The Civil War, the most polarizing time in US history until today, was very much a part of the American Jewish experience. In 1860, in a national population of 31 million, there were 150,000 Jews; two-thirds were recent immigrants. About 25,000 Jews lived in the South, many in New Orleans. Like some other Southerners, most Jews did not own slaves.
A large majority of Southern Jewish men voluntarily enlisted in the Confederate Army, just as their Northern counterparts did in the Union Army. The pre-war South was a closed society. Differences of religion could be tolerated — but not dissenting views on slavery. There were Southern-born Jews who were anti-slavery, like Charleston-born Abram J. Dittenhoefer, but he became an influential Republican only after his family moved to New York City.
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