Often
overlooked in War Between the States histories are the Israelites in
grey who made heroic sacrifices and contributions for the Southern war
effort. In addition to many Jewish soldiers in the field, Benjamin
Mordecai of Charleston was one of the most generous contributors to the
relief of military families; young Isabel Adeline Moses at fourteen
became the youngest member of the Soldiers’ Aid Society in Columbus,
Georgia, and spent long hours nursing the wounded.
Bernhard Thuersam, Chairman
North Carolina War Between the States Sesquicentennial Commission
"Unsurpassed Valor, Courage and Devotion to Liberty"
"The Official Website of the North Carolina WBTS Sesquicentennial"
Israelites in Grey
“After
the war . . . the most ambitious [memorial] project . . . was that of
the Hebrew Ladies Association of Richmond, organized in 1866 to care for
the Jewish Confederate graves in Hollywood cemetery on Shockoe Hill.
The work of turning the sod was performed by Jewish veterans. A
Richmond reporter who went out to the cemetery one day said “it was a
gratifying sight to behold the young men of this city, some of them
frail of limb, with coats off, wheeling gravel and turf, as the last sad
tribute they would pay to departed worth.”
Because
the Richmond Jewish community, impoverished by the war, was unable to
defray all the expenses of the plot, a general appeal for financial
support was issued by the Association “To the Israelites of the South:”
“While
the world yet rings with the narrative of a brave people’s struggle for
independence, and while the story of the hardships so nobly endured for
Liberty’s sake is yet a theme but half-exhausted, the countless graves
of the myriad of heroes who spilled their noble blood in defense of that
glorious cause, lie neglected, not alone unmarked by tablet or
sculptured urn, but literally vanishing before the relentless finger of
Time . . .
.
. . [We make this appeal for aid well-knowing that as Israelites and
true patriots, they will not refuse to assist in rearing a monument
which shall serve not only to commemorate the bravery of our dead, but
the gratitude and admiration of the living, for those who so nobly
perished in what we deemed a just and righteous cause . . . [and] it
will be a grateful reflection that they suffered not their country to
call in vain.”
Rebekah
Bettelheim, who came to Richmond in 1868, remarked how the entire
Jewish population of Richmond would go out to the cemetery every
Confederate Memorial Day, setting wreaths on the headstones, and
standing before the monument with tears in their eyes.”
(American Jewry and the Civil War, Jewish Publication Society of America, 1951, pp. 110-111)
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