On December 24, 1942, the Jewish boxing champion Barney Ross and Reverend Fred Gehring—a Catholic priest from Brooklyn, NY—organized an ecumenical midnight mass for Christian marines in the midst of the battle of Guadalcanal. Ross, whose European-born father had wanted him to be a talmudic scholar, had retired from boxing before the war began. Having enlisted in the Marines, he struck up a close friendship with Gehring, who was in his unit. Ron Grossman tells the story:
In mid-December, Ross found himself and other GIs trapped in a foxhole surrounded by the enemy. The only one not wounded, he held the Japanese at bay by firing his weapon and throwing grenades all night long. By morning, he and another Marine were the only ones alive. So he carried his buddy back to the American base.
But in the runup to Christmas in 1942, he was preoccupied with a favor the priest had asked of him. Gehring played the violin and found a portable organ. Ross was the only one who could play it, so Gehring asked if he would play “Silent Night” on Christmas Eve.
Ross said the only problem was he didn’t know the tune. . . . So Marines hummed it for him until he could play it by ear. At midnight Mass, the war momentarily seemed far away as Ross accompanied hundreds of Marines singing, “All is calm, all is bright.”
In the silence that followed, the priest asked Ross to do an encore. Perhaps something from his tradition? He chose “My Yiddishe Mama,” [a staple of Yiddish vaudeville], which had been his boxing theme song and had been played as he shadowboxed and danced his way from a stadium’s dressing room to the ring.
Read more on Chicago Tribune: https://www.chicagotribune.com/columns/ct-met-christmas-eve-midnight-mass-guadalcanal-20191224-47fo4qd4r5fmznasthc4rbebsq-story.html