Display of Jewish women graduates restored after US Naval Academy says it was ‘mistakenly removed’

By Haley Britzky, CNN

(CNN) — The US Naval Academy has returned photos and memorabilia of Jewish women after they were “mistakenly removed” from a display to apparently comply with diversity, equity, and inclusion directives from the Pentagon.

A Navy spokesperson told CNN that “photos and items of distinguished leaders and graduates were mistakenly removed from the US Naval Academy Commodore Uriah P. Levy Center.”

“Naval Academy leadership took immediate steps to correct the unauthorized removal and all items were restored to display cases within the center on April 1,” the spokesperson said.

The removal of the Jewish Women of the Naval Academy display occurred just days before Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth visited the academy on Tuesday, and spoke with midshipmen and met with Superintendent Vice Adm. Yvette Davids.

In an email obtained by CNN, the Friends of the Jewish Chapel, a nonprofit organization created to “enhance the religious and cultural lives of the Jewish Midshipmen of the United States Naval Academy,” told its members it spoke with Naval Academy officials and said the removal of the display only happened to coincide with Hegseth’s visit, as Davids had also directed the academy to be in compliance with executive orders and Pentagon policy directives related to diversity, equity, and inclusion.

Davids and other academy leaders went to ensure the removal was corrected, Friends of the Jewish Chapel told members in the email. The email also stated that Hegseth did not visit the Levy Center or the chapel during his visit. The Pentagon did not answer specific question about if Hegseth had visited the chapel.

Asked about the removal of the display’s contents on Wednesday, Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell said all service academies “are fully committed to executing and implementing President Trump’s Executive Orders.”

The email said the contents of the Jewish Women of the Naval Academy display were removed on March 28, and returned to their place after their removal was brought to the attention of senior Naval Academy leaders. The email explained that a member of the chain of command misinterpreted Davids’ intent and directed photos of women in the Stein Social Hall be removed.

The issue was brought to the Military Religious Freedom Foundation on Monday, the organization’s founder Michael Weinstein told CNN on Wednesday, by a group of roughly 30 academy faculty and midshipmen. Photos of the exhibit shared by MRFF online appeared to show a piece of cardboard covering a sign in a display case talking about the accomplishments and history of Jewish women in the Navy, and alleged that photos and awards of accomplished Jewish female graduates from the academy, including a Bronze Star, had been removed.

“Targeting Jewish females who graduated from the Naval Academy, and pulling their faces off— some of them have combat medals, others, you know great academic achievements, achievements in business, significant achievements in the military, aviators and others — pulling them down so they can’t be seen is unforgivable,” Weinstein said.

A person familiar with the removal said the move appeared to be a “knee-jerk reaction” because “no one actually knows what they mean by DEI content … therefore, they’re like ‘Well, let’s just take down all the photos of women.’”

There have been a number of other similar instances since Hegseth launched the Pentagon’s focus on removing anything considered “woke” or related to DEI. The Pentagon has removed historical content praising women and individuals of color, for example, or flagged such content for removal in a major purge of official websites and images from the Defense Department’s visual database.

Pentagon spokesman Sean Parnell acknowledged in March that some “important content was incorrectly pulled offline to be reviewed” amid the efforts mandated by Hegseth.

“We want to be very, very clear: History is not DEI,” Parnell said. “When content is either mistakenly removed – or if it is maliciously removed – we continue to work quickly to restore it.”

The-CNN-Wire
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