JEWISH CHARITIES 59 



causes. It is true that religious persecution is largely at the 

 bottom of these causes, but the condition which such per- 

 secution has produced is not to be overcome by any organi- 

 zation or set of organizations founded on purely religious 

 lines. If the impoverished Jew requires the interference of 

 his wealthier coreligionist, it is because the latter is better 

 able to understand his needs and has a peculiar, speciaUzed 

 knowledge of a peculiar class of individuals. Were it possi- 

 ble for pubUc charities or for nonsectarian private charities 

 to grasp the fundamentals of Jewish poverty, to obtain that 

 keen insight into the modes of living and thought of a heter- 

 ogeneous people whose common meeting point is their reli- 

 gion, an insight so necessar}^ to bring the proper forms of relief 

 into play, there is no reason why the poor Jew should not 

 be the recipient of the charitable impulse of the entire com- 

 munit3^ The Jew's religion per se is not a factor in the solu- 

 tion of his physical needs. It is characteristic of his history 

 that the greater his poverty and distress, the greater has 

 been his religiosity and his steadfastness to his ethical and 

 religious convictions. It is a far cry, however, to the time 

 when the Jew will be able to lay down his self assumed 

 burden and delegate it to others, not only ready and will- 

 ing to shoulder it, but competent to unravel the intricacies 

 of the Jewish character, whose roots are deeply grounded in 

 centuries of tradition. For the present the Jew must care 

 for the Jew. 



The problem of the Jewish charitable societies of the 

 United States to-day is the problem of the care of the immi- 

 grant. As such, it passes beyond merely local Hues. In some 

 of its manifestations it is national in character and in few it 

 has an international significance. 



The fact that the large bulk of the needy Jews in the 

 United States reside in New York is accidental, and concerns 

 the Jews of Denver and San Francisco equally with those of the 

 eastern seaboard cities. Insofar the problem is a national 

 one. Moreover, to deal inteUigently with the question re- 

 quires a knowledge of the immigrant's antecedents, the im- 

 pelling motive which brought him to the United States, and 



