February 2017 – Page 2 – Excursions in Jewish Military History and Jewish Genealogy

Soldiers of The Great War: Jewish Military Service in WW I, as Reported in l’Univers Israélite (The Jewish World) – “Les aumôniers du culte israélite” (Chaplains of the Jewish Faith), November 27, 1914

Paralleling my research in coverage within The Jewish Chronicle of Jewish military service during World War One, I’ve also reviewed the periodical l’Univers Israélite – The Jewish World – concerning the military service of French Jewish soldiers during that time. Due to the publication schedule of the periodical, as well as the length and format of each issue, the total number of such articles, though many, has turned out to be fewer, and typically of shorter length, than those in the Chronicle.

But, what was published within the l’Univers Israélite was nevertheless as compelling and interesting – sometimes as profound, in its own way – paralleling the nature of what appeared in the Chronicle. Items of note include biographical profiles of French Jewish soldiers (and inevitably military casualties) – many such items, news from foreign Jewish communities, discourses on religion and politics, and, lengthy descriptions of religious services held by, and among, French Jewish soldiers “in the trenches”.

Among the above, one such item is the following: Information aimed at the families of servicemen concerning contacting Jewish chaplains assigned to the various French army corps. Notably, this as the first really “lengthy” concerning French Jewish military service that appeared in l’Univers Israélite, this article did cover actually cover the military experiences of French Jewish soldiers, per se.

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The article is provided in the original French, accompanied by English translation. (My own translation.) Further articles from l’Univers Israélite will be presented in the future. Likewise, translated. In the meantime, a PDF of this article is available here.

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Les aumôniers du culte israélite

En CAMPAGNE

Chaplains of the Jewish Faith
In Campaign

l’Univers Israélite
November 27, 1914

The Jewish World
November 27, 1914

Tous nos coreligionnaires ne savent pas qu’aux armées en campagne sont attachés des aumôniers des différents cultes et que le culte israélite a droit à un aumônier par corps d’armée. Quelques-uns ne tiennent peut-être pas à le savoir. C’est un tort. Même en laissant de coté, si c’est possible, la question de religion et la question de dignité, une considération de sécurité devrait engager tous les israelites à faire appel, le cas échéant, aux bons offices de l’aumônier du culte dont ils relèvent. L’aumônier, qui marche à l’arrière du corps d’armée, peut se mettre en relation avec les militaires israélites dont il connaît l’existence, les visiter s’il y a lieu dans les ambulances, prendre ou se procurer de leurs nouvelles et communiquer avec leurs familles ; assimilé à un officier sans troupes, il peut se charger de recevoir et de distribuer des colis.

Not all of our coreligionists are aware that chaplains of various religions are attached to armies in the field and that Israelite worship is entitled to chaplains by the army corps. Some may not be keen to know. This is wrong. Even leaving aside, if possible, the question of religion and the question of dignity, a security consideration should engage all Israelites to appeal, if any, to the good offices of the chaplain under whom they worship. The chaplain, who walks to the rear of the army corps, can relate to the Israelite soldiers which he is aware, visit the place where the ambulances are taken or obtain their news and communicate with their families; compared to a non-troop officer, he may be responsible for receiving and distributing the packages.

Nous croyons donc rendre service aux familles Israélites qui ont quelqu’un des leurs à l’armée en dressant la liste des aumôniers israélites actuellement en fonctions, avec l’indication du corps d’armée auquel ils sont attachés:

We believe as a service to Israelite families who have someone of theirs in the army listing the current functions of Israelite chaplains, with indicating the army corps to which they are attached:

1er corps           MM     Hermann, rabbin de Reims (en congé).
2e corps                        Tchernaïa, rabbin; ministre-officiant d’Enghien.
3e corps                        Nathan Lévy, rabbin de Rouen.
4e corps                        Albert Hertz, rabbin.
5e corps                        Maurice Zeitlin, rabbin.
6e corps                        Joseph Sachs, rabbin de Châlons-sur-Marne.
7e corps                        Paul Haguenauer, grand-rabbin de Besancon.
8e corps                        Julien Weill, rabbin de Paris
(précédemment M. Schumacher, rabbin de Dijon).
9e corps                        Léon Sommer, sous-rabbin, ministre-officiant de Tours.
13e corps                      Marcel Sachs, rabbin à Paris.
15e corps                      Hirschler, ministre-officiant à Marseille.
16e corps                      Joseph Cohen, gran rabbin de Bayonne.
17e corps                      Moïse Poliatscheck, rabbin de Toulouse.
18e corps                      Ernest Ginsburger, grand rabbin de Genève.
20e corps                     Maurice Eisenbeth, rabbin de Sedan.
Place de Toul,             M. Isaac Bloch, grand-rabbin de Nancy.
Place de Verdun,        M. Jules Ruff, rabbin de Verdun.
Place d’Epinal,           M. L. Sèches, grand-rabbin de Lille.

First Corps                          M.M. Hermann, Rabbi of Reims (on leave).
2nd Corps                           Tchernaia, Rabbi; officiating minister of Enghien.
3rd Corps                            Nathan Levy, Rabbi of Rouen.
4th Corps                            Albert Hertz, Rabbi.
5th Corps                            Maurice Zeitlin, Rabbi.
6th Corps                            Joseph Sachs, Rabbi of Chalons-sur-Marne.
7th Corps                            Haguenauer Paul, Chief Rabbi of Besancon.
8th Corps                            Julien Weill, Rabbi of Paris
(formerly Schumacher, Rabbi of Dijon).
9th Corps                            Sommer Leon, Deputy Rabbi, Officiating Minister of Tours.
13th Corps                         Marcel Sachs, Rabbi in Paris.
15th Corps                         Hirschler, Officiating Minister at Marseille.
16th Corps                         Joseph Cohen, Grand Rabbi of Bayonne.
17th Corps                         Poliatscheck Moses, Rabbi of Toulouse.
18th Corps                         Ernest Ginsburger, Chief Rabbi of Geneva.
20th Corps                         Maurice Eisenbeth, Rabbi of Sedan.
Place de Toul                    M.L. Isaac Bloch, Chief Rabbi of Nancy.
Place de Verdun               M.L. Jules Ruff, Rabbi of Verdun.
Place d’Epinal                  M.L. Sèches, Chief Rabbi of Lille.

En écrivant à un aumônier, on libellera l’adresse comme suit:

M. le rabbin (grand-rabbin) X..
Aumônier du culte israélite
Groupe des brancardiers de Corps
…eme corps d’armée

Writing to a chaplain, words are addressed as follows:

Rabbi M. (Chief Rabbi) X…
Chaplain of the Jewish faith
Corps Stretcher Group
…th Army Corps

La première destination à donner à la lettre est le Bureau central militaire à Paris ou la ville qui est le siège du dépôt de la section d’infirmiers du corps d’armee en question (consulter le tableau affiché dans les bureaux de poste).

The first destination to give the letter is the Military Central Bureau in Paris or the city that is the seat of the filing of the nursing section of the corps in question (see the chart displayed in post offices).

On remarquera que les 10e, 11e, 12e, 14e, 19e, et 21e corps d’armée n’ont pas, à notre connaissance, ou n’ont pas encore d’aumônier israélite. Nous reviendrons sur cette lacune et sur quelques autres desiderata dans un prochain où nous étudierons l’organisation du service de l’aumônerie militaire, au point de vue Israélite, et la place faite à notre culte.

Note that the 10th, 11th, 12th, 14th, 19th, and 21th army corps have not, to our knowledge, or do not yet, have Israelite chaplains. We will return to this absence and upon some other desiderata in the future or we will study the organization of the service of the military chaplaincy, from the Israelite perspective, that has instead made our worship.

Soldiers of The Great War: Jewish Military Service in WW I, as Reported in The Jewish Chronicle – “War and The New Year”, September 25, 1914

The rough juxtaposition of the beginning of the First World War with Rosh Hashana (September 8, 1914) was the impetus for a sermon preached at the Dalston Synagogue (in the Borough of Islington, in North London). This was reported upon in the Chronicle on September 25.

The duration and nature of World War One – alas, as in any war, really – was the inevitable context for reflection and sermons throughout remainder of the conflict. Many such pieces appeared in the Chronicle throughout the rest of the war – even into 1919. The thought behind such writings was directly motivated by or emanated from military aspects of the war itself, or, spurred on events, conditions, and changes – both within the United Kingdom and beyond – that affected the Jewish people, and, the world as a whole.

The same – and much, much more – could be said for items in the Jewish press during the Second World War.

And, was. (Hopefully, more of that in future posts.)

Reverend Wasserzug expressed optimism on two levels: That the heroism exemplified by the Russian Jewish soldier Osnas (mentioned in a prior Chronicle article) – and other Russian Jewish soldiers like him – would elicit freedom and (seemingly) acceptance for current and future generations of Russian Jews. And, that the war, “…like a storm [would] cleanse the European air of the moral atmosphere which has infected it.”

Alas, as we now know in hindsight – as was known decades ago – the currents of history would in time proceed towards opposite destinations.

(The “gap” in the middle of the item, ending with the syllable “sed” (!), is due to poor legibility of the original microfilm from which this item was copied.)

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THE WAR AND THE NEW YEAR

The Jewish Chronicle

September 25, 1914

Preaching on the first day of Rosh Hashana at the Dalston Synagogue, the Rev. D. Wasserzug dealt with the lessons of the War. Taking his text from the second chapter of Isaiah I, the preacher pointed out the remarkable parallelism that existed in the political conditions of Judah, under Ahab and Europe in our own time. Both ages had enjoyed great material prosperity, both were animated by a coarse vain glory, and in the intoxication of their pride both fell under the temptation of forgetting God and ascribing their successes to their own skill and prowess. And having deposed the God of Righteousness from his throne, they set up in his place a new god, a hideous monster bolstered up by spear and cannon. Right wars superseded by might, meekness was regarded as weakness, brute force alone was triumphant. And as in those remote days, so now they _____sed what this exaltation of force led to. But out of the mad welter of fire and blood and ruin that stormed around them, was there no sign that they might carry with them into the New Year, that might inspire them with hope for the dawning of a brighter and better day for mankind? In the first place, the truth will be brought home to the hearts of men that the corner stone of their national life is not the sword and cannon, but the worship of God, and the practice of righteousness. They will now learn with ever growing clearness and force that what is morally wrong, cannot be politically right, and that whatsoever nations violate the laws of righteousness, shall surely be overtaken by shame and remorse. They will now learn that the truest form of culture is loyalty to God and his precepts. And the Jewish community too, might draw some hope from the situation, too. Just as the pistol shot of the retched young Serbian student at Sarajevo fired the train which has exploded in blood and ruin over the whole continent, so the heroism of the young Russian Jewish student – Osnas – may yet, under Providence, herald the dawn of a happier and more liberal era for our Russian brethren. His bravery, as well as the undoubted enthusiasm of the Russian Jews for their country’s cause, has touched the hearts and impressed the imagination of the Russian people as they have never before been touched and impressed, so that the blood which our brothers were shedding so prodigally for Russia may yet be the seed of a rich and noble harvest of freedom, of which their children may enjoy. Affection has never been a stronger spiritual agent than prosperity, and like a storm, this war may yet cleanse the European air of the moral atmosphere which has infected it.

Soldiers of The Great War: Jewish Military Service in WW I, as Reported in The Jewish Chronicle – “An American Souvenir Hunter”, September 25, 1914

The following article from The Jewish Chronicle is of a different sort: An very brief account about conditions in Belgium, by a Private Cohen – first name not given – of the Royal Army Medical Corps. The incidental allusion to “an American” is notable.

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AN AMERICAN SOUVENIR HUNTER

The Jewish Chronicle

September 25, 1914

Another soldier in the R.A.M.C. – also named Cohen – who has been captured and has escaped, writing from Shorncliffe Military Hospital, says, “I am footsore with walking in a pair of boots three sizes too big for me but I am in great hopes of going to the front again shortly. I was in two battles, and the bullets were all round us, as we have been in the firing-line all the time. I have buried a lot of Englishmen and one German. Enclosed please find two German souvenirs I took off a dead German’s cap. I was offered (pound) 1 for them by an American.”

Soldiers of The Great War: Jewish Military Service in WW I, as Reported in The Jewish Chronicle – “Story of an escape”, September 25, 1914 (Private Victor Cohen)

Here is another article about a “Private Cohen” of the Royal Army Medical Corps that also appeared in the 25 September 1914 issue of the Chronicle. This time, however, said Private Cohen has a first name: Victor.

It would seem likely that “this” Private Cohen is the very same soldier referred to in the prior article, given that the individual in this account is also reported to have escaped from German captivity. More than a mere coincidence in reporting, I would suggest.

A review of records in the database of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission fortunately yields no entries for this man, so presumably, he survived the war.

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STORY OF AN ESCAPE

The Jewish Chronicle

September 25, 1914

Private Victor Cohen, of the R.A.M.C., who had been taken prisoner by the Germans and escaped, has written to his parents an account of his experiences. It was during the retreat from a small village named Augre that Private Cohen was captured. “I must say,” writes Private Cohen, who is now at Aldershot, “the Germans did not ill-treat us, but gave us food and wine for our wounded.” He goes on to say, however, that, “they took everything of any value from the villages and that wounded brought in from a house three miles away were found to be without clothes. They said the Germans had taken all their clothes away and left them out on the field.” “Six of us,” Private Cohen continues, “meant to escape, and we made up our mind to go separately. I had made all my plans, but they fell through when I found that the only bridge left up, and which I had to cross, was guarded by Germans. I then made up my mind to hide in a wood till the Germans retreated, but by the greatest of luck I heard of a Belgian soldier who had escaped from Maubeuge, and was trying to get to Ghent. When he heard of me, he at once got me a civilian suit, etc., and the two of us started from Douai at night. We walked from eight o’clock on Monday night till eight the next morning, and passed through the Herman patrols without anybody seeing us. We arrived in Ghent on Tuesday night, and the English Consul gave me a passport. … I interviewed the Consul at Ostend and arrived in England on Wednesday.” The writer adds that he hopes to leave again shortly.

In the Maelstrom of the Great War: Jewish Civilians in WW I, as Reported in The Jewish Chronicle – “In the Track of the Storm – Pathetic Scenes Among the Jewish Refugees”, September 18, 1914

Certainly; inevitably; naturally, many of the articles published by The Jewish Chronicle during “The Great War” – as well as during the Second World War – focused upon the experiences, travails, challenges, and living conditions of civilians. Alas, this would seem to have been inevitable, given that the Twentieth Century was the century of “total war”.

The following article is one such example, and covers the plight of Jewish refugees who had been evacuated from Antwerp, Belgium, at the beginning of the war. The author focuses upon refugees at Great Alie Street, in Whitechapel, and Soho Street, in Westminster. At least one refugee was a resident of Lodz, who, while visiting family in Antwerp, was caught up in the storm of war. Doubtless, the same or similar would have pertained to many other refugees in the context of this article.

(Like most – if not all – reports carried by the Chronicle, the reporter’s name is not given; he is simply referred to as “our representative”.)

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IN THE TRACK OF THE STORM
PATHETIC SCENES AMONG THE JEWISH REFUGEES

The Jewish Chronicle
September 18, 1914

[Special to the “Jewish Chronicle”]

“Never have I witnessed so much weeping as in the past week. It has been a veritable vale of tears.”

The words were addressed to a representative of the JEWISH CHRONICLE by the Secretary of the Jews’ Temporary Shelter, and they could easily be believed. But unless hearts be stone there was cause for years among the visitors and the workers, as well as among the wretched refugees who have fled pell-mell to the shelter for asylum.

It is a motley throng that crowds the building. They stand in the doorway; they block the staircase; the fill the dining-room; they bear in their appearance and often forlorn state the unmistakable appearance of human flotsam and jetsam, swept hither and thither in the track of the storm.

It is a mixed gathering – most of them young. Only a few greybeards to be seen here and there, and no schnorrers. Some of them had offered their last few coins for the food they received, but proffered them, of course, in vain. Men there are with hundreds of thousands of francs in the bank, and unable to draw more than ten shillings a week. A number are well dressed; most “receive” with reluctance.

Here a student poring over a book; there a little group watching a game of chess; elsewhere a crowd pressing forward for dinner tickets; or a knot of Russian volunteers, in Belgian uniform – not the advance guard, by the way, of a certain elusive army. And everywhere the child – the child in arms, the child at the breast, the playing child, the weeping child. The playing child is delightful. For it the Kaiser and all his men are a myth. How merrily it laughs. But the crying child and the sick child –

Half a dozen mothers are waiting for Dr. Morris – who is generously busy among the refugees – with their little ones in their arms. A few of the infants are wand and pale and evidently ill. One of the mothers turns the child over, and glances anxiously at it; and the tears well into her eyes.

A father walks up and down the room to soothe his baby, and a tiny tot of two years at most – his other infant – marches alongside of him, holding the corner of his coat, with a look of stolid determination on its grimy face to hold on till grim death, what would look ludicrous, if the circumstances were not so tragic. The children! They sit on the steps. They walk around your legs. They cry in their perambulator. Yes, how did that mother bring that perambulator with her in her precipitate flight from Belgium? But there is, wedged in the variegated crowd – a wheeled miracle of the exodus.

A young woman sits in the corner with her two children – one at her breast. Beside her, her mother, with three other grandchildren, and not far off the father and mother of the three other little ones. All are ill-clad and apparently penniless. The first-mentioned daughter had come from Lodz on a visit to her mother at Antwerp, and was caught in the fury of the gale. Her husband? – Heaven knows where. Perhaps in the army; but she has had no word from him for eight weeks.

“Why were you driven out?” one asks.

“Driven out?” is the answer, “No; we escaped.” And then comes the explanation. The Zeppelins had terrified them. They had been ordered down to the cellars at the first sound of the air-craft’s approach – damp, dark cellars; and the family had fled in fear. It is the same story everywhere.

“We had three weeks of Zeppelin terror,” says an intelligent young girl; “we could stand it no longer.”

Round the corner in Monnickendam Rooms, Great Alie Street, another throng is gathered. Here clothes are given out, and down below dinner is served. It is a spacious, pleasant room, and the meals are distributed at separate tables, and the cry is – “Women and children first” – not so inappropriate after all, for the people have suffered shipwreck. One little girls grasps a toy with grim and inflexible tenacity. Pretty scene! Most welcome touch.

What wizard is conjuring up the wherewithal to feed this host? The 4s. per person provided by the Russian Government goes a very short way. During the last two weeks or so about 1,400 Jewish refugees have flocked to the Shelter, to say nothing of one hundred Christian guests. The women and children – some one hundred and fifty in number – are lodged at the Shelter.

Three hundred men are housed and fed in the workhouse at Poland Street, given by the authorities at the Local Government Board. Others are housed with good, kind, if poor, hosts in the East End, who surrender sometimes their own bed to the strangers from over the sea; and for yet others bedrooms are hired. Between six and seven hundred receive meals at the Shelter, and between three and four hundred more in the Monnickendam Rooms. And food is plentiful. Mr. Landes and his friends find, the money from someone and somewhere.

But the tide is still coming inwards. The Leyland Line picked up 52 Jews at Antwerp a few days ago and brought them here, and no one can place limits to the influx or would; for the Aliens Act, most crazy of structures, collapses at the first serious crisis.

The institution at Poland Street is being got ready for 800 persons and that will relieve the pressure in the East End. A library of 500 books has been sent there, and a synagogue has been fitted up; and the refugees will be made as comfortable as may be. But “How Long?” is the cry. Who can find employment for at least some of these people so that they may resume the independent self-respecting lives that they lived till the swarms of the modern Attila swooped down on Belgium and turned civilisation into a sham and a peaceful land into a shambles? Meanwhile, Mr. Landes and his colleagues move among this host, bringing succor, and the refugee’s lots is brightened. But that cry of the children rings insistently in the ear!

Soldiers of The Great War: Jewish Military Service in WW I, as Reported in The Jewish Chronicle – “The Sinking of the Pathfinder”, September 11, 1914 (Stoker William Stern)

The photograph below appeared in the September 9 issue of The Jewish World.

It commemorates Stoker 1st Class William Stern (K/5331) of the Royal Navy, who was killed in the sinking of HMS Pathfinder on September 5; four days earlier.

Born in Bishopsgate, London, on July 3, 1891, William was the son of Jacob and Esther. His name is memorialized on Panel 5 of the Chatham Naval Memorial, in Kent.

The very brief, two-sentence announcement of his death which is presented below, appeared in the Chronicle on September 11.

As for the Pathfinder… A plethora of information about the ship, her crew, and her loss can be found on the Internet. She has the tragic distinction of having been the first ship ever to have been sunk by a motor-powered (self-propelled) torpedo.

(Based on the Wikipedia entry…) She was launched in July of 1904 and commissioned in 1905, as the lead ship of the Pathfinder class of scout cruisers. Struck in a forward magazine by a torpedo fired by the U-Boat U-21 (commanded by Otto Hersing) while off the Firth of Forth, she exploded, and sank within four minutes. The total number of casualties is reported to have been 250, with eighteen known survivors, including the ship’s captain, Captain Francis Martin-Leake.

As reported in the Daily Mail on September 8, 2014, a century after the Pathfinder’s sinking, a wreath was placed over the site of her wreck by members of the British Sub-Aqua Club, in the presence of members of the Royal Navy, and, Royal Marines.

Among those in attendance were members of Stoker Stern’s family, a photograph of whom appears in the Mail’s article.

Note that the caption mentions the Pathfinder as having been sunk by a mine. This was reported as such due to the Admiralty’s belief – at the time – that surface warships could not be sunk by torpedoes.

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The Sinking of the Pathfinder
JEWISH SAILOR GOES DOWN WITH THE SHIP

The Jewish Chronicle
September 11, 1914

We regret to announce that among the crew of H.M.S. “Pathfinder” who perished when that vessel was mined in the North Sea was a Jew, Stoker William Stern. Stoker Stern’s relatives reside in Bell Lane, E.

References

U-21 Sinks HMS Pathfinder 5 September 1914, by Martin Gibson.

Tribute to the first ever casualty of the U-Boats: Divers lay wreath on the wreck of HMS Pathfinder 100 years after submarine sent it to the bottom

H.M.S. Pathfinder (1904)

Soldiers of The Great War: Jewish Military Service in WW I, as Reported in The Jewish Chronicle – “Jews in the Black Watch”, September 11, 1914

A commentary and a question, in the form of a very brief article:

“What were they doing?”

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Jews in The Black Watch
“BONNIER LADS AND BRAVER I DON’T WISH TO SEE”

The Jewish Chronicle
September 11, 1914

Somebody asked a question about the Jews – what were they doing? A Highlander broke in sharply, “Doing? Well, their duty. We had three with us, and bonnier lads and braver I don’t wish to see. They fought just splendid!”

There was a private of the Berkshire Regiment with the Highlanders, and he also had a good word to say of the Jews at the Front. “We had ten in our company,” he remarked, “all good fighters, and six won’t be seen again. So don’t say a word against the Jews!”

Soldiers of The Great War: Jewish Military Service in WW I, as Reported in The Jewish Chronicle – “A Jewish Soldier at Mons”, and, “Jewish Wounded in London Hospital”, September 11, 1914 (Gunner Victor Freedman, Private Isaac Levy, and Alfred Springer)

The Chronicle not uncommonly published full letters, or extracts of letters, from servicemen, describing their observations and experiences. Here is a letter from a Jewish soldier – Private Levy, from Leeds – describing his actions during the retreat of the British Army from Mons.

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A Jewish Soldier at Mons
GALLANTRY IN THE FIELD

The Jewish Chronicle
September 11, 1914

A letter has been received from Private Levy, of Leeds, who has been serving as a private in the Royal Munster Fusiliers, and who has been invalided from the front.

“I have been sent home from the front very poorly,” he says. “The fighting was all round Mons. We were sent up to the firing line to try and save a battery. When we got there we found that they were nearly all killed or wounded. Our Irish lads opened fire on the dirty Germans, and you should have seen them fall. It was like a game of skittles. But as soon as you knocked them down up came another thousand or so. We could not make out where they came from. So all of a sudden our officer gave us the order to charge. We fixed bayonets and went like fire through them. You should have seen them run. We had two companies of ours there against about 3,000 of theirs, and I tell you it was warm. I was not sorry when night time came, but that was not all. You see we had no horses to get those guns away, and our chaps would not leave them. We dragged them ourselves to a place of safety. As the firing line was at full swing we had with us an officer of the Hussars. I think he was next to me, and he had his hand nearly blown off by one of the German shells. So I and two more fellows picked him up and took him to a place of safety, where he got his wound cared for. I heard afterwards that he had been sent home, poor fellow.”

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But, this is not the end of the story of Private Levy’s story.

Within the same issue of the Chronicle, an account of his experiences appears with additional detail, described in the context of a visit by the Chief Rabbi, and Reverend S. Levy, to wounded Jewish soldiers at the London Hospital.

Other Jewish soldiers are mentioned in the article. They are:

Gunner Victor Freedman, from Edinburgh, of the 52nd Battery, Royal Field Artillery

Private Levy himself – first name revealed as Isaac – who is reported as having been from Rounday Road, in Leeds.

Alfred Springer, Motor Transport, Army Service Corps.

There are no records for these three men in the database of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission, and they are not mentioned as fatalities in the British Jewry Book of Honour, so it appears that fortunately, they survived the war.

In its discussion of Jews serving in the military, the article alludes to the fact that Private Levy was, “…not the only Jew in the “Munsters”. The Irish lads have two other Hebrew comrades, who bear, however, the unlikely names of Sergeant Jacks and Private Gallagher. Strange, but true.” This topic – the enlistment of some Jewish soldiers under ostensibly non-stereotypically “Jewish-sounding”-names – would be addressed by both The Jewish Chronicle and the American Jewish Exponent, and other Jewish newspapers and periodicals, in editorials, commentaries, and articles, through the remainder of the War.

And, after.

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JEWISH WOUNDED IN THE LONDON HOSPITAL
PERSONAL NARRATIVE

The Jewish Chronicle
September 11, 1914

The Chief Rabbi, accompanied by the Rev. S. Levy, the Visiting Minister, paid a visit on Monday to the wounded soldiers in the London Hospital, and talked with several of the men on their experiences at the front. The Jewish soldiers in particular were very grateful for this mark of attention paid to them. Two Jewish soldiers in the hospital are: –

Victor Freedman, 32, Albion Road, Edinburgh, Gunner, 52nd Battery, R.F.A. Bullet wound in right arm; wounded between Cambrai and Le Cateau; going to convalesce at Lord Lucas, Luton, Bedford. Anxious to go back to the front after convalescence instead of being kept for home defence.

Isaac Levy, 9, Badminton Street, Roundhay Road, Leeds, Private, Royal Munster Fusiliers. Invalided, Mons.

The Chief Rabbi paid a further visit to the London Hospital on Tuesday, and together with the Rev. S. Levy conducted an Intercession Service in each of the Hebrew Wards.

A number of Jewish soldiers, writes a representative of the JEWISH CHRONICLE, are known to have been in the London Hospital with the rest of the invalided troops who are being cared for in that wonderful institution. One of them was Gunner Freedman, of the 52nd Battery, R.F.A., who got a bullet in his arm in the fighting between Cambrai and Le Cateau. He is now convalescing at Luton, Beds. Another is Alfred Springer, Motor Transport A.S.C., who was injured whilst engaged in capturing a motor lorry from the enemy at Cambrai. A third is Isaac Levy, of the Royal Munster Fusiliers. Levy, too, is recuperating well. He was taken ill one evening it seems, but continued marching with his regiment – that interminable round of marching, tempered with fighting, which brought the Allies to the environs of Paris, but has now, thank goodness, begun in the opposite direction. Levy marched about six miles, but his condition grew worse, and he lay down in the road until a hospital wagon picked him up. It was five and a half hours before this happened. But that is only a very little incident in an heroic campaign. The medical description of the illness is “gastritis,” or, as the soldier put it to a JEWISH CHRONICLE representative, “I was nearly poisoned.”

Private Levy, whose progress as an athlete made him one of the favourites of the regiment, is not the only Jew in the “Munsters”. The Irish lads have two other Hebrew comrades, who bear, however, the unlikely names of Sergeant Jacks and Private Gallagher. Strange, but true.

Private Levy left them at the front, “hearty and well.” Indeed, it was Sergt. Jacks, an old chum, who originally put it into Levy’s head to enlist, 10 ½ years ago. Levy was over in Ireland, and as three years in the Army seemed to him a bit of a holiday and the prospects of seeing foreign lands counted for something, the Jew joined the Irishmen. He has been to Gibraltar and India, and 6 ½ years ago he returned to civil life and tailoring at Leeds. Then, as a reservist, he was called back to the colours, was taken by steamer to Havre, and thence to Mons, where he was soon in action.

“It started on the Sunday morning,” he told our representative, “and it lasted on and off till the following Wednesday morning. Food was rather scares and so was sleep, for we only slept about two hours a night.”

Did you come across any Jewish soldiers in the other British regiments?

“We had not time to see anybody. It was all fighting and marching. The marching was tremendous. We did fifteen miles some days; another day we would do twenty-five.

“I was right up at the firing line; and though I did not get home with the bayonet, I managed to pop off a good many Germans with the rifle. You could not help it, they came in clusters.

“At one time our regiment was cut off, and Germans came down on us very quickly, but we made a fight of it. A battery of artillery was surrounded by the enemy. The horses were killed and the men all accounted for, barring about three or four. Our boys wanted to take the guns with us and would not leave them at the mercy of the Germans. So we dragged them ourselves to a place of safety. It took several hours. It was a drag, about ten miles, I should think.

“At one time an officer of Hussars joined us in the firing line. He was next to me. He had his arm shattered by a German shell, so I and two others picked him up, put him on a stray horse, and took him to a hospital wagon. We afterwards heard that he had been sent home.”

Private Levy did not witness any atrocities, but he says that he was told of them by the women and children in every town he came to. The German infantry he dismisses contemptuously as “absolutely tommy-rot – no good at all.” But the artillery he describes as good, adding, after a moment, “well, there’s so many of them.” As for the German cavalry, they are “not up to striking pitch – not so clever as ours.”

Like every other man back from the Front, Private Levy is confident that the German troops object very strongly to cold steel. When they see it, they “rush about the field like wild maniacs, and hold up their hands.”

The Munsters seem to have suffered extremely severely, according to Private Levy’s account. The roll-call, he says, showed that out of 1,116 men, only 240 were left; while of 33 officers 19 were wounded and missing – all in 4 days fighting.

However, the spirit of the British troops are as buoyant as ever.

“I dare say we’ll have to go back and fight,” said Private Levy. “We’ll have another go before it is over. But,” he added, folding his arms, and with a look of absolute certainty on his face, “they can’t stand long. We have started driving them back. One big fight and we’ll finish it. Well, it might go on till Christmas – but that’s the longest. Everybody thinks so, officers and all. The Germans are a body of tired and hungry men, and only too pleased to get captured” – with which cheery assurance our representative took farewell of the soldier.

Soldiers of The Great War: Jewish Military Service in WW I, as Reported in The Jewish Chronicle – “Freedom for the Russian Jew”, September 11, 1914

From the commencement of World War One, continuing until the cessation of Imperial Russia’s military involvement in the conflict, the Chronicle regularly carried news reports covering the military participation of Jewish soldiers in the Russian Army, military awards received by Russian Jewish soldiers, participation of and support by Russian Jewry for Russia’s military, and especially – to a very great degree – the full spectrum of political and social developments affecting the condition of the Jews of Russia.

An example follows below:

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FREEDOM FOR THE RUSSIAN JEW
TO SERVE AS OFFICERS
BAN REMOVED.
REWARD OF BRAVERY.

The Jewish Chronicle
September 11, 1914

The Special Correspondent of the Standard at Petrograd telegraphs as follows, under date of September 5th: –

Jews will in future be admitted as officers of the Russian Army and Navy.

The announcement of this important change in the position of the Jews in the Russian Empire is made on official authority, and has been well received in all quarters.

Up to the present no Jew has ever been allowed to be a military or naval officer. The decision to admit them to the highest ranks of both services is officially stated to be due to the gallantry which Jews serving as common soldiers have displayed in the battles already fought.

An Imperial decree has enabled the Russian Commander-in-Chief to confer officers’ commissions on several hundred Jews who gained exceptional distinction in the fighting that preceded the capture of Lemberg.

I am authorised to state that the admission of Jews as officers of the Army and Navy will be followed in due course by the removal of civil law restrictions on members of the Hebrew community. The Pale will be swept away, and Jews will be admitted to full rights of Russian citizenship.

Those Russian newspapers which were formerly advocates of a relentless anti-Semitism not only refrain from raising any objectives to this startling innovation, but express their approval in the warmest terms.

I find the same feeling prevails in those circles of Russian society in which it was formerly almost a breach of etiquette even to mention the name of a Jew. The war has swept away this particular remnant of medieval barbarism, and has inaugurated a new era for the Jews of Russia.

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[FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT.] PETROGRAD

The Jewish volunteer Katz has gained much fame in a battle in East Prussia. The Commander of the Army not only personal handed over to him the Order of St. George for bravery, but also presented him to the rank of sub-Lieutenant.

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Those news items covering the participation of Russian Jewish soldiers – the first example of which, for the “volunteer Katz,” appears above – typically list the soldiers’ surnames, and the military awards they received. I believe that the surnames published in such articles were themselves derived (and translated) from lists issued by the Russian government, or, appearing in Russian newspapers.

Soldiers of The Great War: Jewish Military Service in WW I, as Reported in The Jewish Chronicle – The First Report: “A Cyclist Soldier’s Heroism”, September 11, 1914 (Cyclist Maurice Davis)

The following news item marks the first of many accounts carried by The Jewish Chronicle covering the participation and experiences of individual soldiers, over the course of the First World War.

The accompanying photograph was published in The Jewish World on September 16, 1914, and is one of several hundred such images – of highly varying size and quality – that appeared in that publication during the course of the conflict, the publication of such portraits in the World generally coinciding with their appearance in the Chronicle. The very few photographs that appeared in the Chronicle during this era were typically of scholars, academics, majority military figures, or statesmen, and accompanied biographical sketches, or, in-depth interviews. Photographs in the World had a much more “common” touch, showing servicemen of all ranks, and, all branches of the military.

Based on a review of the British Jewry Book of Honour, issues of The Jewish Chronicle published between 1914 and 1919, and, the CWGC database, it seems that Cyclist Davis did, fortunately, survive the war.

However, there is a possibility that he was wounded after the incident reported below.

In Casualty Lists published in the Chronicle on July 2, October 15, and November 26 of 1915, notices were carried respectively about a “Private Morris”, “Rifleman M.”, and “Private M.” – Harris – in each case of the 17th, London Regiment – having been wounded in action. Perhaps one or more of these three persons was actually Cyclist Davis? In any event, typical of “wounded in action” announcements for The First World War – unlike those published in the Chronicle during World War Two – the soldier’s next-of-kin and place of residence are not listed, so ambiguity remains.

The transcribed article follows…

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A Cyclist Soldier’s Heroism
The Jewish Chronicle
September 11, 1914

Cyclist Maurice Davis, 17th Company of London, G. Company, has been commended for the heroism he displayed at a serious conflagration that broke out the other day in St. Albans, where he was stationed with his regiment. Obeying the order to save the petrol from the fire, Cyclist Davis entered and left the burning building on several occasions, and eventually was rendered unconscious, having sustained severe burns. He is now receiving treatment at the King’s College Hospital and is making progress.