(AMERICAN-JUDAICA) - Rosh HaShana Sermon Delivered to Members of the Manhattan Project by Rabbi Elias Schwartz.

In 1942, rural Oak Ridge, Tennessee, underwent an extraordinary and highly secret transformation. The federal government had selected it as the site for the Manhattan Project: The massive American operation that was charged, under the direction of Maj. Gen. Leslie Groves, with developing the first nuclear weapon - which ultimately brought World War II to an end. Expunged from all maps and entirely fenced in, the town grew in secret, to become by 1944, home to some 60,000 residents - all engaged on the Manhattan Project. With the need for numerous scientists and engineers, the town attracted, needless to say, many Jews. Indeed, some of the Manhattan Project’s most brilliant minds, including director of the theoretical weapons lab, J. Robert Oppenheimer, were Jewish. The Jews of Oak Ridge organized informal religious services in the town’s non-denominational prayer space. Through contact with the National Jewish Welfare Board, Capt. William Bernstein brought to Oak Ridge, Orthodox Rabbi Elias Schwartz of New York. Schwartz led the High Holy Day services in 1944 - the first time these religious observances occurred in Oak Ridge and just eleven months before the world’s first atomic bombs were dropped on Japan. Since Oak Ridge remained a closely-guarded military secret, Rabbi Schwartz was forbidden from reporting the number of people attending his service or any other information about the town. In addition to serving as a chaplain in the US Army during WWII, Rabbi Elias Schwartz (1917-2016), who received his religious education at Yeshivah Torah Vodaath, was Dean of Yeshivas Toras Emes-Kaminetz, where he served for more than fifty years. He also led Young Israel of Bensonhurst, Brooklyn and authored the V'Shee-non-tom series of Torah studies. Schwartz’s historic Rosh Hashanah sermon, commencing “we are living in an epoch making period” - discusses the horrors of war set against the backdrop of the lives of the Biblical figures of Noah, Daniel and Job. Schwartz emphasizes the importance of religion, home values and traditional morality. And speaking to a mostly non-observant congregation, he encourages Jewish engagement, especially at this time which has “seen the destruction of the Jewish world…the destruction of the soul of the Jew.” “You people gathered here in Oak Ridge … you must arrange a committee to start a Hebrew School, you cannot let your children go another year without a Hebrew education.” He suggests that the responsibility falls on the women of the community, both boys and girls require a religious education, and those women who lack a religious education themselves should study alongside their children. - Given Schwartz’s Orthodox Lithuanian heritage, this was a surprising position to take. - Perhaps Schwartz was encouraged by the historic setting of this most unusual Jewish community set within a top-secret government facility. Collection of c. 30 letters (1943-45) mostly all relating to Rabbi Elias Schwartz’s work as Civilian Chaplain for the U.S. Military during WWII. Many of the letters contain commendations of Rabbi Schwartz’s service; In letters sent by Rabbi Schwartz, he expresses the gratification he receives from his chaplainry work.