York’s contribution to ‘The Four Chaplains’ still gains attention
This Four Chaplains stamp, issued in 1948, was designed by Louis Schwimmer. The Army Chaplain Center and School, according to the Chapel of the Four Chaplains site, quoted Schwimmer’s son as saying that “this may be the first stamp commemorating a Jew. It is undoubtedly, the first US postage stamp designed by a Jew that commemorates a Jew.” But the stamp has significance in yet another way, according to a recent bestseller. Rabbi Alexander D. Goode of York, Pa., one of the chaplains, is pictured at right. Background posts: ‘Chaplains: The Calm in the Chaos’, Often forgotten: Achievements of people named on building facades and And now starring actor … Jakie Devers?.
A York County link popped up in Newsweek editor Jon Meacham’s bestselling book “American Gospel.”
Indirectly, but it was there… .
In surveying the unbroken link between religion and government, Meacham wrote that the term “Judeo-Christian” came into play after World War II to recognize the traditions’ “shared values of individual worth, rule of law, and common decency.”
According to Meacham, government blessed the Judeo-Christian idea by issuing a postage stamp to recognize the World War II chaplains who died on the torpedoed transport ship Dorchester in 1943.
York’s Alexander D. Goode, two Protestant chaplains and a Roman Catholic clergyman drowned after giving up their life jackets to save others.
He noted the stamp read: “Interfaith in action.”
The lives and sacrifices of the Four Chaplains are often cited in a number of different contexts. Just Google the “Four Chaplains” and see.
Alexander D. Goode has long been one of York County’s greatest contributions to the world.
