Panel Discussion: Jewish New York, 1917

When the US entered WWI in the spring of 1917, how did New York Jews respond? What were the key conflicts and creative responses to wartime in New York of 1917? As they faced military service, some Jewish New Yorkers sought to build new institutions to help Jews in uniform while others opposed war and championed peace. This panel explores these questions from the viewpoints of military history and urban history, and celebrates the launching of two new landmark books in the field of American Jewish History. Deborah Dash Moore’s Jewish New York reveals the multifaceted world of one of the city’s most important ethnic and religious groups. Spanning three centuries, Jewish New York traces the earliest arrival of Jews in New Amsterdam to the recent immigration of Jews from the former Soviet Union. Ronit Y. Stahl’s Enlisting Faith plumbs the changes taking place in the US military’s chaplaincy which, upon entering WWI, included only mainline Protestants and Catholics, and until today, when it counts Jews, Mormons, Muslims, Christian Scientists, Buddhists, Seventh-day Adventists, Hindus, and evangelicals among its ranks.