Page:Jewish Encyclopedia Volume 2.pdf/165

127 THE JEWISH ENCYCLOPEDIA

127

expose the inaccuracy of this proposition. A quarter of a million Jews are on the hooks of the active and reserve forces of the Russian empire, 75,000 of whom serve on the peace strength.

Turning is

to

Germany, where service in the Army all Jewish as on other

equally compulsory on

citizens, it is interesting to find that members of 1,101 congregations, to the number of 4,703, have been traced by name who served Jews in against France in the campaigns of Modern 1870-71. Of these German Jews 483

German

European were killed and wounded, and no less Armies and than 411 were decorated for conspicuNavies. ous gallantry. Owing to the privilege enjoyed by the officers of German regiments of reserving commands to their own social no Jewish

officers in the active Gerthe exception of the Bavarian contingent, and none in the navy. In Austria-Hungary matters are different. As early as 1855 there were 157 Jewish officers, many in In 1893 Austria-Hungary had the medical corps. 40,344 of her Jewish citizens enrolled in all branches of her Army and 325 in her navy. Besides these there were as many as 2,179 Jewish military, and 2 naval, active officers, exclusive of those in the reserve contingents. These numbers were considerably above 8 per cent of the total Jewish population. In France, again, 10 Jews have reached the rank of general officer. In the beginning of 1895 there were serving also in the active Army 9 colonels, 9 lieutenant-colonels, 46 majors, 90 captains, 89 lieutenants, and 104 sublieutenants of Jewish birth., The Jewish officers of the reserve in 1883 numbered 820. These contingents are largely in excess of the mere proportional representation for which the Jewish population of France would call. The Italian Jews, comparatively few in number, have a particularly brilliant military reputation. Two hundred and thirty -five Jews volunteered for the Piedmontese Army in 1848. In the one Tuscan battalion, which bore off the honors at Curtatone and Montanaro, no less than 45 Jews, High from Pisa and Leghorn, were serving Reputation at the time. In the Crimean war of Italian Sardinian as well as French, British, class, there are

man Army, with

and Russian Jews took part. Fully 260 Jewish volunteers came forward in 1859, and 127 of them followed Garibaldi at NaAmong the renowned " Thousand of ples in 1860. Marsala," too, there were 11 Jews. In 1866, when there were but 36,000 Jews in all Italy, 380 volunteered for active service. In the Royal Italian Army that marched into Rome in 1870, there were 256 Jews. General Ottolenghi has reached high command, and is decorated with several orders for distinguished service. Other Jewish officers of lower rank in 1894 numbered 204 in the active Army, and

Jews.

457 in the various reserve forces; that is to say, about seventeen times the proportional quota of Italian Jewry.

Among the smaller states, the Jewish soldiers of Bulgaria, and even those of Rumania, have behaved with singular gallantry. Forty Jewish volunteers received medals from the sultan of Turkey after the recent Greek war.

Army

There remain only the British Army and navy to be spoken of. Service in these is a superlative test of Jewish patriotism and aptitude for military duty, since such service is absolutely voluntary, and includes the tedium of tropical garrison duty far oftener than the excitement of war. Some families of less immediate Jewish descent, such as the Barrows

and Ricardos, contribute many officers of distinction. But reckoning only gentlemen of Jewish birth, there were in Jan., 1902, 12 naval and marine officers, 39 officers of the regular Army (including Col. Albert E. W. Goldsmid, late assistant adjutant-general; Lieut. -Col. J. J. Leverson, C. M. G., the diplomat; and Major F. L. Nathan, superintendent of the Royal Explosives Factory), 17 officers of British militia, and 86 officers of British volunteers. Adding colonial Jewish officers of militia Jews in the and volunteers, Canada provided 2, British Fiji 2, Jamaica 2, Australia 27, New and Zealand 8, South Africa 43, and India Navy. 1, making a total of 239 Jewish officers in the British forces. The colonial Jews have done particularly good service, Capt. Joshua Norden (1847), of Natal, being the first Jew to fall in South Africa, where Col. David Harris in 1896 concluded a stiff little campaign near Kimberley. Official returns exist of the religion of the non-commissioned officers and rank and file of the British regular Army and militia but these are notoriously unreliable. The recruits on and after enlist-

Army



ment

incline to regard their religious denomination as a private and personal matter, and therefore exhibit a preference for the all-embracing "Church of England," to which three of every four private solExclusive of officers, there diers elect to belong.

82 Jews reported in the 46 in the militia; but the progress of the South African campaign led to the

were on Jan. ranks of the

1,

1899,

Army and

identification of

many more Jewish

sailors

and

sol-

of whom over 2,000 have taken part, with distinct credit to their race, in the Transvaal war. There were serving in Jan., 1902, not less than the following numbers of British Jews, every one, it must be repeated, enrolled of his own free will and accord: Royal navy and marines, 120; regular Army,

diers,

British militia, 180 British yeomanry and voland colonial militia and volunteers, 500, a goodly proportion of the Jews in the British empire. For there are also Jews in India, the Beni

550





unteers, 800;

who for over a century have contributed gallant and faithful soldiers to the Sepoy infantry. In 1869, from that small community there were serving in the Bombay Army 36 native officers and 231 " class regiments " soldiers. "With the introduction of warlike races of chief the men of of formed entirely Israel,

India, the military career of the Beni Israel became restricted, until they entered the hospital corps and

police of that great Eastern dependency. Bearing in mind the universal liability to military service in Continental states, and comparing the Jewish with the Gentile population of each country, it may be calculated that there are now serving on the active peace strength of the undermentioned regular

armed

armies and navies of Europe the following numbers of Jewish citizens: Russia, 75,000; Austria-Hungary, 11,700; Germany, 6,400; France, 1,400; Italy, 850;