Herman Weinstein was a Commander of the Jewish War Veterans, Buffalo Frontier Post 25, from 1981 to 1982. He served from 1940 to 1945 in the 84th Infantry, 79th Division, where he was wounded in France in December 1944, becoming a highly decorated serviceman. On his return to Buffalo, he joined the local Jewish War Veterans and remained active within the organization in various capacities until his death in 2005.

Buffalo Frontier Post #25 is an active organization in the Veteran (Jewish and non-Jewish) community. Members work in various volunteer capacities at the local Veterans Hospital fundraising for equipment and special program services, providing nurses aid support, organizing Christmas Party events, distributing cakes and gifts for patients’ birthdays, delivering books and magazines to the hospital and general visiting. Similar services have also been provided at local geriatric facilities including Weinberg Campus and its forerunner, Rosa Coplon Old Jewish Folks Home.

Buffalo Frontier Post #25 (JWVBF#25) has its roots in an earlier post formed in 1927. At that time, Sol Feldman organized a Jewish War Veterans Post with a different name: JWV Louis Marshall Post. As this name was already in use by another group, National JWV issued a charter in the name of Buffalo Frontier Post #25 in 1929. With this two-year delay, Buffalo Frontier Post #25, dates its official beginnings from 1929, and celebrated its 80th Anniversary in 2009. Although this post has a continual history from this time, it was not the only JWV post in Buffalo. At one time another post: JWV Post 259 was active, however this post eventually merged with Post 25. Post 259 was formed immediately after WWII when the ranks of the JWV swelled and there was a need for two posts.

In 1935, with the assistance of Erie County, JWVBF#25 acquired its own cemetery plot in a section of Temple Beth El Cemetery located on Pine Hill, in Cheektowaga, New York. The plaque was dedicated on May 30, 1935 for the Jewish War Veterans of Erie County who served their country through seven wars. In 1941, the 46th National Encampment of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States met in Buffalo, in August. Benjamin Kaufman (a Buffalo native) and a national commander of the organization during the encampment in 1941, presented a checked for $50,000 to Bell Aircraft for the purchase of P-39 fighter plane for the war effort.

During the 1930s to 1940s, Buffalo Frontier Post #25 maintained an office and meeting place at a building located at Herkimer and Grant. During the 1950s the Post moved to various locations including 277 Linwood Avenue and later rented a smaller facility at 576 Taunton Place. When the building on Taunton was destroyed by fire in the late 1950s, meetings continued at Temple Sinai at 50 Alberta Drive, Amherst, NY.

In 1961, Buffalo Frontier Post #25 purchased 1460 Hertel Avenue and continued to meet at the building for the next twenty years. This site was eventually sold on September 4, 1998. From 1998, Buffalo Frontier Post #25 met at the veterans of Foreign Wars (VFW) 416 building at 18 E. Spring Street in Williamsville. From the 2000s, the post began to meet at the former Temple Beth Am (now Congregation Shir Shalom) on Sheridan Drive in Williamsville.

A high point in the Post history was a dinner dance at the Hotel Statler Ballroom in honor of the post’s 25th anniversary with guest speaker, Eleanor Roosevelt. In November 1995, the Post organized a special program for the 50th anniversary of WWII and in 1996 another significant program for the hundredth anniversary of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States. In 2009, the Buffalo Frontier Post celebrated its 80th Anniversary.