On Sunday, April 27 at 2 pm Eastern Time, Professor Adam D. Mendelsohn will join us for a Casual Conversation. Professor Mendelsohn is the author of Jewish Soldiers in the Civil War; The Union Army (New York University Press 2022).
Professor Mendelsohn is associated with several institutions. At the University of Cape Town,
Professor Adam Mendelsohn’s research and teaching focuses on how ethnic minorities have grappled with modernity, with a particular emphasis on the experience of Jews. He is the Isidore and Theresa Cohen Chair in Jewish Civilisation, and directs the Kaplan Centre for Jewish Studies.
Adam is co-editor of the journal Jewish Historical Studies, and past co-editor of American Jewish History. He curated the exhibitions The First Jewish Americans at the New-York Historical Society and By Dawn’s Early Light at the Princeton University Museum of Art.
See: https://humanities.uct.ac.za/department-historical-studies/people-academic-staff/associate-professor-adam-mendelsohn
Professor Mendelsohn is also affiliated with the Stuart and Suzanne Grant Center for the American Jewish Experience at Tulane University: https://liberalarts.tulane.edu/american-jewish-experience/research-initiatives/economics/adam-mendelsohn .
When we think of Jewish involvement in the Civil War, perhaps two items come to mind: Judah Benjamin, a Senator and later dubbed “the brains of the Confederacy,” serving in multiple positions in the Confederate Cabinet; and Ulysses S. Grant’s infamous General Orders No. 11 banning Jews from the area under his military jurisdiction. There is, of course, more. There are the mountebanks like Frederick George d’Utassy (actually David Strasser), and the heroes like Edward Selig Salomon, Brevet Colonel and Brevet Brigadier General, of the 24th Illinois Infantry. After the war, President Grant appointed Salomon to be governor of Washington Territory. Rabbi Isaac Mayer Wise stated that by this act “President Grant has revoked General Grant’s notorious order no. 11.”
Professor Mendelsohn draws on a host of sources in his book to explain why Jews did, and often did not, enlist in the Union Army, and what life was like for them in units where few fellow Jews were present. Just as Jews were dispersed throughout America, so, too, were they dispersed through many units of the army. A minyan? Not a chance! The opportunity for religious observance? Never!
One of the more interesting aspects of Professor Mendelsohn’s research is the plumbing of the reluctance of many Jews to join the Union Army: “[S]ettlement patterns (the places they lived), geographic origin (the places they came from), and occupational profile (the economic roles they filled) were distinct among Jews and shaped how they responded to the call to arms from Washington. These factors, often imperceptible at the level of the individual but pronounced in the realm of the collective, acted in concert to produce a cohort of Jewish soldiers subtly different from their Christian comrades.” (At p. 51.)
Professor Mendelsohn’s book was described by the Jewish Review of Books as a “gorgeously illustrated and groundbreaking new study of Jewish soldiers of the Union Army”, in which the author draws on a register of Jewish soldiers “to offer narrative profiles of the Union’s Jewish Medal of Honor recipients [of which there were five] and its deserters, triumphant and fallen, faithful and fictional.”
An important part of the story of our country and of Jewish participation in its communal life. We are fortunate to have Professor Mendelsohn as our guest for a Casual Conversation this coming Sunday. Please join us.
Usual rules apply. Let me know by this Friday, April 25 by close of business if you want to attend this event. Email me at arthur.fergenson@ansalaw.com .
Arthur Fergenson