What were the roles of the jewish people during the civil war?

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No one would disagree that Jewish Americans have made immeasurable contributions to the life and welfare of the United States of America. Yet while their contribution and participation in education and the media is well known, many people are unfamiliar with the varied experiences and roles of Jews during the American Civil War. This was a formative period for American Jewry, and it evidences the highs and the lows that have been a part of Jewish life.

The presence of Jews in the northern United States is a fact with universally recognized, but they also been an active part of the American South. Jews first came to the southern states in the late 17^th century, and some of the earliest Jewish communities in America were founded in Charleston, South Carolina, and Savannah, Georgia. It is no surprise, then, that Jews played a significant part in the American Civil War on both sides of the conflict.

Although Jews had served in the armed forces of the United States prior to the Civil War, it was not until the War Between the States that Jews were admitted as chaplains for the military. In the North, Jacob Frankel, leader of the Rodeph Shalom Congregation in Philadelphia, became the first Jewish chaplain in 1862, joining ranks that were previously open only to Christians. He was not the only Jew to hold an important position during the period, yet we have to look South to find the most notable Jew of the American Civil War.

The most famous American Jew from the Civil War period is Judah P. Benjamin. Benjamin was born in the West Indies in 1811, raised in Charleston, South Carolina, and later became a United States Senator from Louisiana. When the Confederate States of America seceded in 1861, Confederate President Jefferson Davis chose Benjamin for the position of Attorney General, but Benjamin would move on to serve as Secretary of War and then later, Secretary of State.

Interestingly, Benjamin seems to have taken the blame willingly on several occasions for the missteps of the Confederacy even though he did not deserve it. He also proposed that the Southern states free any slave who volunteered to fight for the Confederacy, an idea that Southern citizens rejected soundly. Benjamin fled to England at the end of the Civil War, for many people unfairly blamed him for the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, and he is today buried in Pere Lachaise Cemetery in Paris.

Given the racism associated with the American South, it is ironic that the most notorious example of anti-Semitism occurred under the watch of a Northern general. In December of 1862, General Ulysses S. Grant issued an order calling for the expulsion of all Jews from Kentucky, Mississippi, and Tennessee. He appears to have been frustrated in trying to control Northern access to Southern cotton and was reacting to the involvement of some Jews in that industry. In any case, Abraham Lincoln went on to order Grant to rescind the order only a month later, and despite the incident, Grant later enjoyed the support of many Jews in his run for the presidency of the United States.

Many historians would credit Jewish participation in the American Civil War with helping American Jews develop a self-conscious identity as American citizens. Undoubtedly, this is true. A greater knowledge of the Jewish community’s role in the Civil War would go a long way to helping American society better understand how Jewish Americans are an integral part of the fabric of American life.

For more information on Jews in the Civil War:

• Jews and anti-Semitism in the Civil War
• American Jewish Historical Society
• University of South Carolina Jewish Studies Initiative
• Princeton University Website for Jewish Studies Resources
• Jewish Heroes and Heroines in American History
• Columbia Encyclopedia Entry on Judah Philip Benjamin
• General Ulysses S. Grant's Expulsion of the Jews

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