Fighting in National Armies 91
Developments in Austria were somewhat different. The Habsburg Empire’s military command had been reluctant to have Jews in the army, but the 1788 Edict of Joseph II forced the issue. This army proved to be more accommodating than any other as it had to deal with a large number of minorities.; when possible it permitted Jewish soldiers to mess together. By the middle of the nineteenth century various efforts to overcome shabbat and dietary problems met with some success. The fact that some Jews served in the Hungarian revolutionary armies did not change this. Jews rose in the ranks with a high percentage of officers. By 1866 provisions had been made for Jewish chaplains. Although the army was restricted to 30,000 soldiers after World War I , Jews continued to serve without prejudice until the Nazi take-over in 1938."
In some other European countries Jews who sought officer status were also able to gain it despite anti-Semitism. The most serious anti-Semitic charges were those which led to the Dreyfus Affair in France (1899-1914). It became a major political issue which involved the entire French society. We should not forget the a small number of Jews who enlisted in the French Foreign Legion , a force mainly created to deal with unrest in the French colonies scattered around the world.*®
In the United States Jewish soldiers fought in the Revolution and all later wars either as volunteers and beginning with the Civil War as draftees. The rise of anti-Semitism at the end of the nineteenth century prompted Simon Wolf to present a summary of Jewish military service in all wars mentioning specific individuals as well as those who received the Congressional Medal of Honor. However, the main task which he set for himself was a complete list of Jewish soldiers in the Union Armies of the Civil War .” Numerous articles and booklets on the Jewish participation in later wars have also appeared.