Iwo Jima remembered

This past Saturday, Feb. 19, was the 60th anniversary of the Marine invasion of Iwo Jima, a barren, sulfurous, but strategically vital island some 600 miles south of the Japanese mainland. Four days later, on February 23, an Associated Press photographer named Joe Rosenthal took the famous picture of the flag-raising atop Mt. Suribachi, which, at least from the American perspective, has become perhaps the single most famous photograph taken during the Second World War. The battle of Iwo Jima, for its part, would become the bloodiest ever in the history of the Marine Corps, with more than 6000 Leathernecks dead by the time it was over. In today's edition of Jewish World Review , I found this article, which commemorates the battle, the flag-raising, and a rabbi's memorable tribute to the fallen.