The Jewish Experience of the First World War

Description

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’. Front Matter ....Pages i-xvii The First World War and the Jews (Gideon Reuveni, Edward Madigan)....Pages 1-16 Front Matter ....Pages 17-17 Between Light and Darkness: Jewish Education in Time of War (Björn Siegel)....Pages 19-42 Eastern Promises: Jewish Germans in the German Administration of Eastern Europe During the Great War (Philipp Nielsen)....Pages 43-66 Bread, Butter and Education: The Yiddishist Movements in Poland, 1914–1916 (Emma Zohar)....Pages 67-84 War and Nationalism in Palestine: The Jewish Migration Committee in the Galilee During the First World War (Esther Yankelevitch)....Pages 85-109 Towards a Consolidation of Zionist National Consciousness in Palestine During the First World War: A Local Urban Perspective (Anat Kidron)....Pages 111-133 Front Matter ....Pages 135-135 A Mixed Bag of Loyalties: Jewish Soldiers, Ethnic Minorities, and State-Based Contingents in the German Army, 1914–1918 (Gavin Wiens)....Pages 137-158 Between Inclusion and Exclusion: The Experiences of Jewish Soldiers in Europe and the USA, 1914–1918 (Sarah Panter)....Pages 159-181 Between Faith and Nation: Italian Jewish Soldiers in the Great War (Vanda Wilcox)....Pages 183-206 ‘The March of the Judeans’: The London Recruits of the Jewish Battalion in the First World War (Christopher Smith)....Pages 207-229 Front Matter ....Pages 231-231 The Female Side of War: The Experience and Memory of the Great War in Italian-Jewish Women’s Ego-Documents (Ruth Nattermann)....Pages 233-254 Once ‘the Only True Austrians’: Mobilising Jewish Memory of the First World War for Belonging in the New Austrian Nation, 1929–1938 (Tim Corbett)....Pages 255-276 The Iron Shield of David: The First World War and the Creation of German-Jewish Markers of Patriotism and Memory (Michal Friedlander)....Pages 277-305 ‘Thou Hast Given Us Home and Freedom, Mother England’: Anglo-Jewish Gratitude, Patriotism, and Service During and After the First World War (Edward Madigan)....Pages 307-333 Back Matter ....Pages 335-342