GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation

Dr. Deborah Dash Moore (Michigan)

Whether they came from Sioux Falls, South Dakota or the Bronx, New York, over half a million Jews entered the United States’ armed forces during the Second World War. Uprooted from their working- and middle-class neighborhoods, they joined every branch of the military and saw action on all fronts. Deborah Dash Moore gives us an unprecedented view of the multiple struggles these GI Jews faced, having to fight not only the enemy, but also the prejudices of their fellow soldiers. Military service in World War II transformed this generation of Jews, and reshaped Jewish roles in America and abroad. These men challenged the perception of Jews simply as the victims of the war, and encouraged Jews throughout the Diaspora to fight for what they thought was right. Simultaneously, service strengthened Jews’ identification with American democratic ideals, even as it confirmed the inner importance of their Jewish identity.

Deborah Dash Moore is Jonathan Freedman University Professor of History and Professor of Judaic Studies at the University of Michigan. From 2005 to 2015 she served as Director of the Jean and Samuel Frankel Center for Judaic Studies and the Frankel Institute for Advanced Judaic Studies. Prior to coming to the University of Michigan, she was Professor of Religion on the William F. Kenan chair at Vassar College. An historian of American Jews, she specializes in twentieth century urban history. Three of her monographs form a trilogy, moving from studying second generation New York Jews (At Home in America) to examining the lives of Jewish American soldiers in World War II, and culminating in a history of migration that carried big city Jews to Miami and Los Angeles after the war (To the Golden Cities). Her book, GI Jews: How World War II Changed a Generation served as the basis for a documentary of the same title.

Most recently, she has explored the formative encounter of Jews and American cities in the Urban Origins of American Judaism, and written a comprehensive history of New York Jews, Jewish New York: The Remarkable Story of a People and a City. Her recent book, Walkers in the City: Jewish Street Photographers of Mid-Century New York (2023) extends her interest in urban Jewish history to photography.

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