More than 7000 Jews have fought in Australia’s military conflicts, contrary to a popular view that Jews rarely serve in the military.
Apart from Sir John Monash, the Commander in Chief of the Australian Defence Forces in WWI, the Jewish superheroes of air, ground and sea, have been largely forgotten. In almost every battle that Australian troops have taken part in, there have been Jewish soldiers amongst them – from the war in Sudan in the 1880s to Australia’s continuing presence in Afghanistan.
Journalist and war historian, Mark Dapin, brings them to life in Jewish Anzacs: Jews in the Australian Military.
You can listen to an interview on with Mark Dapin on Radio National’s Sunday Extra.
Rachael Kohn of the ABC’s Spirit of Things, interviews Felix Sher who remembers his son, the late Private Gregory Sher, who served in Afghanistan. You can listen to the interview here.
Jewish Draftees, Imperial Recruiting Depot, World War I. Source: Australian War Memorial
