the same room all the time for eight weeks.

“It breaks you down and molds you into a better person,” Harry said. “You’re reconditioned to work as a team, you are taught that you are not rivals, that you work together . . . safety is the priority and it is found in every small detail.”

During boot camp he was appointed as the recruits’ Starboard Watch, responsible for making sure the daily Deck Log had perfect grammar, and other duties. “The whole division was folding laundry [and the Recruit Commander] called me out and he said, ’Greenberg, how is your handwriting?’” Harry said. Harry went on to earn the Most Improved Recruit award at his graduation, being cited as a “top performer” and graduating with honors from the Center for Surface Combat Systems.

But as important as what the Navy has given him, it is also what the boy brought to the service that has helped to sustain him and allowed him to grow as a man.

During his first trip away from home, Harry wanted to maintain his life as an observant Jew, keeping the Sabbath and the kosher laws. With the help of Lt. Rabbi Aaron Kleinman, who held services every week at boot camp, and the kosher care packages from the Olive Institute, the challenge grew easier. Although many of his shipmates from other parts of the country have never met a Jew before, he is teaching them about Judaism. Some have chosen to participate in prayers with him on the Sabbath so that he is not alone in the observance of his faith. Lt. Rabbi Kleinman has also introduced him to families in the area who host Harry on the Sabbath and on holidays.

 

Harry’s experience has made him quite popular and he helps other Muslim and Christian sailors with the necessary paperwork to help make observance of their religion easier.

 

He thanks Rabbi Landau from East Brunswick for giving him some important advice for his challenge of remaining an observant far from home.

“He told me that although it would be hard to remain observant, I should start simply with the Shma, the coda of our religion: 'Hear O Israel: the Lord our God, the Lord is One,'” Harry said. “I said that prayer the last thing before going to bed at night and it made everything else fall into place. Every harsh word or experience disappeared, and I took the next step.”

If anyone would like to write to Harry they can reach him at: harrisond.greenberg@yahoo.com.