AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY

“A Particular Responsibility: The Making of the U.S. Army Talmud” opened April 8, 2002, in the American Jewish Historical Society Gallery at the Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16 Street, New York City. With historical documents, photographs and artifacts, the exhibit tells the story of the involvement of the United States Army in the printing of the Survivors’ Talmud, the only time in world history that a government has published an edition of this work.

The United States Army published the Talmud in Heidelberg, Germany, between 1948 and 1950 in response to requests by Jewish community representatives, including Rabbi Samuel Jakob Rose, a survivor of Dachau, and U.S. Army rabbi chaplains, on behalf of the survivors of the Shoah. (In 1945 not one complete set of the Talmud could be found in Europe.) Despite its own history of racism and anti-Semitism, the U.S. military in the post-World War II years evolved into a humanitarian force to shelter Jewish survivors and reconstitute Jewish life in Europe. President Harry S. Truman called caring for the Jewish survivors America’s “particular responsibility” and asked General Dwight D. Eisenhower to assure that the survivors’ material and spiritual needs were met. Under Eisenhower’s leadership the U.S. Army responded with exemplary compassion. Publishing the 19-volume Survivors’ Talmud exemplified this caring.

The current exhibition highlights the communities for which this edition of the Talmud was created, the people who championed its publication and the partnerships and ideals that made the historic endeavor possible. It encompasses historic photographs and documents from the post-World War II DP camps, dolls crafted for children and other handicrafts made in the camps, and a chaplain’s portable Torah Ark made from wood and used by Rabbi Joseph S. Shubow, one of 113 rabbis on active duty to serve Jewish servicemen during the war.

The dedication on the first page of the Survivors’ Talmud, its only English words, reads as follows:

This edition of the Talmud is dedicated to the Untied States Army. The army played a major role in the rescue of the Jewish people from total annihilation and after
the defeat of Hitler bore the major burden of sustaining the DPs of the Jewish faith. This special edition of the Talmud published in the very land where, but a short time ago, everything Jewish and of Jewish inspiration was anathema, will remain a symbol of the indestructibility of the Torah. The Jewish DPs will never forget the generous impulses and the unprecedented humanitarianism of the American forces, to whom they owe so much.

Rabbi Samuel A. Snieg

Chief Rabbi of the U.S. Zone

The exhibition is located in the Paul S. and Sylvia Steinberg Great Hall at the Center. It will be at the Center for Jewish History through August 30, 2002. The Center for Jewish History is open from 9 a.m. to 5 p.m., Monday to Thursday, from 9 a.m. to 4 p.m. on Fridays and Sundays, from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m.

The Tidewater Jewish Federation of Norfolk, Virginia, and the American Jewish Historical Society co-developed “A Particular Responsibility” in honor of the late Leonard Strelitz, a well-known philanthropist and Jewish communal leader of Virginia Beach, Virginia. The exhibit originally opened at the Chrysler Museum in Norfolk. For further information, please contact Michael Feldberg, Ph.D., executive director of the American Jewish Historical Society at 212-294-6162 or feldberg@ajhs.org.

Founded in 1892, the American Jewish Historical Society maintains archival collections including 40 million documents, 50,000 books, and thousands of paintings and memorabilia that bear witness to the outstanding contributions of the American Jewish community to life in the Americas.

The Center for Jewish History has emerged from a vision of a unique central resource for the cultural and historical legacy of the Jewish people. The Center embodies the partnership of five major institutions of Jewish scholarship, history and art: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research. The Center serves the worldwide academic and general communities with combined holdings of approximately 100 million archival documents, a half million books, and tens of thousands of photographs, artifacts, paintings and textiles – the largest repository documenting the Jewish experience outside of Israel. The Center’s extensive program of exhibits, cultural events and intellectual gatherings will interest all who wish to explore the richness of the Jewish past and the promise of the Jewish future.

This entry was posted on Monday, June 16th, 2003 and is filed under history.