Jewish Americans have served in the United States armed forces dating back to before the colonial era, when Jews had served in militias of the Thirteen Colonies. Jewish military personnel have served in all branches of the armed forces and in every major armed conflict to which the United States has been involved. According to the U.S. Department of Defense, as of 2006 there were currently 3,973 known Jewish servicemen and servicewomen on active duty.
A number of Jewish American servicemen have gained fame due to their military service, and many have received awards and decorations for distinguished service, valor, or heroism. More than 20 Jewish servicemen were awarded the military's highest award, the Medal of Honor. Many other American Jews who served in the military later achieved prominence in business, politics, science, entertainment and other fields. American Jews, both native- and foreign-born, have also been significant in the development of American military science and technology—including physicists Albert Einstein, J. Robert Oppenheimer, Richard Feynman, and Edward Teller, who were important in the Manhattan Project, which led to the development of the first nuclear weapons.
Participation by war
French and Indian War Though the history of Jews in this pre-independence conflict is poorly documented, the 19th century historian Simon Wolf documented one Jew from New York who became captain of a company of bateau men, and two others who served in an expedition across the Allegheny Mountains.Simon Wolf. The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen. The Levytype Company, 1895
American Revolutionary War
On the eve of the American Revolutionary War the Jewish population of the thirteen colonies numbered somewhere between 2,000 and 3,000, out of a total colonial population of roughly 2.5 million, and was concentrated in five port towns: New York, Newport, Philadelphia, Charleston and Savannah. Historians generally estimate that over 100 Jewish men can be documented in Patriot service, whether in the Continental Army, in state militias, or in the commissary and supply establishment.
Because the Patriot forces imposed no religious test on enlistment or commissioning, Jews could hold commissions in the American service at a time when a commission in the British Army still required a Christian oath. At least fifteen Jewish men are known to have become officers. Among them were colonel Mordecai Sheftall of Savannah, chairman of the local revolutionary committee and Deputy Commissary General of Issues to Continental troops in South Carolina and Georgia, who was captured with his son Sheftall Sheftall at the fall of Savannah in December 1778 and held aboard a prison ship; Solomon Bush, appointed deputy adjutant general of the Pennsylvania militia in July 1777, severely wounded in a skirmish on Chestnut Hill that September and afterwards promoted to lieutenant colonel; and lieutenant colonel David Salisbury Franks, a Montreal merchant who joined the American cause during the invasion of Canada, served as aide-de-camp to Benedict Arnold, was exonerated and cleared of any complicity after Arnold's defection, and who later carried dispatches to the American commissioners in Europe. Wolf's rosters were compiled largely from correspondence and from surname inference, and his Revolutionary list includes men now known not to have been Jewish; he is cited here only where he reproduces contemporary documents.
Francis Salvador, a London-born planter who in 1774 became the first Jew elected to a legislative body in the American colonies when he took a seat in the South Carolina Provincial Congress, was killed in an ambush in the Cherokee backcountry on 1 August 1776, and is generally identified as the first Jew to die in the war. In Charleston, so many men from the King Street Jewish neighbourhood enlisted in the militia company of Captain Richard Lushington that it became known as the "Jews' Company"; it fought at Beaufort in 1779, and some of its members were killed or captured during the Siege of Charleston the following year. Others served outside the line: Philip Moses Russell was a surgeon's mate with the 2nd Virginia Regiment at Valley Forge, and Haym Salomon, twice arrested by the British in occupied New York, acted as broker to U.S. Superintendent of Finance Robert Morris and extended personal loans to members of the Continental Congress.
As in the wider colonial population, Jewish allegiance was divided. At least fifteen New York Jews remained in the occupied city and openly declared for the Crown, and the congregation of Shearith Israel split, one of its two Torah scrolls leaving for Connecticut with the hazzan Gershom Mendes Seixas while the other stayed behind.
David Franks of Philadelphia served the British as commissary of prisoners and was tried for treason when the Americans retook the city; Isaac Hart, a Newport merchant and declared loyalist, was bayoneted by Patriot raiders at Lloyd's Neck in 1780 and died of his wounds.
Haym Solomon
During the American Revolutionary War, the Polish-born Haym Solomon (1740–1785), who immigrated to New York and was a friend of George Washington, was a key financier who helped fund the Continental Army. Solomon became the agent to the French consul, as well as the paymaster for the French forces in North America. In 1781, he began working extensively with Robert Morris, the newly appointed Superintendent for Finance for the Thirteen Colonies.Wiernik, Peter. History of the Jews in America. New York: The Jewish Press Publishing Company, 1912. p. 96. Solomon is mentioned nearly 75 times in Morris's personal correspondence relating to the financing of the Revolution. Often working out of the "London Coffee House" in Philadelphia, at one time Solomon sold about $600,000 in bills of exchange to his clients. At one point, when Washington's war chest and the treasury of the Continental Congress was completely empty, Washington determined that he needed at least $20,000 to finance the campaign. When Morris told him there were no funds and no credit available, Washington gave him a simple but eloquent order: "Send for Haym Salomon". Haym again came through, and the $20,000 was raised. Washington conducted the Yorktown campaign, which proved to be the final battle of the Revolution, thanks to Haym Salomon.
Salomon negotiated the sale of a majority of the war aid from France and the Dutch Republic, selling bills of exchange to American merchants. Solomon also personally supported various members of the Continental Congress during their stay in Philadelphia, including James Madison and James Wilson. He requested below market interest rates, and he never asked for repayment.Wiernik, Peter. History of the Jews in America. New York: The Jewish Press Publishing Company, 1912. p. 95.
Civil War
Reflecting their pattern of long settlement in both northern and southern cities, Jews served and supported both the Union Army of the Northern States as well as the Confederate States Army of the Southern Confederate States of America during the American Civil War. They had generally taken on regional loyalties according to residence. Jews were among the supporters of each side of the American Civil War. Some 150,000 Jews lived in the United States at the time of the American Civil War, about 0.5 percent of the population.Donald Altschiller, "Jews," Encyclopedia of the American Civil War: A Political, Social, and Military History, eds. David Stephen Heidler, Jeanne T. Heidler, and David J. Coles (2000). W. W. Norton, pp. 1070–1071. One academic estimate was that at least 8,000 Jewish soldiers fought for the Union and Confederacy during the Civil War.Jonathan D. Sarna and Adam Mendelsohn. Jews and the Civil War: A Reader (2010). New York University Press, 2010. Donald Altschiller estimates that at least 10,000 Jews served, about 7,000 for the Union and 3,000 for the Confederacy, with some 600 Jewish soldiers killed in battle.
Jews also played leadership roles on both sides, with nine Jewish generals and 21 Jewish colonels participating in the war. Judah P. Benjamin, a non-observant Jew, served as Secretary of State and acting Secretary of War of the Confederacy.
Jews and the Union
The Civil War, also saw the appointment of the first official Jewish chaplain in the US Army, Rev. Jacob Frankel of Philadelphia's Congregation Rodeph Shalom, on September 18, 1862.Guide to the Records of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, American Jewish Historical Society While Catholic chaplains had been appointed first during the Mexican–American War, to serve the needs of the large influx of Irish immigrant enlistments,O'Conner, Thomas H. "Breaking the religious barrier", The Boston Globe, Boston, 10 May 2004. the same had not been accomplished for Jewish Americans; to make matters worse, in 1861 Congress ordered military regiments to appoint Chaplains who were specifically of the Christian faith. Following protests by the Board of Delegates of American Israelites and introductions by others, a meeting was held in December 1861 with President Lincoln, which led to the rescinding of the order and the appointment of the first Jewish chaplain. Some sources consider this intercession "perhaps the first example of organized Jewish lobbying in Washington".Steven Bayme, Understanding Jewish History, 1997, p. 350
During the war, approximately 7,000 Jews (out of around 150,000 Jews in the United States) fought on the Union side."The Jewish Americans" Dir. David Grubin. PBS Home Video, 2008. Disc 1, Episode 1, Chapter 5, 0:30:40 Two Union Jewish companies were raised, including Company C of the 82d Regiment of the Illinois Volunteers, made up mostly of recent immigrants from Europe, and the "Perkins Rifles" of Syracuse, New York. But, most Jews serving in the war served alongside Christian soldiers, many in units such as Company D of the 8th New York National Guard Regiment and the Light Infantry Blues of Richmond.
Four generals are known to have been Jews who served the Union and attained higher rank in the heat of key battles: Brigadier General Frederick Salomon enlisted in the Union Army in 1861. He was commissioned as a captain in the 5th Missouri Volunteers. He was appointed as a colonel in the 9th Wisconsin Infantry. In June 1862 he was promoted to brigadier general and was assigned to command a brigade. He made an unsuccessful attempt to capture Newtonia, Missouri. His unit battled the Confederate Army to defend Helena and Jenkins Ferry. He served to the end of the war and he received the brevet of major general in March 1865.Florida Atlantic University Libraries Jewish Generals and Admirals in America's Military: Major General Frederick Salomon: A Hero of the Civil War. Brevet Brigadier General Leopold Blumenberg: When the Civil War erupted, his unit was called upon to do battle in the Battle of Antietam against the Confederate Army led by General Robert E. Lee. Major Leopold Blumenberg was severely wounded. He was appointed a brevet general, an honorary rank without any an increase in pay or in authority. Because of his wounds, Blumenberg was appointed a Provost Marshal for the 3rd District of Maryland in May 1865. He was mustered out of the Army in January 1865, and President Lincoln appointed him superintendent of the Warehouses at the Baltimore custom house.Florida Atlantic University Libraries Jewish Generals and Admirals in America's Military: Brevet General Leopold Blumenberg: A Hero of the Civil War.