Jewish American History - World War I

World War I

The number of Jews who served in the American military during World War I was disproportionate to their representation in the American population at large. The 250,000 Jews who served represented approximately 5% of the American armed forces whereas Jews only constituted 3% of the general population. As early as 1914, the American Jewish community mobilized its resources to assist the victims of the European war. Cooperating to a degree not previously seen, the various factions of the American Jewish community—native-born and immigrant, Reform, Orthodox, secular, and socialist—coalesced to form what eventually became known as the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. All told, American Jews raised 63 million dollars in relief funds during the war years and became more immersed in European Jewish affairs than ever before.

Read more about this topic:  Jewish American History

Famous quotes containing the words war i, world and/or war:

    War is not a life: it is a situation,
    One which may neither be ignored nor accepted.
    —T.S. (Thomas Stearns)

    Indeed, I thought, slipping the silver into my purse ... what a change of temper a fixed income will bring about. No force in the world can take from me my five hundred pounds. Food, house and clothing are mine for ever. Therefore not merely do effort and labour cease, but also hatred and bitterness. I need not hate any man; he cannot hurt me. I need not flatter any man; he has nothing to give me.
    Virginia Woolf (1882–1941)

    A sergeant of the lawe, war and wys,
    That often hadde been at the Parvys,
    Ther was also, ful riche of excellence.
    Geoffrey Chaucer (1340?–1400)