By Cindy Mindell ~ FAIRFIELD – This year marks the 150th
anniversary of the start of the Civil War. In recognition of the
sesquicentennial, the Bennett Center for Judaic Studies at
Fairfield University will present Civil War historian Adam
Mendelsohn as its annual Adolf and Ruth Schnurmacher Lecture in
Judaic Studies. In his talk “Beyond the Battlefield, Jews and
the Civil War,” Mendelsohn will reassess the impact and
importance of the war for the American Jewish community.
Mendelsohn has been a member of the Jewish Studies program at
the College of Charleston since 2008, where much of his teaching
and research focuses on Jews of the American South. He is co-
editor, with Prof. Jonathan Sarna of Brandeis University, “Jews
and the Civil War: A Reader” (New York University Press, May
2010). He is actively involved in the Jewish Historical Society
of South Carolina and the Southern Jewish Historical Society.
Mendelsohn spoke with the Ledger about Jewish involvement in the
Civil War, and how the war helped shape t