64 LEE K. FRANKEL 



known it too long to fear it, and even through its worst in- 

 vasions, he has come forth stronger, more confident, more 

 self reliant. Poverty he knew in darkest Europe, where it 

 was forced upon him. He brought it with him when he came 

 to the United States, and under the beneficent environment 

 which encompassed him here, he has escaped from its clutches 

 to a large extent. The small percentage who become or re- 

 main dependent after a residence of any length in the United 

 States are influenced by causes extraneous to the individual, 

 and which are mainly the product of their environment. 

 What these causes are will develop subsequently. 



This detailed exposition of Jewish poverty is timely, in 

 view of the fear that has been expressed of late, that continued 

 Jewish immigration, together with other immigration from 

 oriental Europe, may develop potentialities harmful to Amer- 

 ican customs and thought. It is feared that pauper elements 

 will be introduced into American life, which may become ob- 

 noxious and detrimental. A discussion of the question is 

 outside the province of this paper. So far as the Jew is con- 

 cerned, the fear is without warrant of fact. The history of 

 the Jewish charities in the United States demonstrates nothing 

 more forcibly than that the Jewish immigrant, be he German, 

 Russian, Roumanian or Galician, readily adapts himself to 

 his American environment, easily assimilates the customs and 

 language of his adopted country, and even though he may 

 temporarily require assistance, rapidly becomes independent 

 of charitable interference. The immigrant Jew is frequently 

 poverty stricken. He is rarely a pauper, in the sense in which 

 the word is most commonly used. He is not found in the be- 

 sotted, degenerate, hopeless mass of humanity constituting 

 the flotsam and jetsam of society, the product of generations 

 of vice and crime and debauchery, which makes up the scum 

 of our present civilization. Given the opportunity and the 

 proper surroundings, the immigrant Jew will become an ad- 

 dition to the body politic and not a menace. 



From what has preceded, it will be comprehensible that 

 the Jewish charities of the United States, having a special 

 problem with which to deal, have instituted special methods 

 for its solution. In the main, relief organizations have fol- 



