Participation of Jews in the World War was commemorated in two Armistice Day radio programs sponsored by the Jewish War Veterans of the United States.
On Saturday evening from 7:15 to 7:45 o’clock, Admiral Clarke H. Woodward of the United States Navy and Col. Alva J. Brasted, chief of chaplains of the United States Army, spoke over a National Broadcasting Company network.
On Sunday from 10:45 to 11 a. m., over the Columbia Broadcasting System, Governor Julius L. Meier of Oregon, spoke from Station KOIN of Portland.
Col. Brasted said, “The World War was won by the cooperation of all—those of all churches, Jewish, Catholic and Protestant, and those of no churches.”
SERVICES OUTSTANDING
He told his comrades of the Jewish faith their services in the war were outstanding and will not be forgotten. “The record of Great Britain’s casualties,” he said, “shows that 8,000 Jews gave up their lives in the World War. Jews took part in the fighting wherever British forces went, and more than 11,000 British Jews received decorations for honors and for services rendered.”
The chaplain further pointed out that 22,000 French Jews were killed in action; that “the total number of Jews serving in the armed forces of the United States during the war has been estimated in excess of 225,000.”
“One thousand Jews,” he continued, “received citations for valor. The Congressional Medal of Honor was conferred on three Jewish soldiers out of a total number of seventy-eight that were conferred upon all soldiers.
14,000 CASUALTIES
“The total of Jewish casualties exceeded 14,000; 2,800 made the supreme sacrifice. More than 600 still lie in cemeteries of France, Belgium and England. The Seventy-seventh Division was forty per cent Jewish. The wonderful record of this division is well known. Said a writer in the Literary Digest in 1919: “These button hole makers and salesmen of New York loomed like anything but formidable material to hurl against the Prussian Guard but they marched out of Camp Upton with the Seventy-seventh Division, their chests up and heads held high, and came back from France with as proud a record as any organization that went overseas.”
In his address Admiral Woodward described the Jewish War Veterans as “an organization whose members have served their country with military and naval forces during its various wars.” The primary function of the organization, he said, is to maintain “true allegiance to the United States, and to combat any influence tending to impair the efficiency and permanency of our institutions of liberty.”
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
