Four brave American soldiers, who lost their lives in service in the Middle East last week, were brought home and honored Wednesday at a dignified transfer, attended by the president, secretary of war and other administration officials.
“Yesterday, we saw the President of the United States and many others at Dover Air Force Base presiding over a ceremony that is very sacred to those of us who served, and that is a dignified return of remains from the war zone, and that process happens beginning in the war zone through Dover to the hometown of our fallen heroes,” Former Navy SEAL officer and Sen. Tim Sheehy, R-Montana, said before the Senate Thursday. “I participated in many of those ceremonies myself, to include carrying friends of mine off the plane.”
A dignified transfer “is not a ceremony,” but rather “a solemn movement of the transfer case by a carry team composed of military personnel from the fallen member's respective service,” according to the Air Force Mortuary Affairs Operations website. Every U.S. military member who dies “in the theatre of operation while in service of their country” is returned to Air Force Mortuary A?airs Operations in Dover, Delaware, where the dignified transfer occurs.
This tradition of honoring the dead is not unique to America alone. Most modern countries respect their dead with some degree of ceremony and respect — a modern result of the Christianization of the West. Unlike their pagan neighbors, who only honored god-like men such as emperors or individuals of high military-ranks, Christians honored their dead no matter their status, and this custom was explicitly derived from Jewish tradition.
The Jewish custom of a proper burial depends on the biblical understanding of human dignity. God bestowed dignity upon man from the beginning, even in the creation and naming of Adam, as recorded in Genesis, Marnix van Ede, director of an Israeli humanitarian organization focused on identifying and honoring the dead, explained in an interview.
Adam in Hebrew translates to mankind or all humanity. Within the name, “dam” is Hebrew for “blood,” van Ede explained. Blood represents life and is therefore holy. Adamah is also Hebrew for earth, which the Lord used to create Adam. Because God created Adam in His image from the dust of the ground, man returns to the dust and therefore to the Lord (Deuteronomy 21:22–23).
“Everybody's created in His image is therefore holy and needs to be treated as holy and also needs to be returned to God,” van Ede said. “That's why, from a biblical perspective, it's so important that the people are buried as fast as possible and are being returned to God.”
The Jewish people still practice these traditions today.
Hamas terrorists permeated the Israel-Gaza border on October 7, 2023 and mass murdered 1,200 Israelis. Human remains were dispersed or unidentifiable, and terrorists even captured the bodies of the murdered for the very purpose of mocking the Jews because of their inability to bestow a proper burial.
One of the thousands of unknown heroes from those wretched months is the humanitarian organization ZAKA. As Israelis fled north to escape Hamas terrorists infiltrating the Gaza strip border, ZAKA team members drove south to rescue the wounded and bring dignity to the dead, van Ede said.
“Hamas was still present, and it was still like a war zone,” van Ede said. “They didn't have enough helmets or bullet proof vests, so it was pretty dangerous. The bullets were literally flying around their ears and heads. But their task was also to take away the bodies as fast as possible.”
ZAKA exists to save lives, assist in search and rescue operations, identify victims, and ensure that every person is treated with dignity and respect after death. The organization’s name is a Hebrew abbreviation for “Identification of Disaster Victims,” and its core mission is “search, rescue, and recovery," for humanitarian relief and religious preservation of the dead, according to its website.
ZAKA saved thousands of lives on October 7th and honored thousands more. The volunteers refused to rest until every single reported missing person was found or any remains were identified — to the point of stripping leather car seats to return drops of blood to mourning families. Volunteers carry an emergency care with them that contains two adult-sized bags — one white for a victim and the other black for a terrorist, whom ZAKA also honors in burial. The case has a smaller white bag for the remains of an infant or young child.
These cases provide a “dignified transfer” for the deceased, no matter their age, rank, or culture.
The Jewish tradition of honoring the dead is an admirable devotion that has shaped modern customs around the world, but, additionally, ZAKA volunteers embodied the Christian principle of loving enemies amid such wretched horror on Oct. 7 — another practice Western cultures should imitate.
Michaela Estruth is a staff writer for Heartlander News. She graduated from Hillsdale College and has written for various publications including The Wall Street Journal, The Federalist, WORLD and RealClearReligion.
