@jewishreels: 1914 Belgrade, eight Jewish soldiers take their army oath with Rabbi Isaac Alkalai, the country's chief rabbi. Rabbi Isaac Alkalai was born in Sofia in 1881, studied at the Vienna rabbinical seminary, and became chief rabbi of Belgrade and Serbia in 1909. In April 1914 he swore in eight Jewish recruits of the Vardar Regiment according to their own Jewish faith, while the rest of the regiment took the Orthodox oath. Months later the war began. He later served as chief rabbi of Yugoslavia and sat in the Yugoslav Senate. After the German occupation in 1941 he left for New York, led in the Sephardic community there, and died in Brooklyn in 1978. https://jewishreels.com/posts/belgrade-1914-jewish-soldiers-oath.html Credit: Đoka Bogdanović, "Zakletva regruta Vardarskog puka" (Oath of the Recruits of the Vardar Regiment), April 1914. Jugoslovenska kinoteka. #JewishReels #Belgrade #RabbiAlkalai #JewishSoldiers #Sephardic

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Friday 25 September 2026 00:10:16 GMT