Civil War Exhibit
a t Jewish Museum

.

An important collection of books, manuscripts, paintings, sculpture, photo-
graphs and other memorabilia reflecting the role of the Jewish communities during
the Civil War will remain on view thru Feb. 23 at The Jewish Museum of The Jewish
Theological Seminary of America, in New York City. The historical items are dis-
played against a background designed to provide an atmosphere of realism. Examples
are pictured below.

Portrait of Abraham Lincoln painted from life by
Solomon N. Carvalho. On loan from Brandeis Uni-
versity.

The American Jew
in the Civil War

Page from diary in Yiddish of B. Cahn, a cantor
in Alsace-Lorraine, dated 1864, chronicling the un-
fortunate journey of an American ship attacked and
burned en route to New York by a Confederate vessel.
On loan- from the Yivo Institute for Jewish Social
Research.

By ALFRED H. PAUL

000 Jews in the United States
in 1860, fully two-thirds were
newcomers, immigrants fresh
Bronze head of Robert
In the old. Salem Fields ceme- from the repressions, the pov-
tery of Temple Emanuel, in one erty and the persecutions to E. Lee by Sir Moses J.
of the Long Island suburbs of which they were subjected in Ezekiel, sculptor of the
Monument to the Confed-
New York City, there is a tall Europe.
• shaft of stone. At the top of the
erate Dead in Arlington
Rabbi
David
Einhorn,
the
column, the American • eagle
Cemetery. Courtesy, Law-
Jewish
abolitionist
fleeing
a
spreads its wings. Near the bot-
rence A. Fleischman of
tom of the base, right and left, mob in Baltimore, had not yet
there are engraved fateful fig- been in this country ten years Detroit.
ures: 1861 and 1865. Above the when he entered to the full in
noted years, one reads this in- his adopted land's great politi-
cal and social struggle.
scription:
•
Rabbi Morris J. Raphall, who
"To the memory of the
soldiers of the Hebrew faith in 1861 attracted wide notice
who responded to the call of (and not all of it unfavorable)
their country and gave their for his famous sermon defend-
lives during the dark days of ing slavery as a "divinely or- ,
its need so that the Nation dained institution," had emi-
grated to I\Tew York in 1849.
might live."
Arnold Fischel, who did more
The monument had been
erected and dedicated on a cold than anyone else "toward amend-
day . in the year 1904 by the Citi- ing an act of Congress that for-
zens . Auxiliary Committee of the bade Jews to serve as chaplains,
Hebrew Union Veterans Asso- was a Dutch immigrant who re-
ciation—one of the forerunners turned to Holland after receiv-
of the present Jewish War Vet- , ing very shabby treatment from
erans of the United States. An many of his Jewish brethren
impressive replica of that meth- here. _
Abraham Lincoln's friend,
orial may be seen now on the
ground floor of the Jewish Mu- confidante, and "toenail trim-
seum, the repository of some mer," the chiropodist Isachar
extremely interesting and val- Zacharie, who, among other du-
uable memorabilia of Jewry's ties, acted also as a personal
past, maintained at 92nd St. liaison man between Lincoln
and 5th Ave., New York City, and Southern leaders (probably
by the Jewish Theological Sem- also as a spy. for the Union),
was a native , of England—
inary of America.
This year,- as the United where he returned to die, years
Silhouette sculpture of
States observes the 100th anni- after his friend Lincoln had
Abraham
Lincoln execut-
versary of the great struggle, been assassinated.
ed for the exhibit by
* * *
fought so that "the Nation
might live," the Jewish. Museum
There were only '3,000 Jews Hans Rawinsky.
displays a special exhibit ar- in the United States in 1815.
ranged by the Civil War Cen- These immigrants were largely the service of both the Union
tennial Jewish Historical Com- the Sephardic Jews who formed and the Confederacy during the
mission.
the first wave of Jewish immi- Civil War; at least 51 were staff
The exhibit points up this gration to America. But in the officers in the armies of both
central fact: The Jew in two decades preceding the Civil sides and- in the Confederate
America, North and South, War, the second wave was un- Navy. Some Jews reached very
played his role in the Civil der way. -Most of them were high rank—Major General in
War to the full; the Jew, like from Germany and adjacent the Union Army, Quartermas-
his neighbors in America, lands, although there was a ter General in the Confederacy.
was part of his country's hor- trickle also from Eastern Eur- Seven Jews received the Con-
rible travail; like his neigh- ope and some from England. gressional Medal of honor.
bors, the Jew fought the "ir- The aftermath of the Napole-
The Jewish acts of heroism
repressible conflict" with ev- onic wars, later the death of
erything he had, life and limb, the upsurge of revolutionary ac- and the Jewish deaths, on both
brain and bravery, money and tivity after 1848, had brought sides of the horrible conflict,
and muscle; Above all, with misery to many hundreds of testified to the fact that, in the
patriotism to his new coun- thousands of Jews in Europe. Civil War, as earlier in the Rev-
try—"that the Nation might They started the new wave of 'olutionary War and in the War
live." And one added factor Jewish mass immigration to the of 1812, the Jew in America
gave more than his share "that
is pointed up by the exhibit. United States.
Unlike his Christian nz:gh-
By 1860, there were about 50 the Nation might live."
bor, the Jew during the Civil Jewish congregations in the
According to the 1960 Ameri-
War period also fought for country, 15 in New York. In
his right to exist, Jo live, to 1850, there were active Jewish can Library Directory, the total
fight, to worship and to sac- communities in Detroit, Phila- number of volumes in our pub-
rifice—AS A JEW.
delphia, Cincinnati, Baltimore lic libraries is over 201 million.
* * *
California with 19 million , Ohio
and Louisville.
The American Jew's role in
Recently revised figures, dis- 16 million, and Massachusetts
the Civil War is so much more played in the exhibit at the 13 million, follow in that order.
impressive when one recalls Jewish Museum, show that there Michigan is listed seventh with
that, of the approximately 150,- were a total of 7,953 Jews in 8 million. .

(Copyright, 1961, Jewish Telegraphic
Agency, Inc.)

Reconstructed hospital tent including authentic
operating instruments and field medical equipment.

Community Joins Effort to Form
Ghetto Fighters' Israel Museum

A special project, undertaken
by many local organizations
and branches of the Labor
Zionist movement, aimed at
completing the Ghetto Fighters
Museum in Israel, will be
launched here Feb. 2. Detroit
will be the fifth American com-
munity to join in this project.
The project coincides with the
18th anniversary of the Warsaw
Ghetto revolt against the Nazis.
The museum is being estab-
lished at Kibbutz Lohamei Hag-
getaot in Western Galilee. It
was formed in 1949 and is a
Unique social experiment. The
settlers shared the fate of suf-
ferers in 29 ghettos and en-
dured hardships in 89 concen-
tration camps.
In 1950, with limited means,
they began construction of what
will eventually become the
,largest mu-
seum of its
kind in the
world. -
The program
on Feb. 2, in
the Hayim
Greenberg;
Center, is de-
signed to
launch assist-
ance to this
project. Under
t h e - auspices
of the Israel
His tadrut
Campaign, or-
g a nizations
and individ-
uals will be
Rosenblum
given an op-
portunity to participate in real-

izing this international shrine
and to memorialize friends and
-relatives by including their
names in a special memorial
bOok.
The guest artist that evening
will be Shamai Rosenblum,
dramatic reader, actor and corn-
Mentator from Israel. Born and
educated in Lodz, Poland,
Rosenblum gained a wide repu-
tation in pre-war years as a
master of the spoken word. He
spent the war years in the ghet-
to Of Lodz and in German con-
centration camps where he was
blinded. In 1951, Rosenblum
settled in Israel where he now
plays an important role in the
country's cultural life.
The guest speaker will be
Lazar Shupakevitz, former Zion-
ist leader in Poland who came
to this country in 1941. Also a
victim of the Nazi purge, he
managed to escape the Nazi
dragnet and during the war
aided refugee rescue work in
Lithuania and Japan. A mem-
ber of the Central Committee
of the. Labor Zionist Organiza
tion, Shupakevitz has been di-
rector . of the. Chkago and Mid-
w e s t e r n Histadrut -Campaign
since' 1950:
Cantor. Reuven Frankel ,will
participate in the evening's
program -
Nathan Rose; Nathan Samet
and Sol Selman are co-chairmen
of this project.

If you -think you're one of the
best • drivers in the world re-
member some of the best are
also in the cemetery. .
-
• 4.,

