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Record Nr.

UNINA9910809581103321

Autore

Penslar Derek Jonathan

Titolo

Jews and the military : a history / / Derek J. Penslar

Pubbl/distr/stampa

Princeton, : Princeton University Press, 2013

ISBN

1-4008-4857-1

0-691-16809-1

Edizione

[Course Book]

Descrizione fisica

1 online resource (375 p.)

Disciplina

355.0089/92404

Soggetti

Jewish soldiers - Europe - History - 19th century

Jewish soldiers - Europe - History - 20th century

Jews - Europe - History - 19th century

Jews - Europe - History - 20th century

Jews - Cultural assimilation - Europe - History - 19th century

Jews - Cultural assimilation - Europe - History - 20th century

Jews - Europe - Identity

Lingua di pubblicazione

Inglese

Formato

Materiale a stampa

Livello bibliografico

Monografia

Note generali

Description based upon print version of record.

Nota di bibliografia

Includes bibliographical references and index.

Nota di contenuto

Jews in the Tsar's army: conscription as national tragedy? -- Fighting for rights: conscription and Jewish emancipation  -- The military as a Jewish occupation -- When may we kill our brethren? Jews at war -- The Jewish soldier of World War I: from participant to victim  -- The world wars as Jewish wars  -- 1948 as a Jewish world war.

Sommario/riassunto

Jews and the Military is the first comprehensive and comparative look at Jews' involvement in the military and their attitudes toward war from the 1600's until the creation of the state of Israel in 1948. Derek Penslar shows that although Jews have often been described as people who shun the army, in fact they have frequently been willing, even eager, to do military service, and only a minuscule minority have been pacifists. Penslar demonstrates that Israel's military ethos did not emerge from a vacuum and that long before the state's establishment, Jews had a vested interest in military affairs. Spanning Europe, North America, and the Middle East, Penslar discusses the myths and realities of Jewish draft dodging, how Jews reacted to facing their coreligionists



in battle, the careers of Jewish officers and their reception in the Jewish community, the effects of World War I on Jewish veterans, and Jewish participation in the Spanish Civil War and World War II. Penslar culminates with a study of Israel's War of Independence as a Jewish world war, which drew on the military expertise and financial support of a mobilized, global Jewish community. He considers how military service was a central issue in debates about Jewish emancipation and a primary indicator of the position of Jews in any given society. Deconstructing old stereotypes, Jews and the Military radically transforms our understanding of Jews' historic relationship to war and military power.