Jewish Americans have served in the U.S. military since before there was a United States, from Asser Levy standing guard in New Amsterdam to today's Jewish chaplains and soldiers. About 550,000 Jewish Americans served in World War II alone, and 19 have received the Medal of Honor. This Veterans Day, here is their story.
When Did Jewish Americans Start Serving in the Military?
Before the Revolution, before the Constitution, before the flag. In 1654, the first 23 Jews arrived in New Amsterdam, the Dutch colony that became New York City, after fleeing Recife, Brazil. As the Jewish War Veterans of the USA tells it, Governor Peter Stuyvesant did not want them there, and he did not want a Jew standing guard. One of those 23, Asser Levy, protested. He argued that as a working man he should be allowed to stand guard like everyone else, appealed over the governor's head, and within two years he was standing watch with the rest of the colony.
That is the whole story of Jewish-American military service in one man. We asked for the right to defend our home, and then we defended it.
Did Jews Fight in the American Revolution?
Yes. Jewish colonists served in the Continental cause, and some of their stories are remarkable. The National Museum of American Jewish Military History tells the story of Major David Salisbury Franks, a merchant who served as president of Montreal's Spanish and Portuguese synagogue. Franks was jailed in the spring of 1775 for his "attachment to the Cause of America," joined the Continental forces as a paymaster, volunteered with the army through the campaign against General Burgoyne, and served as an aide to General Benjamin Lincoln in Charleston.
Then came the hard part. In 1780, Franks was serving on Benedict Arnold's staff at West Point when Arnold defected to the British. Suspicion fell on everyone around Arnold. Franks did not hide. He asked George Washington for a formal court of inquiry, and it cleared him completely.
The most famous Jewish name of the Revolution belongs to a man who never carried a musket. Haym Salomon was a financier, not a soldier, and his contribution was keeping the young country solvent. According to the American Jewish Historical Society's history on My Jewish Learning, the Polish-born broker was arrested by the British in New York, sentenced to hang, escaped to Philadelphia, and became one of the most effective brokers of bills of exchange for the new Office of Finance. James Madison admitted that he had "for some time … been a pensioner on the favor of Haym Salomon, a Jew broker." Our piece on Jewish-American patriotic traditions covers the wider story of how this early service shaped Jewish life in America.
How Many Jewish Americans Fought in the Civil War?
Thousands, on both sides. The American Jewish Historical Society, writing on My Jewish Learning, cites an estimate by Simon Wolf of about 8,400 Jews in the Union forces and about 10,000 in the Confederate forces. Other estimates differ, but the historians are clear that Jews fought in numbers greater than their share of the population. There were nine Jewish generals in the North, and six Jewish soldiers in the Union army received the Medal of Honor.
The Civil War also produced one of the great Jewish civil rights victories in American history, and it happened over chaplains. A July 1861 law said a regimental chaplain had to be "a regularly ordained minister of some Christian denomination." When a Pennsylvania regiment elected the Reverend Arnold Fischel of New York's Congregation Shearith Israel as its chaplain, the War Department rejected him.
American Jews organized. Fischel moved to Washington, ministered to wounded Jewish soldiers in the city's hospitals, and met President Abraham Lincoln on December 11, 1861. As the AJHS account describes it, Lincoln agreed that something ought to be done. On July 17, 1862, Congress amended the law to allow chaplains "of the Catholic, Protestant and Jewish religions." The historian Bertram Korn called it the first major victory of a specifically Jewish nature on a matter touching the federal government, and it opened the door for every minority faith that came after.
Who Founded the Jewish War Veterans of the USA?
Jewish Civil War veterans did, in 1896. According to the Jewish War Veterans of the USA, the group was founded by 63 Jewish veterans of the Civil War after a series of antisemitic claims that Jews had not served in that war. In the words of JWV National Commander Scott P. Stevens, writing for America's 250th anniversary, the order was founded "to refute the ugly lie that Jewish Americans did not fight for their country."
JWV calls itself the longest serving veterans service organization in the country, and it has a long record to show for it:
- World War I: JWV says it was essential to establishing the Jewish chaplaincy in the military.
- Grave markers: JWV fought to make the Star of David an option on grave markers in veterans' cemeteries.
- 1933: On March 23, 1933, JWV led a protest parade through Manhattan to City Hall to launch a boycott of Nazi German goods. The museum estimates that nearly a million people took part as marchers or spectators.
- 2002: JWV pushed for the Leonard Kravitz Jewish War Veterans Act, which led to a review of Jewish and Hispanic veterans who may have been passed over for the Medal of Honor because of discrimination.
How Many Jewish Americans Served in World War I and World War II?
About 225,000 American Jews served in World War I, according to the National Museum of American Jewish Military History. They served as soldiers, sailors and Marines in every branch from infantry and artillery to aviation and signals, and four received the Medal of Honor. One of them, Abraham Krotoshinsky, had been an immigrant barber in the Bronx who left Płock, in Russian-ruled Poland, specifically to escape military service. In his adopted country his attitude toward service changed completely, and he became known as the "Savior of the Lost Battalion."
World War II was larger still. The Jewish War Veterans count 550,000 GI Jews, men who saw their service as both an act of patriotism and a fight against Hitler for the survival of their own people. JWV has noted that in World War II, Jews served disproportionately more than the rest of the population.
The home front kept them fed. A ringing phrase from those years, as JWV remembers it, was "Send a Salami to a Boy in the Army." And when those soldiers came home, they helped build modern Jewish America. Our history of Jews in America follows what happened next, as veterans used the GI Bill to reach universities and professions that had been closed to them.
Who Was Rabbi Alexander Goode, One of the Four Chaplains?
Rabbi Alexander Goode was born in Brooklyn in 1911, graduated from Hebrew Union College, and earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University.
Rabbi Alexander Goode was born in Brooklyn in 1911, graduated from Hebrew Union College, and earned his doctorate at Johns Hopkins University. He served as an Army chaplain in World War II and was aboard the troop transport Dorchester when it was torpedoed shortly before 1 a.m. on February 3, 1943, in the North Atlantic.
What Goode and three fellow chaplains of other faiths did that night became one of the most famous stories of the war. As the Jewish War Veterans recount it, the chaplains comforted and directed soldiers as the ship sank, gave their own life jackets to others, and prayed together as the ship went under. Survivors, JTA reported in December 1944, saw them linking arms on the deck in prayer as the waves closed over the ship. All four were awarded the Distinguished Service Cross posthumously, and Theresa Goode accepted her husband's.
A U.S. postage stamp honored the Four Chaplains in 1948. In October 2011, a memorial to Jewish chaplains who died on active duty was dedicated on Chaplains Hill at Arlington National Cemetery, next to the memorials for fallen Catholic, Protestant and World War I chaplains. It carries 14 names from World War II, Korea and Vietnam, Rabbi Goode among them, JTA reported, and its designers left space for more.
Which Jewish Americans Have Received the Medal of Honor?
Nineteen Jewish service members have received the Medal of Honor, America's highest award for valor, according to both the JWV and the museum's Hall of Heroes. Several waited decades, and three of their stories show why that recognition took a fight.
Captain Ben Salomon, World War II
Ben Salomon was a dentist from Los Angeles, a graduate of the University of Southern California's dental school. On July 7, 1944, on Saipan, he was serving as surgeon for the 2nd Battalion, 105th Infantry Regiment, 27th Infantry Division, when a force of thousands of Japanese soldiers overran the American lines. With his aid station filling with wounded, Salomon ordered them evacuated and took over a machine gun alone. When his body was found, the museum's citation records, 98 dead enemy soldiers lay in front of his position. He received the Medal of Honor posthumously in May 2002, almost 58 years later, as JTA reported.
Corporal Tibor Rubin, Korea
Tibor Rubin survived the Mauthausen concentration camp as a teenager and was liberated by American troops. He came to America and joined the U.S. Army to repay that debt. In Korea, his citation says, he single-handedly held a hill for 24 hours so his regiment could withdraw, then manned a machine gun at Unsan until his ammunition ran out. Captured by the Chinese, he refused an offer to be sent back to Hungary and instead snuck out of the prison camp at night to steal food for his fellow prisoners, saving as many as forty of them.
Rubin was recommended for the Medal of Honor several times, but his comrades testified that an antisemitic sergeant sabotaged the paperwork, JTA reported. President George W. Bush finally presented it in September 2005. Rubin explained his service simply, in words the JWV keeps on its Veterans Day page: "When I came to America, it was the first time I was free. It was one of the reasons I joined the U.S. Army because I wanted to show my appreciation."
Private First Class Leonard Kravitz, Korea
Leonard Kravitz of Brooklyn was an assistant machine gunner with the 5th Infantry Regiment, 24th Infantry Division, at Yangpyong, Korea. On March 6 and 7, 1951, he stayed behind at his gun to cover his unit's withdrawal and was later found dead behind it. On March 18, 2014, he was among 24 veterans who received the Medal of Honor after the review his own name had launched, JTA reported. His nephew, the musician Lenny Kravitz, was named after him.
How Do Jewish Service Members Keep Their Faith Today?
With a lot of help. The JWB Jewish Chaplains Council, part of the JCC Association, has served Jews in uniform since 1917. It endorses Jewish chaplains to the Department of Defense and the Department of Veterans Affairs, and it is the only organization that endorses chaplains from all streams of Judaism, Reform, Conservative and Orthodox. It has lobbied Congress so a Marine can wear a kippah in uniform, advocated for time for religious observance such as shiva periods and for kosher rations, and even provided a Seder for soldiers at a remote base in Afghanistan.
Kosher food in the field has its own history. In 1996, the military announced that "Meals Religious Kosher" would be available through regular supply lines, JTA reported, ending the days when observant soldiers in the field had to make do. In 2005, JTA reported that the military was providing complete kosher-for-Passover ready-to-eat meals for all eight days of the holiday for the first time, along with a separate Seder kit. If you have ever hosted Passover at home, imagine running a Seder out of a ration case in a war zone.
Community groups fill the gaps. The Aleph Institute, a Chabad organization, runs a military program providing prayer books, kosher food, holiday supplies and care packages. And JWV's SOS program sends toiletries, kosher food and holiday ritual items to service members deployed around the world.
Where Can You See Jewish-American Military History?
In Washington, D.C. The National Museum of American Jewish Military History was chartered by an act of Congress in 1958 under the auspices of the Jewish War Veterans, and it took its current name in 1992. It sits in the Dupont Circle neighborhood at 1811 R Street NW. According to the JWV, admission is free, the museum is open weekdays, and group tours can be booked in advance. Check the museum's current hours before you go.
Its exhibits include the Hall of Heroes for Jewish Medal of Honor recipients and oral histories from American Jewish GIs who liberated the Nazi concentration camps. If you are in Arlington, the Jewish Chaplains Memorial on Chaplains Hill is worth the walk, too.
How Can You Honor Jewish Veterans This Veterans Day?
Veterans Day falls on Wednesday, November 11, 2026. JWV marks it every year: the National Commander attends the White House ceremony and lays a JWV wreath at Arlington National Cemetery, and local posts march in parades with JWV flags. Here are a few ways to join them:
- Invite a veteran to speak. JWV members visit synagogues, JCCs and Jewish day schools on Veterans Day to share their stories. Ask your local post.
- Send a package. Contribute to JWV's SOS program, or ask your synagogue to put together care packages for local service members.
- Visit the museum. Admission is free, and the stories are ours.
- Say thank you by name. Ask the veterans in your own family and congregation about their service, and write down what they tell you. Many of the stories in this article survived only because someone did.
From Asser Levy's guard post to Rabbi Goode's life jacket to Tibor Rubin's stolen rations, the pattern never changes. Jewish Americans have served this country with courage and with their faith intact. This November 11, we remember all of them, and we say it with pride: they were ours, and they were America's.