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 war, world and/or war:
“War is like love, it always finds a way.”
—Bertolt Brecht (18981956)
“If the Third World War is fought with nuclear weapons, the fourth will be fought with bows and arrows.”
—Louis, 1st Earl Mountbatten Of Burma Mountbatten (19001979)
“Has he all that the world loves and admires and covets?he must cast behind him their admiration, and afflict them by faithfulness to his truth, and become a byword and a hissing.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (18031882)
“Peace to the shacks! War on the palaces!”
—Georg Büchner (18131837)