The Concord Review, a prestigious quarterly history journal showcasing exemplary work by secondary school students, will publish a Palo Alto High School senior’s paper in its spring edition.

Senior Rachel Harrus’s paper, which analyzed the role of Jewish Americans in the Civil War, will be published in March 2011.

“What interested me and what I hope others can take away from the paper is that Jews, despite their history of bondage, split ideologically during the American Civil War,” Harrus said.

“It was a fascinating topic,” Jack Bungarden, Harrus’s AP United States History teacher said. “She worked extremely hard, and it was very nicely written.”

Harrus’s work also included an analysis of portions of the Torah.

“The Torah also reflects ambiguity regarding the morality of slavery,” Harrus said.

Harrus wrote the paper during her junior year as an optional assignment for her AP United States History class.

“I began to work on the paper in November and gave Mr. Bungarden a final draft in May,” she said. “It was a very large undertaking. I often spent four or five hours per weekend working on the paper.”

Harrus did not decide to write the paper with a topic in mind, but was influenced by her Jewish heritage to choose a topic that involved Jewish history.

“It came up rather organically,” Harrus said. “Initially, I wanted to do something about women’s suffrage, but I found that I had more of a personal connection to this topic.”

The Concord Review was founded in March 1987 to recognize “exemplary history essays by high school students,” according to its website.

Publication in the journal is considered one of the highest academic honors a high school student can receive, according to Harvard Dean of Admissions William Fitzsimmons, quoted this year in a Jan. 7 article by The New York Times. Fitzsimmons compared publication in the review to winning a national math competition.

“It’s an enormous honor,” Bungarden said. “In all the years I have been teaching history, this is only my second student to be published in the review.”

The only other Paly student published by the Concord Review is Rachel Wolf, a current senior at Yale University. Her essay, titled “Students for a Democratic Society,” appeared in a 2007 issue.

Harrus, who will attend Barnard College, is not sure if she wants to pursue a career in history.

“I still need to feel it out more,” she said.