Ezekiel Jean Mathias

Ezekiel Jean Mathias was born on 1 July 1898 in New York, New York to Miriam Ezekiels (1872-1944) and Edward Mathias (1867-?), the second of two children, Herman (1896-1971). In the 1900s, the family lived at 307 Walner St., Brooklyn, where Mathias, Sr. worked as a hat maker, the 1910s, 1780 Bergen St. The Mathias brothers attended high school in Brooklyn.

Mathias enlisted in the U.S. Marine Corps on 24 May 1917 in New York; he was assigned as a Private to Headquarters and Headquarters Co., 5^th Marine Regiment, 2^nd Division. Pvt Mathias arrived in France on 3 July 1917 and re-assigned to 43^rd Company, 5^th Marine Regiment on 1 August. Pvt Mathias received the Distinguished Service Cross, Navy Cross, and French Croix de Guerre with Gilt Star for his actions near Bois-de-Belleau, France on 11 June 1918;

“The President of the United States of America, authorized by Act of Congress, July 9, 1918, takes pleasure in presenting the Distinguished Service Cross to Private Jean Mathias (MCSN: 90804), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving with the Forty-Third Company, Fifth Regiment (Marines), 2d Division, A.E.F., in action in the Bois-de-Belleau, France, 11 June 1918. After all the other members of his group had been killed or wounded by fire from an enemy machine gun, Private Mathias charged the gun position alone, killing three of the crew and capturing the gun.”

“The President of the United States of America takes pleasure in presenting the Navy Cross to Private Jean Mathias (MCSN: 90804), United States Marine Corps, for extraordinary heroism while serving with the 43d Company, 5th Regiment (Marines), 2d Division, A.E.F. in action in the Bois-de-Belleau, France, 11 June 1918. After all the other members of his group had been killed or wounded by fire from an enemy machine gun, Private Mathias charged the gun position alone, killing three of the crew and capturing the gun.”

“During a violent bombardment when all his comrades had fallen, he struck down three of the enemy and destroyed their machine gun.”

Pvt Mathias and St. Aignan Casual Company 7415 left Brest, France aboard the U.S. Army Transport Ship Prinz Frederich Wilhelm in July of 1919, arriving in Hoboken, New Jersey, on 14 July. He was Honorably Discharged at Quantico, Virginia on 23 July.

Upon his return home, Mathias lived with his parents on Underhill Ave. in Brooklyn, working as a salesman. Mathias married Rose Chasin (1900-1998) on 21 June 1923 in New York, with her, having one son, Ezekiel Jean, Jr. (1924-2016).

Mathias continued working as a salesman for wholesale products; in the 1930s, the family lived at 2114 Caton Ave., Brooklyn. In the 1940s, Mathias served as department commander of the Kings County New York branch of the Jewish War Veterans Association before moving to Los Angeles, California.

In 1938, Mathias was involved in an incident between the German-American Bund (“[an] organization of ethnic Germans living in the United States. Their pro-Nazi agenda supported US isolationism, avoidance of European conflicts for Germany’s benefit”) and several members of the Borough Park and Coney Island American Legion posts.

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“Thomas F. Dugan, county commander of the Kings County organization of the American Legion, directed the commanders of the Borough Park and Coney Island Legion posts today to discipline members who attended a meeting of the German-American Bund which resulted in rioting last night.

If the Posts do not follow these orders, Commander Dugan said, he would ask the State organization to revoke the posts’ charters. The disciplining is demanded because they attended the meeting wearing Legion caps.

…It was Mathias, Americanization chairman of the Borough Park Post of the American Legion, who set off the rioting by asking at a public meeting of the German-American Bund in the Yorkville Casino, 210 E. 86^th St. Manhattan, ‘Mr. Chairman, will there be any speeches in English? If not, I’ll go home’.

In Yorkville Magistrate’s Court, 153 E. 57^th St., where he came to press an assault charge against a bundsman under arrest, he said:

‘In a minute it was like another battle of the War. I was not permitted to say another word. The chairman shouted, ‘Sit Down!’ and about 25 Storm Troopers in uniform came down on me in a body. Fists were flying, belts with metal buckles were swinging and somebody jumped on me’.

…There were nearly 300 Ordnungstdienst men (Storm Troopers) in the hall, and they ejected the Legionnaires. At least seven men were wounded in the melee, and four were arrested. Mathias came to court to charge assault against one of the four.

…He had asked his questions after several speakers had made addresses in German, which he did not understand. ‘Apparently they did not agree with my right to ask a question’, he commented. He scoffed at the suggestion that the Legionnaires had ‘started anything’. ‘It would have been suicide to try it’, he said.”

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“Answering charges that the Kings County American Legion ‘ducked its head, put its tail between its legs and ran away’, Commander Thomas F. Dugan, last night, in reply to the accusation made by Jean Mathias, a Legionnaire who participated in the Legion-Bund riot last week, declared that the matter would be settled by ‘due process of law’ according to the organization’s by-laws.”

Mathias served as commander and executive director of the Los Angeles County department of the Jewish War Veterans Association. The family lived at 11208 Runnymede St., Los Angeles into the 1950s, where he was active in local civic affairs; in 1954, the JWVA created the Jean Mathias Award, “presented to a non-JWV member who has been selected for outstanding service to veterans”.

Mathias died of an unknown cause on 20 April 1971 at the Veterans Administration Hospital in Los Angeles County, he is buried at the Los Angeles National Cemetery, Los Angeles, California.