Nation IN BRIEF : NEW YORK : Religion May Have Cost Soldier a Medal

Army investigators will decide this month whether a veteran said to have killed more than 500 Japanese soldiers during a single encounter in World War II was denied the Medal of Honor because he is Jewish, the New York Times reported. David Rubitsky, 72, a retired merchant seaman who lives in Wisconsin, and his supporters say that the veteran, armed only with a machine gun, a carbine and an automatic rifle, cut down 500 to 600 enemy troops in New Guinea in December, 1942. The New York Times said that two of Rubitsky’s superiors recommended him for the Medal of Honor but a third rejected the idea because Rubitsky is Jewish. The paper said that an important piece of evidence is a handwritten message from a Japanese officer who said he elected to commit suicide for his role in a battle in which “600 fine Japanese soldiers died because of a solitary American soldier.”