66 LEE K. FRANKEL 



of the society there is no form of relief which shows such good 

 returns for the investment made. Families so supported do 

 not become pauperized, since the subsidy which is granted 

 enables the surviving parent to devote her time to the proper 

 rearing of her children so that they may become useful and 

 intelligent citizens. To such children the society stands in 

 loco parentis. Dependency of this kind does not lead to de- 

 generacy. Where the home can be preserved, where children 

 can develop under the care of the natural guardian, there is 

 little likehhood of dependency extending to succeeding gen- 

 erations. So far as the Jew at least is concerned, this fact 

 has been too often and too amply evidenced to require further 

 illustration. 



A word may be said here on the question of adequate re- 

 lief. In the revulsion which accompanied the indiscriminate 

 almsgiving of earlier decades, the so-called organized charities 

 which resulted therefrom frequently went to the other ex- 

 treme and withheld material relief in the fear of its baneful 

 effect on the recipient. Nothing is more characteristic of our 

 present day charities than the gradual return to the sound doc- 

 trine that material relief is not the end desired, but merely 

 a means to the end, and that it must be used, if necessary, 

 equally with other forms of relief, and must be given adeqately 

 if at all. Jewish charity has always upheld this belief. Grant- 

 ed dependency, and material relief in many instances follows. 

 Its danger lies in giving it as a dole. If it must be given, let 

 the amount of it be proportionate to the applicant's needs and 

 not to the amoimt that can be obtained from a more or less 

 charitably disposed community. 



Along these lines the United Hebrew charities frequently 

 grants assistance, presumably as a loan, in amomits varying 

 from $50 to $250. These loans are made in special case^, where 

 it is not possible to make the applicant self supporting through 

 the ordinary channels of employment, etc. A wage earner 

 who has been incapacitated through illness or injury and hence 

 unable to follow any routine work, may still be established 

 in some small business venture and be able to support his 

 family. Thousands of dollars have been spent by the United 

 Hebrew charities along these lines with the most gratifying 



