Was there any sort of legislated racial discrimination against Jews or not? Or, If not by law, maybe they were oppressed socially by so-called "rednecks"? Did they held any positions in the CSA government? Were there any rich persons of Jewish origin? Etc., etc., etc....


Judah Benjamin, a US senator from Louisiana prior the war, and a personal friend of Jefferson Davis, served as the Confederacy Attorney General, Secretary of War and Secretary of State. However, as a Jew he was disliked by many confederate politicians.

When the Confederate Congress discussed moving its capital to Nashville, Tennessee, one of the Tennessee senators announced that when this happened, he would introduce a bill banning Jews from entering the capital. Congress applauded.

From the Wikipedia article on Jewish Americans in the military:

  • About 3000 Jews served in the Confederate army.
  • About 7000 (including 4 generals) served in the Union army.
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    For comparison's sake, there were roughly two Union soldiers for every Confederate soldier. – Gort the Robot Jul 2 '17 at 18:37
  • The book by Evans on Benjamin (The Jewish Confederate) goes quite a bit into antisemitism against him and Jews in general. Note that the North also had plenty of antisemites, including well-known Abolitionists who did not fail to mention Benjamin and his Jewishness in condemnations of the Confederacy. IIRC, it might be argued that the North was more antisemitic simply because the South had fewer Jews. – Jeff Aug 30 '17 at 4:57

Probably the most famous is Judah Benjamin who was the CSA Attorney General.

There were also many that served fighting for the south, the article here mentions 10,000 and gives names of many of the Jewish officers with col ranks.

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