Oreck will march into battle at
Gettysburg wearing a reproduction
woolen uniform, handmade brogans
with wooden pegs in the soles, a
linen shirt and kepi hat.
His personal gear also includes a
tent, a reproduction field desk and
operating table, reproduction Civil
War-era surgical instruments, as well
as some genuine medical instruments
from the period. His reproduction
amputation kit alone is worth about
$1,200.
Oreck portrays a Jewish surgeon,
and he acknowledges that if this
were truly the late 1800s, his charac-
ter would probably meet with any
number of anti-Semites in the course
of his career.
"You do feel out of water from
time to time, because there are all
these very Christian religious refer-
ences" in the literature of that era, he
said. "There was no political correct-
ness in the Civil War, that's for sure.
There was no bones about anti-
Semitic feeling among those who
bothered to have any but, then
again, most Americans in that day
and age had never seen an actual
Jew."
Taking part in re-enactments,
which he does about once a month
from April to October, "gives you a
tremendous appreciation" for how -
far Jews have come in this country,
and how far they had come already
at the time of the war, he said.
"It would have inconceivable in
the French army, the Prussian army,
the Austrian army, for a Jew to be a
colonel at that time," he said, yet in
the Civil War such things did hap-
pen.
Peter Levy echoes this sentiment,
saying his involvement in the war
games is partly a celebration of the
Jewish people's success in this land, a
remembrance of the contributions
made by people like Sarah Jacobs,
his Irish-Jewish immigrant great-
grandmother.
"We know that Irish-born Jews
fought in the war, and we know that
some of them probably died. I'm
bringing to life not only one out of
175,000 - Irish natives who fought for
the Union, but also those 675 Jews
who fought for the Union," he said.
"I want to pay tribute to those
who have gone before me. I want
to represent them so that people of
the 20th Century can see these
men, who lived in a very extraordi-
nary time, in all their dignity and
honor."
poggen
pohl
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