1,500,000 Jews Were Under Arms in Last War; 250,000 Served Under American Flag

More than 1,500,000 Jews were among the 65,00,000 men under arms in the sixteen nations involved in the last World war, it is revealed in a special publication “Jews in the World War” issued today by the Jewish War Veterans of the United States. While the total Jewish population in these sixteen countries was only one percent, the Jews constituted over two percent of the mobilized men there.

There were 1,055,000,600 Jewish soldiers among the 42,000,000 mobilized by the twelve Allied nations, or two and one-half percent, while the Jewish population in these countries was one percent compared to the total population. Similarly, there were 450,000 soldiers among the 23,000,000 mobilized by the four Central Powers, or two percent of the total, as compared with a Jewish population slightly more than one percent of the total.

A breakdown of the figures for the United States shows that 250,000 Jews, or 4.5% of 4,355,000 Ameicans mobilized for service, were in the U.S. Army during the World War, although the entire Jewish population in the country was only slightly more than three percent. Some 3,400 of these American soldiers of Jewish faith were killed in action. There were 1,100 citations for valor conferred on Jewish soldiers in the American army. Of these, 723 were conferred by the American command, 287 by the French, 33 by the British and 46 by various other Allied commands. The rare Congressional Medal of Honor was won by three Jews out of a total of 72 awarded.

A cheque for $4.600 was today presented to Major General I am Hay Beith, representing the British War Relief Society by Mr. Archie Greenberg, New York State Commander of the Jewish War Veterans of the United States. The funds will be used to purchase three mobile field kitchens for the British troops, with the exception of $100 which will be donated to the Sara Delano Roosevelt Nursing Home in England.