We're Thankul for (SM) Josiah Benator

[RememberSchiff]

http://atlantajewishtimes.timesofisrael.com/thankful-josiah-benator/

 

 

by Rabbi David Geffen

 

The year 1950 was momentous for me and subsequently for many other young men. That year Congregations Or VeShalom and Shearith Israel founded Boy Scout Troop 73. Josiah Benator, a World War II veteran and who made Eagle Scout during his teen years, became the scoutmaster. He has held that title with Troop 73 ever since.

 

Born in Atlanta in 1922 to an Or VeShalom family, Benator grew up in the Depression and joined a Scout troop at the Jewish Educational Alliance in the 1930s. He quickly became not only the head of the troop, but also the assistant scoutmaster and then scoutmaster.

...

Mr. Benator was not satisfied that he was an Eagle Scout; he wanted to earn more “palms†by completing additional merit badges. When we went to the Bert Adams Boy Scout camp in the summer, he went with us.

 

That first summer he worked on the Indian lore merit badge. To complete the requirements, he had to participate in the Indian Pageant held on a Thursday night. As that event began, Mr. Benator, with his face and body painted and wearing a loin cloth and one feather in his hair, danced with real excitement. We cheered him loudly: He was more than a scoutmaster; he was a vibrant Boy Scout leader.

 

In 2009 he was designated by AARP’s magazine as one of the great seniors in the nation. I wrote about him in The Jerusalem Post, and he appeared in a picture with Judge Stephen Schuster, one of his Scouts and my cousin.

...

 

Check out the rest of his interesting story in link above.

 

"I'm from the old school," Benator said. "Oh yeah, definitely the old school."

 

http://www.11alive.com/life/a-boy-scout-from-the-old-school/425954661

 

A long Scout Salute,

 

[qwazse]

... with his face and body painted and wearing a loin cloth and one feather in his hair, danced with real excitement ...

 

There we have, in nutshell, the argument for -- and against -- allowing adults to participate in rank advancement!

 

It's a fortunate troop that has a leader with such a long view.

[RememberSchiff]

I considered myself fortunate as a scout to have had scoutmasters and assistant scoutmasters who served during World War II. A few had been scouts, most wish they had, but all of them taught self-reliance (learn this skill it saved my life, it might yours) and teamwork (patrol method). If the answer wasn't in the scout handbook, they taught us to figure it out ourselves. Adults in scouting were fewer then but IMO the scout association with adults was stronger than today.

 

My $0.02,

[Tampa Turtle]

WOW

[Stosh]

I knew my godfather served in the Marines in WW II and spent it entirely in a coal mine in China working for the Japanese.  He was captured on Wake Island at the beginning of the war.  He then went on to served as an infantryman in the Army all the way through the Korean War.  What I didn't know until I read it in his obituary that he Eagled in 1936.  My parents and he and his wife were close friends from church and we camped together just about every weekend until I was well into my high school years.  Whether it be hunting, fishing or camping, this guy was a constant part of my life and the reason for my love of the outdoors.

 

I'm glad these scouters are getting the recognition they deserve.  There's a reason why some of us dedicate our adult lives to working with youth and a lot of that comes from the fact that we were scouts when we were young.

Edited March 30, 2017 by Stosh