last word
Selina Kanowitz
BECOMES FIRST WOMAN COMMANDER OF NJ JWV
SASHA ROGELBERG | STAFF WRITER
Photo by Ed Hornichter
U pon touching down in Texas
and boarding the bus that
would take her to Air Force
basic training in 1977, Selina Kanowitz
was struck by the seriousness of her
soon-to-be companions-in-arms: “I
stepped up on the bus and said, ‘How
come everyone’s so sad? Doesn’t any-
body smile on this?’”
Kanowitz, 70, grew up never expect-
ing to join the military, let alone
become a master sergeant, but her ini-
tial fish-out-of-water mentality helped
her bring levity to the job and lead with
creative solutions in mind.

After leaving the Air Force in 1998,
Kanowitz joined Jewish War Veterans
Post 215 in Philadelphia, then Post
126 in Cherry Hill, New Jersey, where
she was post commander of the year
on the state and national level. She
was appointed vice junior commander,
senior vice commander and, last
month, department commander for
the Jewish War Veterans, Department
of New Jersey Department. She is the
first woman to serve in the role.

“It’s a big honor, it’s a huge responsibil-
ity and it’s a challenge,” Kanowitz said.

Climbing the military ranks when
few other women did, the Cherry Hill
resident and Chabad of Cherry Hill
member hopes to bring more women,
as well as families and young people,
into the JWV. Kanowitz also will help
fellow Jewish veterans connect with
resources to help with benefits or pro-
vide funeral services and oversee the
JWV posts across the state.

All the while, she is balancing a
full-time job as the senior staff nuclear
medicine technologist at Temple
University Hospital.

Kanowitz achieved her veteran status
after she was activated, or deployed, in
1991 to be a noncommissioned officer
in charge of radiology for Operation
Desert Storm. Most of her unit went to
Oman, but Kanowitz, a higher-rank-
ing officer, did not go overseas and
provided assistance at home.

The veteran’s passion for medicine
was the reason she originally joined the
military. Raised in an Orthodox home
in Philadelphia, Kanowitz wanted to
become a pediatrician. She enjoyed
working with children as a teacher
before joining the Air Force.

To receive financial assistance
to attend medical school, Kanowitz
joined the military but was told she had
to apply to civilian schools on her own
dime — something her family couldn’t
afford. The Air Force trained her in
radiology, but a “bored” Kanowitz
later enrolled in Washington Memorial
School of Nuclear Medicine, now
the Jefferson Washington Township
Hospital. She graduated in 1979, two
years after enlisting.

Kanowitz was the only Jewish person
at basic training at the Texas mili-
tary base, and women were first being
accepted in 1977. Later in her service,
colleagues called Kanowitz “Private
Benjamin,” referring to the 1980 Goldie
Hawn film about a Jewish woman join-
ing the Women’s Army Corps after her
husband died.

Her differences were a point of
pride for Kanowitz.

Kanowitz kept kosher as best she
could and frequently met with the
Jewish military chaplain and rabbi who
visited the base’s chapel for Shabbat.

Later in her training, friends would
join her for the makeshift services.

“I really didn’t feel alienated,”
Kanowitz said. “I felt special, actually.”
Still, Kanowitz believes she did
experience some added difficulties as
a minority in the Air Force. She had a
commander who held her back twice
from going before the review board to
be a commissioned officer. Her college
degree should have granted Kanowitz
the ability to become a lieutenant,
major or captain, she believed. She
attributed the instance to antisemitism
because her commanding officer was
not Jewish.

“It was subtle, but it was there,”
Kanowitz said.

But most of the time, Kanowitz was
focused on her job. Appointed dorm
chief during basic training, Kanowitz
was put in charge of dozens of other
women at the base. One day, a drill
instructor approached her and told her
to hold a GI party. Kanowitz thought
this was an actual party until two
women approached her and told her
the term referred to a thorough clean-
ing of the dorm.

“So we got a sheet, and they gave us
a watered-down bucket of wax, and we
turned on a radio in the giant room,
and we danced on the sheet,” Kanowitz
said. “We shined these floors like you
could see forever. We did a great job,
and we had fun doing it.”
It was Kanowitz’s same knack for
building community that brought her
to the JWV, a place where, after decades
of being a minority, Kanowitz found
camaraderie in so many people like her.

Joining the organization, she learned
“leadership,” “camaraderie” and the
confidence to speak in front of groups.

“It’s like a second family,” Kanowitz
said. JE
srogelberg@midatlanticmedia.com JEWISHEXPONENT.COM
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