You could try using systemd which is a Linux service manager. You can use it to run your service in the background.
To do that you need to first create a unit file
that describes how systemd should manage your service (more info here).
sudo vim /etc/systemd/system/your-application.service
Your file might look something like this
[Unit]
Description=Java Application as a Service
[Service]
User=ec2-user
#change this directory into your workspace
#mkdir workspace
WorkingDirectory=/home/ec2-user/workspace
#path to the executable bash script which executes the jar file
ExecStart=/bin/bash /home/ec2-user/workspace/your-script.sh
SuccessExitStatus=143
TimeoutStopSec=10
Restart=on-failure
RestartSec=5
[Install]
WantedBy=multi-user.target
Then in your home directory /home/ec2-user/workspace
you can create the bash script that will run your java application.
sudo nano your-script.sh
Your script might look like this
#!/bin/sh
java -jar your-application.jar
All you need to do then is start the service with the command
sudo systemctl enable your-application.service
sudo systemctl start your-application.service