Photo Credit: Jewish Press
The “Great War” â as World War I was known until its significance was dwarfed by the horrors of World War II â had a profound and lasting impact on the Jewish people. Most European Jews found themselves at the center of the battlefield and unprecedented hostility from all sides.
Never before had so many Jews been conscripted to fight on both sides of a war, oftentimes finding themselves fighting Jews in uniforms of enemy countries. On both sides, Jews were accused of being traitors and, by the time the war ended, millions of Jews were displaced and impoverished while anti-Semitism flourished.