The Bangor Daily News reported that "almost the entire Jewish community marched from State Street down Exchange Street to the railroad station accompanied by a band. One of its recruits was David Ben-Gurion, the future leader of what many years later became the country of Israel. In June 1918, a train containing 300 recruits for the Jewish Legion stopped in Bangor on the way from New York City to Halifax, Nova Scotia. After a wait of fifteen minutes the train carrying the soldier boys continued on its journey amidst the rousing cheers of the multitude."
"A monster reception was tendered to the two carloads of Jewish soldiers recently enlisted in the British Army for service in Palestine, at the Union Station last night by the Hebrews of this City, who formed or procession at the Newbury Street Synagogue and headed by Chief Marshal Morris Sacknoff and Fort Williams band and with over a hundred Jewish soldiers now located in Portland harbor acting as escorts of honor, marched to the Union Station, where over 2,000 Hebrews had gathered to honor the men of their race who were on their way to aid the Allies by duty in their native land."įather of former Maine State Treasurer, Samuel ShapiroĮven though the troops arrived at 11 p.m., they "were welcomed with cheers and speeches of an impromptu nature, following which every soldier was given a box lunch and furnished with other necessary things for their comfort. A short article in the Eastern Argus on noted that: In 1918, a group of these Jewish soldiers stopped briefly in Portland on their way to Canada for military training. More than 8,000 American Jews joined this group raised by the British Army in 1917, in part to free Palestine from Turkish rule. Three battalions of Jewish volunteers-the 38th to 40th battalions of the Royal Fusiliers-were known as the Jewish Legion. The United States entered the war in 1917, about eighteen months before it ended. The Great War, as it was known at the time, began in 1914. Numerous Jewish men from Maine served in World War I, some Jewish women worked as nurses and in munitions factories, and many other Jewish soldiers were stationed in the Portland area. Article describing stopover in Portland of Jewish Legion recruits on their way to Canada, 1918
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