The Jewish Experience of the First World War

This book explores the variety of social and political phenomena that combined to the make the First World War a key turning point in the Jewish experience of the twentieth century. Just decades after the experience of intense persecution and struggle for recognition that marked the end of the nineteenth century, Jewish men and women across the globe found themselves drawn into a conflict of unprecedented violence and destruction. The frenzied military, social, and cultural mobilisation of European societies between 1914 and 1918, along with the outbreak of revolution in Russia and the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the Middle East had a profound impact on Jewish communities worldwide. The First World War thus constitutes a seminal but surprisingly under-researched moment in the evolution of modern Jewish history. The essays gathered together in this ground-breaking volume explore the ways in which Jewish communities across Europe and the wider world experienced, interpreted and remembered the ¿war to end all wars¿.

Highlights the First World War as an overlooked watershed moment in modern Jewish history

1.The First World War and the Jews; Gideon Reuveni and Edward Madigan.- Part One: Eastern Fronts.- 2. Between Light and Darkness: Jewish Education in Time of War; Björn Siegel.- 3.Eastern Promises: Jewish Germans in the German Administration of Eastern Europe during the First World War; Philip Nielsen.- 4. Bread, Butter and Education: The Yiddishist Movements in Poland, 1914 - 1916; Emma Zohar.- 5. War and Nationalism in Palestine: The Jewish migration committee in the Galilee during the First World War; Esther Yankelevitch.- 6. Towards a Consolidation of Zionist National Consciousness in Palestine during the First World War: A Local Urban Perspective; Anat Kidron.- Part Two: Westerns Fronts.- 7. A Mixed Bag of Loyalties: Ethnic, Religious, and State-based Minorities in the German Army, 1914-1918; Gavin Wiens.-8. Between Inclusion and Exclusion: The Experiences of Jewish Soldiers in Europe and the USA, 1914-1918; Sarah Pante.- 9. Between Faith and Nation: Italian Jewish Soldiers in the Great War; Vanda Wilcox.- 10.'The March of the Judeans': The London Recruits of the Jewish Battalion during the First World War; Christopher Smith.- Part Three: Post-War Memory and Commemoration.- 11. The Female Side of War: The Experience and Memory of the Great War in Italian-Jewish Women's Ego-Documents; Ruth Natterman.- 12. Once 'the Only True Austrians': Mobilising Jewish Memory of the First World War for Belonging in the New Austrian Nation, 1929 - 1938; Tim Corbett.-13. The Iron Shield of David: The First World War and the Creation of German Jewish Markers of Patriotism and Memory; Michal Friedlander.- 14. 'Thou hast given us Home and Freedom, Mother England': Anglo-Jewish Gratitude, Patriotism and Service during and after the First World; Edward Madigan