My prior two posts, “The World at War, The Jews in War: Jewish Military Service in World War One, in David Vital’s “A People Apart”“, and, “Images From the East: Russian Jewish Soldiers of the First World War, in “The Jewish World”“, focused upon the experiences of Jewish soldiers in the First World War.
The former post centers upon a passage from D. David Vital’s book A People Apart, which presents a sociological and historical overview of the participation of Jews in the armed forces of the Allies and Central Powers from 1914 to 1918.
The latter post is a little different: It displays a few of images published in the periodical The Jewish World (brother publication of The Jewish Chronicle) from 1914 through 1916, showing Jewish soldiers who served in the Army of Imperial Russia.
Given the tremendous number of Jewish soldiers who served in the Army of Imperial Russia during the First World War, as well as the demographic and historical centrality of Eastern European Jewry in the history of the Jewish people, these pictures directly resonate with observations about Jewish WW I military service expressed in Dr. Vital’s book. As a lengthy follow-up to this topic, I plan to bring you more information about this subject in future posts.
This will be in the form of transcripts of a news items, letters-to-the-editor, essays, and investigative reports published in WW I-era issues of The Jewish Chronicle and The Jewish World, l’Univers israélite from France, and The Jewish Exponent of Philadelphia, which – like The Jewish Chronicle – is still very much in publication over a century after the end of The Great War.
How did I find these items?
Well, the second-best answer is … very, very (very!)* slowly.
The best (and lengthier) answer is by reviewing all issues of the above periodicals published between late 1914 and early 1919. While the four publications are available as 35mm microfilm at the New York Public Library, I believe that only l’Univers israélite, published between 1849 and 1939, is available in digital format: via the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
The above-mentioned review was an effort to find news items directly covering, pertaining to, or even tangentially addressing military service by Jews in World War One. Of which, from late 1914 through early 1919, there were, alas, inevitably many such items.
The near goal? To identify and transcribe such items, simply for their own sake.
The far goal? As part of an effort to corroborate records about Jews who were military casualties and award recipients in the Allied armed forces, whose names appear in commemorative volumes about Jewish WW I military service (typically published in the 1920s; no such study was ever created concerning the military service of American Jews…), and of greater importance, to simply identify soldiers whose names never appeared in such books, in the first place.
Among the many, many (many!) such news items I discovered in this endeavor are a select few about:
1) Russian Jews – Soldiers and Civilians – and the Russian War Effort
2) Jewish Civilians in Eastern Europe – The experiences of Jewish civilians in Eastern Europe, as the tides of war carried the opposing armies of the Central Powers and Allies (specifically Imperial Russia) hither and yon; from west to east; from east to west; unpredictably; chaotically; often with appalling and tragic effect, through and across the world’s then demographic center of Jewish population;
3) Russian-Born Jews in England, and Military Service in the Allied Armed Forces –The controversy within English Jewry the about the military service of Jewish immigrants from Russia resident in England in the Allied armies, and thus indirectly in support of Russia, the country from which they sought refuge;
4) Thoughts and Observations – “Why are the Jews Fighting Germany?”, and, a subtle segue into Zionism.
5) Stories from the War – Non-Fiction (?), and Fiction – Two tales: One, a story about Jewish soldiers in a Russian military unit, in terms of the Jewish soldiers’ relationships with each other, and equally, their Russian officers and fellow soldiers. Another, a brief tale about an encounter between Cossack troops and an impoverished Jewish woman in Poland.
Importantly, these news items weren’t categorized as such in the original publications. Rather, it was only after reviewing these items and pondering their content, that I realized they could be set within the five above general areas, which are based on my own judgement.
So. Here are these items, arranged as per the above categories, listed by periodical name, date of publication, and item title. Unless otherwise specified, all these items are from The Jewish Chronicle. I hope to bring them to you as full-text in the reasonably near future.
Jewish Civilians in Eastern Europe
January 1, 1915 – The Atrocities in Poland
March 12, 1915 – Russian Troops Take Jewish Prisoners
April 16, 1915 – Russian Accusations Against The Jews
The Jewish Exponent – February 19, 1915 – The Tragedy of Israel in Poland (by Herman Bernstein)
The Jewish Exponent – April 16, 1915 – The War and The Jews of Russia (by George Kennan)
The Jewish Exponent – August 13, 1915 – If It Be True… A Terrible Indictment Against Russia
The Jewish Exponent – August 27, 1915 – Loyalty of Jews in War Lands Unshaken (by Alexander Brin)
The Jewish World – October 27, 1915 – A Roadside Scene in Russia (Photograph)
February 11, 1916 – The Russo-Jewish War Victims – (Photograph: “Driven Out”)
The Jewish Exponent – November 3, 1916 – How Russian Jews Suffered in War
The Jewish Exponent – March 4, 1921 – Tragic Plight of the Ukrainian Jews
Russian-Born Jews in England and Military Service in the Allied Armed Forces
July 7, 1916 – Russian Jews in Leeds
July 21, 1916 – The Plea of the Russian Jew (Letter from S. Paul)
November 17, 1916 – Russian Jews Appeal
November 17, 1916 – Russian-Born Jews and Military Service – Attestation in England
February 2, 1917 – Russians in the British Army – Attestation in Egypt
Thoughts and Observations
June 4, 1915 – Why the Jews are Fighting Germany
September 22, 1916 – From a Russian-Born Jew – Neo-Nationalism and Jewish Rights (3)
Russian Jews – Soldiers and Civilians – and the Russian War Effort
September 11, 1914 – Freedom for the Russian Jew
October 9, 1914 – Russian Jews and The War – Christian Soldiers Commend Jews
October 16, 1914 – Russian Jews and The War (Pardiztal)
October 16, 1914 – Russian Jews Daring Exploits (Miller)
October 23, 1914 – Russo-Jewish Bravery
November 27, 1914 – Tribute to Jewish Loyalty in Russia
December 25, 1914 – Russo-Jewish Loyalty – More Distinctions (Yoffin, Korman, Umansky, Zeitlin, Chutz, others)
January 1, 1915 – More Jewish Bravery in Russia (Kane, Marslialek, Tziz, Shuler, Dushansky)
January 1, 1915 – Russian Archbishop Kisses Jewish Hero
January 1, 1915 – Jewish Collections for Russian Soldiers
l’Univers israélite – January 1, 1915 – Les soldats juifs dans I’armee russe
January 8, 1915 – Young Jewish Heroes in Russia (Reichelson, Sharfinowitch, Gelfenstein, others)
January 22, 1915 – More Russo-Jewish Distinctions at the Front (Goldberg, Goldner, Kaplan, Yapolski, others)
January 29, 1915 – The Russian Army and The Jews (Holtzman, Itke, Schuster)
February 5, 1915 – Further Jewish Distinctions in Russia (Glickman, Grusenberg, Gunzburg, Rivkin, Treistman)
February 12, 1915 – Growing List of Russo-Jewish Heroes
February 19, 1915 – Russian Jews and the War
February 26, 1915 – Russian Jews and the War – Declaration in The Duma
February 26, 1915 – Another Striking List of Russian Jewish Heroes
March 12, 1915 – Large Russo-Jewish Honours List
March 19, 1915 – More Russo-Jewish Distinctions (Alexander, Kaplan, Olshwanger)
March 26, 1915 – Russo-Jewish Distinctions (Koffman, Markovitch, Shlionsky)
April 9, 1915 – Russo-Jewish War Honours (Annie X, Abramovitch)
April 16, 1915 – Russian Jews and The War
April 30, 1915 – Russo-Jewish Distinctions In The War (Markovitch, Lev Israel, Leipuner)
May 14, 1915 – Heavy List of Russo-Jewish War Honours
The Jewish Exponent – May 21, 1915 – Three Hundred Russian Jews Decorated
The Jewish Exponent – June 11, 1915 – A Jewish Girl in the Ranks
September 3, 1915 – Russo-Jewish Prisoners of War in Germany
September 3, 1915 – Five Hundred Russo-Jewish Heroes
December 24, 1915 – More Distinctions for Russo-Jewish Soldiers (Dubovitzky, Frenkel, Maltinsky, Rubinstein)
February 4, 1916 – General Kuropatkin and Jewish Soldiers
l’Univers israélite – February 4, 1916 – Les Juifs russes et la guerre
February 11, 1916 – A Russian Jewish Heroine (Madame Bernstein)
March 31, 1916 – Russian Rabbis Exempted From Service
April 21, 1916 – A Russian Commander of Jewish Soldiers
July 21, 1916 – Jews and Field Work in Russia
The Jewish Exponent – May 18, 1917 – Jewish Soldiers in the Russian Army
July 27, 1917 – A Jewish Legion Formed in Russia
l’Univers israélite – November 23, 1917 – Les Volontaires juifs russes
Stories from the War, Non-Fiction (?), and Fiction
The Jewish World – October 11, 1916 – The Cossack in a New Light
The Jewish World –June 23, 1915 – Reinforcements (Samuel Roth)
*Very? Yes, very!