JEWISH CHARITIES 63 



families who had originally applied to the United Hebrew 

 charities for assistance in October, 1894. Of these 1,000 ap- 

 plicants it was found that 602 had not applied for assistance 

 after December, 1894. Of the balance, 67 families were de- 

 pendent on the society to a greater or lesser extent in January, 

 1899. More detailed investigation disclosed the fact that 

 nearly all of these 67 applicants were made up of families 

 where the wage earner had died, leaving a widow with small 

 children, or of respectable aged and infirm couples unable to be 

 fully self supporting, or of families in which the wage earner 

 had become incapacitated through illness. In other words, 

 after five years over 93 per cent of the cases studied were in- 

 dependent of charitable interference. 



While the above study was limited in its scope, and while 

 the deduction which can be drawn from it must be accepted 

 with reserve, it is nevertheless typical of Jewish charitable 

 conditions. The marked feature in the care of the Jewish 

 poor in the United States is the almost entire absence of the 

 so-called pauper element. Even the sixty seven famiUes 

 above mentioned can not be included in this category. Widow- 

 hood is the resultant of purely natural conditions, and when 

 it afflicts the poor mother with a family, it frequently produces 

 a condition of dependence which has in it no characteristic 

 of demoralization. The brightest and most hopeful chapter 

 in the history of Jewish charity is the avidity and eagerness 

 with which its beneficiaries, bereft of the main wage earner, 

 become self supporting and independent as soon as the chil- 

 dren are old enough to contribute to the family income. 



If there is one cause more than another leading up to 

 this condition, it is the absence of the drink evil among the 

 Jews. The instances in which drunkenness hes at the bottom 

 of Jewish dependency are so infrequent that they may be ig- 

 nored. Combined with the absence of this vice, there are 

 other virtues engrafted on the Jew for centuries, all of which 

 tend to the preservation of his self respect and his self esteem. 



Among these are the love of home, the inherent desire 

 to preserve the purity of the family, and the remarkable eager- 

 ness which he shows for education and self improvement. 

 Poverty with the Jew does not spell degeneracy. He has 



