IMMIGRATION. 437 



What do these figures [here omitted] mean? The answer is easily given, 

 and is but a repetition of the statements made to you in these annual reports 

 for the past few years. They mean, if they mean anything, that a condition of 

 chronic poverty is developing in the Jewish community of New York that is 

 appalling in its immensity. Forty-five per cent, of our applicants, representing 

 between 20,000 and 25,000 human beings, have been in the United States over 

 five years; have been given the opportunities for economic and industrial im- 

 provement which this country affords, yet notwithstanding all this, have not 

 managed to reach a position of economic independence. Two thousand five 

 hundred and eighty-five of the new applicants, representing seven per cent, of the 

 Jewish immigration to the United States during the year, found it necessary 

 to apply at the office of the United Hebrew Charities within a short time after 

 arrival. It must be remembered, furthermore, that the United Hebrew Charities 

 does not represent the entire Jewish poverty and dependence that exists in New 

 York City. Frequently our relief bureau is the place to which the applicant 

 comes only after exhausting every other possible means of procuring assistance. 

 When the numerous small relief societies, chevras, lodges, benefit societies, 

 synagogues, individuals and others can no longer contribute, then and then only 

 in many cases is the cooperation of the United Hebrew Charities sought. 



If, besides the 50,000 people who applied at the United Hebrew Charities, 

 we were to include in the dependent classes all who needed service of dispensaries, 

 hospitals, asylums and institutions of all kinds or who were assisted by chari- 

 table effort other than that given by us, the statement can safely be made, that 

 during the year from 75,000 to 100,000 members of the New York Jewish com- 

 munity are unable to supply themselves with the immediate necessaries of life. 



The Hebrew has succeeded in America whenever he has separated 

 himself from the Ghetto, and once away from all its influences Amer- 

 icanizes much more readily than is generally supposed. Other obstacles 

 are in the way of transferring the Jews from the Ghetto to the country. 

 The natural desire to be with their own people — to hear their own 

 language, to be able to observe all their religious and social customs 

 without fear of ridicule or interference, which the Jews possess in 

 common with other alien races — make it difficult to get them away 

 from the Ghetto. Then, too, the remuneration from agricultural pur- 

 suits is not enticing, and the opportunities for education and advance- 

 ment to be found in the cities attract the Jew as well as the thousands 

 of our native rural population, who flock to the great cities every year. 



The hope for future betterment of conditions in the Jewish quarter 

 of New York will lie in temporarily checking the Jewish i mm igration 

 to this country, and in thus giving the Hebrew charitable organizations 

 time to adjust conditions in the congested area. At present the good 

 work performed in one year by finding places for poor Hebrews in other 

 parts of the country is nullified the next year by the influx of thousands 

 of new arrivals of the same character. If the stream of Hebrew immi- 

 gration could be diverted for a time, those already here with the ample 

 assistance of their charitable co-religionists might be distributed and 

 made independent of charity. The realization of the dream of Zionism 

 would tend to this result. Zion would hardly attract many Jews from 



