Jews and the American Civil War - Recommended Reading List

The Jewish Eye

Jews and the American Civil War
Recommended Reading Lists

The American Jew As Patriot, Soldier, And Citizen, by Simon Wolf.
This book includes a 400-page listing of Jewish soldiers in the Union and Confederate armies classified according to states and alphabetically arranged. Originally published in 1895.
American Jewry and the Civil War, by Bertram Wallace Korn.
A classic text on the Jewish role in early American history and the Civil War.
Branching Out: German-Jewish Immigration to the United States 1820-1914, by Avraham Barkai.
This book has an entire chapter devoted to the Civil War: Loyalties and Assertion: The Civil War Years.
The Civil War Diary of Clara Solomon, edited by Elliott Ashkenazi.
Growing Up in New Orleans, 1861-1862 - the diary of sixteen-year-old Jewish girl.
From Haven to Home: 350 Years of Jewish Life in America, edited by Michael W. Grunberger.
This general survey book as a section that addresses the role of Jews in the Civil War.
Her Works Praise Her, by Hasia R. Diner and Beryl Lieff Benderly.
A History of Jewish Women in America from Colonial Times to the Present. This book has a few short sections on the Civil War (pages 100-102, 108, & 115-116).
History of the Jews in America: Civil War Through the Rise of Zionism, by Shelley Kapnek Rosenberg.
The second volume in the Challenge and Change series picks up with the Civil War... For grades 6-9.
A Jewish Colonel in the Civil War: Marcus M. Spiegel of the Ohio Volunteers, by Marcus M. Spiegel.
A collection of letters, written by Spiegel to his wife, during the Civil War.
The Jewish Confederates, by Robert N. Rosen.
An account of the Jewish men who served in the Confederate army, and their reception by their fellow Confederates.
The Jews of the United States, 1654 to 2000, by Hasia R. Diner.
Offers a general survey of Jewish life in America and it has some information on Jewish Chaplins, Jewish politics, and Jewish immigration during the Civil War. Also has some informatin on Order Number 11.
Judah P. Benjamin: Confederate Statesman, by Robert Douthat Meade.
An an absorbing account of the life of this Sephardic Jew and enigmatic Civil War figure.
Judah P. Benjamin: The Jewish Confederate, by Eli Evans.
A detailed biography of Judah P. Benjamin.
Mordecai: An Early American Family , by Emily Bingham.
In this work, Bingham provides a fascinating glimpse of Jewish life in America, from Colonial times through the Civil War.
Where They Lie, by Mel Young.
The Story of the Jewish Soldiers of the North and South Whose Deaths - Killed, Mortally Wounded or Died of Disease or Other Causes - Occurred During the Civil War, 1861-1865 - Someone Should Say Kaddish.

Need a rest from your studies? If so, here are a few works of fiction that deal with Jews in the Civil War:

Landsman: A Novel, by Peter Charles Melman.
Elias Abrams, Jewish by birth, joins the Confederate Army during the Civil War in order to escape the crimes of his past.
Private Joel and the Sewell Mountain Seder, by Bryna J. Fireside.
The Jewish members of a Civil War regiment hold an improvised seder. For ages 9-12.
The War Within, by Carol Matas.
A fictional account of Jewish life during the American Civil War that centers around General Grant's expulsion of Jews from the Department of the Tennessee (a military administrative district).
The Yankee at the Seder, by Elka Weber.
A story about a Jewish Yankee soldier joining a Southern family's Passover meal. For ages 4-8.

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