Skip To Content
JEWISH. INDEPENDENT. NONPROFIT.
Breaking News

Jewish Service Member Among Those Killed In Afghanistan Helicopter Crash

A graduate of the former Solomon Schechter Day School in St. Louis was one of the six U.S. service members killed in a helicopter crash in southern Afghanistan on Tuesday, the St. Louis Jewish Light reported.

The crash that caused the death Chief Warrant Officer 2 Joshua B. Silverman, 35, is still being investigated by the U.S. Department of Defense.

According to the report, Silverman graduated from Schechter in 1990. His parents, Barry and Susie Silverman, now live in Aurora, Col., while his own address was listed as Scottsdale, Arizona. The family’s former rabbi, Rabbi Carnie Shalom Rose of Congregation B’nai Amoona, told the Jewish Light that the funeral would be held in St. Louis.

“Josh was unlike any of my other friends,” Matthew Litwack, a childhood friend of Silverman’s, told the Jewish Light. “He was never concerned with what was cool. He did his own thing and people gravitated around him.”

He added: “I can never remember a time when we fought or when he was mean-spirited to anyone,” said Litwack. “Everyone liked Josh. When I posted about (what happened to) him on Facebook yesterday, no less than 100 people commented on what a terrific person he was.”

A memorial service was planned for Friday morning at the Saul Mirowitz Jewish Community School in St. Louis.

A message from our CEO & publisher Rachel Fishman Feddersen

I hope you appreciated this article. Before you go, I’d like to ask you to please support the Forward’s award-winning, nonprofit journalism during this critical time.

We’ve set a goal to raise $260,000 by December 31. That’s an ambitious goal, but one that will give us the resources we need to invest in the high quality news, opinion, analysis and cultural coverage that isn’t available anywhere else.

If you feel inspired to make an impact, now is the time to give something back. Join us as a member at your most generous level.

—  Rachel Fishman Feddersen, Publisher and CEO

With your support, we’ll be ready for whatever 2025 brings.

Republish This Story

Please read before republishing

We’re happy to make this story available to republish for free, unless it originated with JTA, Haaretz or another publication (as indicated on the article) and as long as you follow our guidelines. You must credit the Forward, retain our pixel and preserve our canonical link in Google search.  See our full guidelines for more information, and this guide for detail about canonical URLs.

To republish, copy the HTML by clicking on the yellow button to the right; it includes our tracking pixel, all paragraph styles and hyperlinks, the author byline and credit to the Forward. It does not include images; to avoid copyright violations, you must add them manually, following our guidelines. Please email us at [email protected], subject line “republish,” with any questions or to let us know what stories you’re picking up.

We don't support Internet Explorer

Please use Chrome, Safari, Firefox, or Edge to view this site.