Fall 2026 Militaria and Aviation Auction
Lot 228:
Description
Col. Kalman L. Levitan USAF Jewish Chaplain Medal, Insignia & Uniform Group. Exceptional and historically significant United States Air Force chaplain grouping belonging to Colonel Kalman Lionel Levitan (1917-2002), a prominent rabbi who completed approximately **30 years of active service in the U.S. Navy and U.S. Air Force** and ultimately served at the senior levels of the American military chaplaincy. The collection is attractively assembled in multiple framed displays and includes Colonel Levitan’s medals and service ribbons, colonel’s silver eagle rank insignia, "U.S." insignia, Jewish chaplain insignia featuring the Tablets of the Ten Commandments surmounted by the Star of David, named **LEVITAN** identification plates, shoulder boards, miniature decorations, full-size medals, and uniform accessories. Among the readily identifiable decorations are a **Bronze Star Medal**, **Legion of Merit**, **Purple Heart**, and numerous campaign, occupation, service and United Nations-related medals and ribbons associated with his lengthy military career; the grouping also includes his blue Air Force service cap with officer’s eagle device and embroidered visor, together with an additional blue overseas/garrison cap bearing rank insignia. Of particular importance is the surviving personal identification card reading **"Kalman L. Levitan – Chaplain, Colonel, United States Air Force, "** providing direct attribution of the grouping. Contemporary records document Levitan’s Air Force chaplain service by the early 1950s: the Congressional Record lists **Kalman L. Levitan** among officers appointed as Air Force chaplains in 1952 and later records him as **Kalman Lionel Levitan** in Air Force promotion material. His career eventually placed him at the forefront of Jewish religious affairs within the U.S. military; Harvard Law School’s memorial record states that Levitan served on the **Department of Defense Armed Forces Chaplains Board** and spent **nine years as Senior Jewish Chaplain**, advising the Chief of Air Force Chaplains on Jewish activities. A period issue of *The Chaplain* further identifies him as the Air Force’s **Special Consultant on Jewish Affairs for the Department of Defense Armed Forces Chaplains Board**, succeeding Chaplain Joshua Goldberg, while another period publication records him serving with the Fifth Air Force as a Major. Levitan also participated in the interservice development of the **Book of Worship for United States Forces**, joining its Hymn Task Force in 1970 as the Air Force’s Jewish representative, an important effort to provide broader religious representation for American service personnel. Outside the military, Rabbi Levitan was an accomplished scholar, writer and bibliophile who studied at Yeshiva University, the Jewish Institute of Religion, Hebrew Union College, Harvard Law School and Columbia University; he later became founder and first chairman of the **Miniature Book Society of America** and assembled a celebrated collection of approximately 2,000 miniature volumes. ([Camden Lock Books][5]) A remarkably complete and visually impressive named grouping representing a distinguished Jewish-American military chaplain whose career spanned the formative decades of the United States Air Force and the development of modern interfaith military ministry. Items exhibit age and service wear consistent with period use; please review photographs carefully for condition, exact contents and configuration.
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