Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War — the Union Army by Professor Adam D. Mendelsohn.
Review by Ch, Maj Elie Estrin, USAFR
History can be a tricky devil. There’s the history that we know, the history that we wish happened, and imagined history, and sometimes all three can get mixed into the same pot. Often, the resulting soup is harmless; have little smatterings of innocuous data that no one knows are wrong or misinterpreted. And sometimes the results can be flat out poisonous; witness the atrocious assault on history being played out in today’s discussion regarding Israel. But we digress—the book under review here is about when bearded troops were the norm, not the result of a religious accommodation waiver.
In Professor Adam Mendelsohn’s fascinating book with this name, the history of Jewish soldiers in the Civil War turns out to be quite a mixed batch. Mendelsohn pores over the Shapell Manuscript archives and draws out the information gleaned from period letters, diaries and new articles. His extraction of the information results in a new look at the old line: Jews signed up for the military in greater numbers than their peers, percentage-wise. His conclusion is not only is that factually incorrect, but that the Jewish community was, by and large, reticent about the whole issue, and perhaps even anti-war.
While reading the material Mendelsohn has prepared—beautifully so, I might add; the book is a quality visual creation—I found myself vacillating on this conclusion for two reasons: First, the conclusions are gleaned from the material at hand. It is certainly possible that the material tends to lean in one specific direction due to outside influences. For example, much of the Jewish press coverage that Mendelsohn uses to paint his picture stem from Isaac Mayer Wise, the founder of the Reform movement in America, and a man with a very clear agenda. Ostensibly, the more traditional Jewish population may have had a very different view than his, but would be much less represented in print. Second, I believe that a significant amount of the public Jewish persona was (and possibly still is) based on their cultural-societal reaction. War, for the history of the Jewish people, has typically resulted in awful things for Jewish communities, no matter which side they placed themselves. I would presume, putting myself in the shoes of so many Jewish immigrants, the last thing they wanted to do was publicly take a side—and pay for it soon after. And this would be despite the fact that one may identify more strongly with one side or the other. Feelings such as these would not be expressed in written word as much as they would be through reticence.
Mendelsohn also seems to negate the religious experiences of some of the characters he presents, describing them as irreligious or not devout. Personally, I disagreed with several of his characterizations, as they may be missing key information regarding one’s upbringing or one’s spiritual movement. A letter is a snapshot in time, while a human being is a broad swath of spiritual complexity. Perhaps this is my theology peering into the minds of these soldiers, but it is my firm belief that someone can simultaneously celebrate Passover wholeheartedly while struggling with—or being ignorant of—other religious strictures. This does not turn them hypocritical.
While I’d have preferred the information to be presented in as raw a format as possible, the book remains a fascinating treasure trove of historical and personal data, and is a valuable addition to the library of any military history buff.
Originally published in the Pesach 5784 issue of The Jewish American Warrior.
