Ours to Fight For: American Jews in the Second World War March 13, 2011

A traveling exhibit by the Museum of Jewish Heritage, 'Ours to Fight For' invites visitors to explore and relive the experiences of Jewish men and women who joined the American war effort on and off the battlefield. The story is told almost exclusively in the first person, using quotations from the more than 400 interviews conducted by the Museum. It powerfully illustrates what it was like to serve as an American and a Jew in this greatest of human conflicts. The voices of the soldiers and sailors, airmen and marines, WACs and WAVEs appear in seven videos, two audio programs, and dozens of written "labels" that narrate the exhibition and animate the artifacts, documents, military paraphernalia and images. Among the more than 200 artifacts is a Jewish prayerbook of Staff Sgt. Jacob Eines who was hit by shrapnel but not fatally wounded because of the prayerbook in his breast pocket; the accordion Hermann Goering gave to the Jewish GI who interrogated him after his surrender; and a Torah scroll used by Chaplain Rabbi David Max Eichhorn at the first Jewish service conducted at Dachau after the camp was liberated (together with the film taken at that service). Interactive stations at the end of the exhibit allow visitors to explore the experiences of other groups who served in the military during World War II, including African Americans, Native Americans, Puerto Ricans, and Soviet Jews.