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Herb Kaufman, who retired in 2007 as director of employment operations for the school district of Philadelphia, is now able to spend more time pursuing his avocation as a Civil War historian. Not interested in the battles so much as the people, what they did, and what motivated them, Kaufman has taught classes at the Civil War Institute at Manor College, where he is a founding faculty member, as well as at local universities.

On Jan. 31, he spoke at Adath Israel in Lawrenceville about Jews during the Civil War as part of the One Book One Jewish Community program, through which people in the greater Philadelphia area are reading Dara Horn's "All Other Nights," about a Jewish soldier in the Union Army during the Civil War.

Glenda Mendelsohn, who chairs the One Book One Jewish Community program at Adath Israel, welcomed attendees and introduced Kaufman, who was dressed in period clothing -- no synthetic materials, zippers, or belts -- and wore a genuine beaver hat and postwar reunion medals.

As a person who is careful in his use of historical sources, Kaufman warned the audience that Horn's novel is just that, a novel, and, although based in the period, cannot be considered as entirely historically accurate. For example, he did not think it likely that anyone would be sent to kill an uncle at a seder, because Francis Lieber's code for conducting a humane war, which guided military conduct in the Civil War, specifically prohibited assassination.

At the outbreak of the Civil War, the Jewish population of the United States was 150,000 out of a total population of 31 million, most of whom lived in the North and were loyal to the Union, said Kaufman.

In the South, most of the Jews lived in Charleston, Savannah, Mobile, Memphis, and New Orleans, which had the largest concentration. Kaufman suggested that anti-Semitism in the South was far less than in the North, due to the Southern Jews' greater assimilation.

"They were part of the community in the South, where there was a great amount of intermarriage," he said.

Although Jews did not especially believe in slavery or, for the most part, even own slaves, Southern Jews were loyal to their section of the country. About 1,500 Jewish men fought for the Confederacy, and 7,000 to 8,000 enlisted in the Union Army.

Even rabbis took political positions during the Civil War. Rabbi Max Lilienthal, who was born in Munich in 1815 and was a Reform rabbi in Cincinnati, spoke out for the Union cause. But Southern Jews just as vehemently supported the South, and Jacob A. Cohen of New Orleans responded angrily to Lilienthal. This laborer, who had joined the 10th Louisiana Regiment of the Confederate army, wrote a message across a photo of Lilienthal and mailed it to the rabbi on May 28, 1861. Cohen wrote that he was returning the lithograph because Lilienthal had "discarded the Lord and taken up the sword in defense of a Negro government." He signed the note, Jacob A. Cohen, New Orleans, Louisiana, CSA (Confederate States of America).

An actual controversy broke out in the North when Rabbi Dr. Morris Raphall at B'nai Jeshurun, a progressive congregation in New York City, delivered a sermon that did not exactly support slavery, but did point out that a form of slavery was accepted in the Bible.

Raphall began, "I am no friend to slavery in the abstract, and still less friendly to the practical working of slavery." He then explained that his own feelings were not important but as a teacher of Israel he needed to describe the biblical view of slavery. He compared the more humane biblical view of a slave as a person to the view adopted by pagan Rome and by the South where a slave is considered a thing that can have no rights. He concluded by hoping that his words would lead his fellow Northerners not to be overly righteous in denouncing slavery as a sin, and that people in the South would discard the heathen view of slavery and adopt the biblical one.

Apparently when the sermon was printed in the South, there was great euphoria in the region's synagogues, however, Northern Jews took him to task. A prominent Jewish scholar of the time, Michael Heilprin, wrote an editorial about Rabbi Raphall's sermon, which said, "I had read similar nonsense hundreds of times before; I knew that the Father of Truth and Mercy was daily invoked in hundreds of pulpits in this country for a Divine sanction of falsehood and barbarism; still, being a Jew myself, I felt exceedingly humbled, I may say outraged, by the sacrilegious words of the Rabbi."

Another example of the loyalty of Southern Jews to their region was Eleanor Cohen Seixas, who wrote in 1865 about the fearful war "ravaging our land." She demonstrated her patriotic feelings toward the Confederacy in a journal entry: "Land of my birth, home of my childhood, dear to me as life, my heart bleeds for and with you, and every any sacrifice on my part which could be made, I would gladly, freely give it, for your precious sake."

A piece by Samuel Meyer Isaacs in The Jewish Messenger enraged the Shreveport Jewish community. He wrote the following on April 26, 1861, in support of the Union: "Then stand by the Flag! What death can be as glorious as that of the patriot, surrendering his life in defense of his country -- pouring forth his blood on the battlefield -- to live forever in the hearts of a grateful people. Whether native or foreign born, Gentile or Israelite, stand by it, and you are doing your duty, and acting well your part on the side of liberty and justice!"

The Shreveport congregation passed an angry resolution in response to Isaacs' words: "RESOLVED, That we, the Hebrew congregation of Shreveport, scorn and repel your advice, although we might be called Southern rebels; still, as law-abiding citizens, we solemnly pledge ourselves to stand by, protect, and honor the flag, with its stars and stripes, the Union and Constitution of the Southern Confederacy with our lives, liberty, and all that is dear to us."

One characteristic of civil wars is that different members of the same family may support different sides. The parents of the future founder of the New York Times Adolph Ochs, had conflicting loyalties but stayed married. His father Julius Ochs from Bavaria, Germany, met Bertha Levy, whose roots were in the deep South. He became an adamant Unionist who formed local militias and gave them money, while his wife gave money to the Southern cause and was even arrested for smuggling goods into Confederate camps. When Julius died, he was buried with full honors by the Grand Army of the Republic, while Bertha was buried with full civil honors by the United Daughters of the Confederacy.

Bernard Gratz, brother of philanthropist Rebecca Gratz, lived in Missouri, which was torn apart on the question of whether slavery should be allowed to expand into the state. His son, Cary Gratz, from his first wife, joined the 1st Missouri Infantry of the United States, while his stepbrother, Jo Shelby, joined the First Missouri Cavalry of the Confederate States of America. After Cary Gratz was killed at Wilson's Creek, Rebecca Gratz wrote the following to her sister-in-law: "We may pray for Jos personal safety- tho' we cannot for the success of his arms."

Judah Benjamin, who served as secretary of war, attorney general, and secretary of state for the Confederacy, never denied his Jewishness, said Kaufman. When someone referred to him as "an Israelite in Egyptian clothing," Benjamin is said to have responded: "It is true that I am a Jew, and when my ancestors were receiving their Ten Commandments from the immediate Deity, amidst the thundering and lightnings of Mt. Sinai, the ancestors of my opponent were herding swine in the forests of Great Britain."

Kaufman also told tales of individual Jews during the war, many of whom were known for their bravery. Kaufman Simon Baruch, an assistant surgeon with the 3rd South Carolina Battalion, apparently said of his decision to side with the Confederacy, "South Carolina gave me all I have; I'll go with my state." He was twice captured by Union forces, because surgeons often stay to treat the wounded, and the Confederates called him "the doctor who won't quit," said Kaufman. Baruch was a pioneer in the surgery for appendicitis, and the George Pickett Society named an award after him.

Drummer boy Benjamin Levy, with the 1st New York infantry, grabbed the flag when the color bearer was shot down and became the first Jews to be awarded the Congressional Medal of Honor. As described on the Web site jewishmag.co.il by Jerry Klinger: "As men about him fell bleeding, cut to pieces, wounded into frightening crimson screams of pain, Private Levy jumped forward and grabbed the fallen colors, raising them anew. Waving them bravely, he heartened the men of the 1st New York. The line stabilized and rallied about the battle flag. The regiment was saved from probable total destruction by the skinny Jewish drummer boy."