Die Welt

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Jewish Relief Work.

On the Meeting of the Hilfsverein der deutschen Juden.

Jewry has never been poor in associations whose programme was the cultivation of social relief. The beginnings of such associations often reach far back into the Middle Ages. At all events, many of them are merely institutions already proved in the Ghetto and adapted to modern times. Therein, however, often lies the fault of such establishments as well. People were not always fortunate in carrying on the old; but they were certainly for the most part very clumsy in "timely" alteration. In the old community there was, after all, a certain coherence among all philanthropic institutions. Even the well-nigh hopeless dispersion of the Jews over the greater part of the earth did not bring the great harm one might suppose; for in those days the saying held undisputed: "We are children of one Father, sons of one people." Even in a strange land the Jew might count on finding among his own people the help that was his in his own community, if he did not come off the victor in the struggle for life.

Since the emancipation of the Jews these conditions have changed, not only in the Western countries but, through the example of the Western Jews, in the great Jewish centres of the East as well. The "timely" reformation of the Jewish institutions of the West usually consisted in neglecting the development of those already existing and in "taking account of the spirit of the age" by founding new establishments that looked as little Jewish as possible. Thus it came about not only that the Jewish community, formerly truly a home and stronghold of Jewish life, lost more and more of its significance, but also that Jewish relief work became ever more fragmented.

In recent decades people often consoled themselves that this was a matter of a division of labour, that such a division must benefit social relief work, and that the undeniable evils which showed themselves on every hand would disappear once, taught by experience, they no longer repeated mistakes already made. This consolation, which did indeed hold out hopes of improvement, proved, however, to be mistaken. The material distress of the Jews assumed such great dimensions that even those not directly affected could no longer deceive themselves as to its existence, unless they deliberately shut their eyes and ears. This distress was no longer the, one might almost say, primitive distress of former times, but a danger growing daily even for the better-situated Jews; for the connection between economic position and the sphere of political and social influence is far closer and more sensitive among the Jews than among others. Small wonder, then, that rich and the very richest Jews, quite apart from their other publicly visible and much-praised philanthropic activity, as well as the Jews of certain political circles, had every reason not to pass this problem heedlessly by. A number of great Jewish philanthropic societies owe their foundation, and their often exceedingly rich financial endowment, to these and similar considerations. What the feeling of belonging together, the truly Jewish love of one's neighbour, no longer accomplished, was achieved by fear of the consequences of the continuance of the worst conditions, and by shame at still being subsumed under one heading with these most wretched.

The psychology of charity, especially of the charity of the Western Jews, certainly belongs among the most interesting fields of the cultural research of our century. In this field the investigator will discover, beside much that is noble, indeed sublime, beside much that provokes a smile if not mockery, traces also, and often very deep ones, of the most repellent egoism and the most foolish misapprehension of economic developments. All these establishments, however, are for the most part designed only to relieve momentary distress. Only a few concern themselves also with the further fortunes of those assisted, and of those that do, it would sometimes be almost better if they did not. All together, however, show that in the economic situation of the Jews there is only ever an unstable equilibrium, which the slightest shock can very easily disturb.

The usefulness of such relief work, however much strenuous labour it may demand, is therefore a very limited one. It is materially diminished by the fact that in many cases this relief work is neither organized nor has a clear goal before its eyes. We Zionists, who surely to every activity on behalf of the Jewish people the warmest