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Posted May 25, 2008  It gives us
great pleasure and with great hope for the future to announce the
appointment of Andrew Ahkrav as chapter chairman of New York JDL.Ahkrav was born and raised in Long Island, New York to conservative Jewish parents, his mother having been raised in the Orthodox tradition. He attended Jewish studies classes from childhood and became a bar mitzvah of in March 1997. He completed high school in 2002. Not sure which direction he wanted to go with his life, and, with deep anger felt toward Islamic terrorists for the September 11, 2001 attacks, he enlisted in the U.S. military at age 19. After training at Hospital Corpsman school in Great Lakes, Illinois, and Field Medical school in Camp Lejuene, North Carolina, he was stationed with the 1st Marine Division in Southern California. He was assigned as a platoon corpsman (medic) in this historic battalion. In August 2004, he deployed to Iraq where he received a Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal for saving the lives of three wounded Marines while under heavy enemy machine gun and RPG fire. A recipient of the military's Purple Heart medal, Andrew was also wounded during this deployment. He returned to California in March 2005 and began training to return to Iraq, which he did in February 2006 for what he calls a "quiet deployment." Returning in October 2006, he was later transferred to medical clinic in Connecticut. Here, Andrew was evaluated further for injuries he received in Iraq, and it was revealed that he had significant damage to his spine. Being found unfit for further military service, he was medically retired from the military in April of 2008. Andrew returned to Long Island to begin his life as a civilian. Ahkrav is an avid supporter of the country of his birth, the United States of America, and the homeland of the Jewish people, Israel. He has read most major Jewish teachings, including the Jerusalem and Babylonian Talmuds, the Tanakh, the Zohar and most of Rabbi Kahane's works. Says NY JDL Chairman Ahkrav, "I have great plans for the JDL, and they start with getting our membership up in various ways. I then plan on forming self-defense classes, marksmanship training, Jewish culture classes and, if possible, Hebrew uplan courses as well as many other great possibilities."
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