THE AMERICAN-JEWISH COMMITTEE.
EDUCATIONAL INSTITUTIONS AND FEDERATIONS.
Formation of the American Jewish Committee――Its first fifteen
members and its membership in 1911――The experimental Kehillah
organizations――The re-organized Jewish Theological Seminary――
Faculty of the Hebrew Union College――The Dropsie College of
Hebrew and Cognate Learning――The Rabbi Joseph Jacob School――
Other Orthodox “Yeshibot”――Talmud Torahs and “Chedarim”――Hebrew
Institutes――They become more Jewish because other agencies now
do the work of Americanizing the immigrant――Technical Schools――
Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Associations――Federations
of various kinds.
The massacres of 1905 aroused and united the Jews of the civilized
world, and the necessity of an organization to cope with the situation
and with similar situations in the future began to be generally
felt. The time when the Alliance Israelite Universelle, with its
preponderance of French Jews and French methods, could act for the
Jewry of all countries was now past, and only a new organization in
which each country was independently represented could answer the
purpose. The same was also true, in a more restricted sense, in the
United States itself. None of the national Jewish bodies, not even the
Order B’nai B’rith, with its Board of Delegates, could now assume to
speak with undisputed authority in the name of American Jewry as it
is now constituted. An attempt to form a representative international
Committee of Jews was made at the General Jewish Conference which was
convened at Brussels, Belgium, in the last days of January, 1906, where
a resolution to that effect was adopted. But the plan was not carried
out.
Illustration: Judge Mayer Sulzberger.
Photo by Gutekunst, Phila.
Within a week after the Brussels Conference (February 3–4), a
conference was held in New York City “to consider the formation of a
General Jewish Committee or other representative body of the Jews in
the United States.”[57] A committee which was appointed by the chairman,
Judge Mayer Sulzberger of Philadelphia, submitted its report to the
conference at a subsequent meeting (May 19), which was referred to a
Committee of Five, with instructions to select another Committee of
Fifteen, representative of all Jewish societies of the United States,
to be increased to fifty members, if considered desirable. About
a month later, the chairman announced the following Committee as
the nucleus of the American Jewish Committee, which was ultimately
increased to sixty: Cyrus Adler, Washington, D. C.; Nathan Bijur,
New York; Joseph H. Cohen, New York; Emil G. Hirsch, Chicago, Ill.;
D. H. Lieberman, New York; Julian W. Mack, Chicago, Ill.; J. L. Magnes,
New York; Louis Marshall, New York; Isidor Newman, New Orleans, La.;
Simon W. Rosendale, Albany, N. Y.; Max Senior, Cincinnati, O.; Jacob H.
Schiff, New York; Oscar S. Straus, New York; M. C. Sloss, San Francisco,
Cal., and Simon Wolf, Washington, D. C.
The American-Jewish Committee was organized with sixty members, and
adopted a constitution (November 11, 1906), which begins: “The purpose
of this committee is to prevent infringement of the civil and religious
rights of the Jews, and to alleviate the consequences of persecution.
In the event of a threatened or actual denial or invasion of such
rights, or when conditions calling for relief from calamities affecting
Jews exist anywhere, correspondence may be entered into with those
familiar with the situation, and if the persons on the spot feel
themselves able to cope with the situation, no action need be taken;
if, on the other hand, they request aid, steps shall be taken to
furnish it.” The Committee was later again increased on account of
the enlargement of the representation from New York City, owing to
the organization of the “Kehillah,” and last year consisted of the
following, representing the thirteen districts into which the country
was divided for that purpose:
Dist. I: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 2 members:
Ceasar Cone, Greensboro, N. C.; Montague Triest, Charleston, S. C.
Dist. II: Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, 2 members: Jacques Loeb,
Montgomery, Ala.; Nathan Cohn, Nashville, Tenn.
Dist. III: Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas, 2 members: Maurice
Stern, New Orleans, La.; Isaac H. Kempner, Galveston, Tex.
Dist. IV: Arkansas, Colorado, Kansas, Missouri, 3 members: Morris M.
Cohen, Little Rock, Ark.; David S. Lehman, Denver, Col.; Elias Michael,
St. Louis, Mo.
Dist. V: California, Idaho, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, 3 members:
Max C. Sloss, San Francisco, Cal.; Harris Weinstock, Sacramento, Cal.;
Ben. Selling, Portland, Ore.
Illustration: Hon. Benjamin Selling.
Photo by Trover-Weigel, Salem, Oregon.
Dist. VI: Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, Montana, Nebraska, North Dakota,
South Dakota, Wisconsin, Wyoming, 4 members: Henry M. Butzel, Detroit,
Mich.; Emanuel Cohen, Minneapolis, Minn.; Victor Rosewater, Omaha, Neb.;
Max Landauer, Milwaukee, Wis.
Dist. VII: Illinois, 7 members: Edwin G. Foreman, M. E. Greenebaum,
B. Horwich, Julian W. Mack, Julius Rosenwald, Joseph Stolz, all of
Chicago, Ill.; Samuel Woolner (deceased), Peoria, Ill.
Dist. VIII: Indiana, Kentucky, Ohio, West Virginia, 5 members: Louis
Newberger, Indianapolis, Ind.; Isaac W. Bernheim, Louisville, Ky.;
David Philipson, Cincinnati, O.; J. Walter Freiberg, Cincinnati, O.;
E. M. Baker, Cleveland, O.
Dist. IX: New Jersey, Pennsylvania, 9 members: Cyrus Adler,
Philadelphia, Pa.; Isaac W. Frank, Pittsburg, Pa.; Wm. B. Hackenburg,
B. L. Levinthal, M. Rosenbaum, all of Philadelphia, Pa.; Isadore Sobel,
Erie, Pa.; Mayer Sulzberger, Philadelphia, Pa.; A. Leo Weil, Pittsburg,
Pa.; Benjamin Wolf, Philadelphia, Pa.
Dist. X: Delaware, District of Columbia, Maryland, Virginia, 2 members:
Harry Friedenwald, Baltimore, Md.; Jacob H. Hollander, Baltimore, Md.
Dist. XI: Connecticut, Maine, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, Rhode
Island, Vermont, 3 members: Isaac M. Ullman, New Haven, Conn.; Lee M.
Friedman, Boston, Mass.; Harry Cutler, Providence, R. I.
Dist. XII: New York: Joseph Barondess, Samuel Dorf, Bernard Drachman,
Harry Fischel, William Fishman, Israel Friedlaender, Samuel B.
Hamburger, Maurice H. Harris, Samuel I. Hyman, S. Jarmulowsky, Leon
Kamaiky, Philip Klein, Nathan Lamport, Adolph Lewisohn, J. L. Magnes,
M. Z. Margolies, Louis Marshall, H. Pereire Mendes, Solomon Neumann,
Jacob H. Schiff, Bernard Semel, P. A. Siegelstein, Joseph Silverman,
Cyrus L. Sulzberger, Felix M. Warburg: 25 members.
Dist. XIII: New York (exclusive of the city), 2 members: Abram J. Katz,
Rochester; Simon W. Rosendale, Albany.
Members-at-large: Nathan Bijur, New York City; Isidor Straus, New York
City.
The officers are: Mayer Sulzberger, President; Julian W. Mack and Jacob
H. Hollander, Vice-Presidents; Isaac W. Bernheim, Treasurer; Herbert
Friedenwald, Secretary. The Executive Committee consists of Cyrus
Adler, Harry Cutler, Samuel Dorf, J. L. Magnes, Louis Marshall, Julius
Rosenwald, Jacob H. Schiff, Isadore Sobel, Cyrus L. Sulzberger and
A. Leo Weil.
The strength of the committee consists mainly in its personnel, as
it comprises the most influential as well as the most active Jewish
communal leaders of the country. The membership from the large centers
of population, like New York, Philadelphia and Chicago, includes also
representatives of the immigrants of the last period, and the plan
of the Jewish Alliance of twenty years ago[58] to bring together the
older and the younger portions of the community is, to some extent,
consummated in this Committee. It has made some valuable efforts
on behalf of the suffering Jews in other countries, and also in the
interest of a speedy solution of the vexed Russian passport question,
and it is becoming recognized as the representative Jewish body in the
United States.
When the Jewish community or “Kehillah” was formed in New York in
1909, consisting of the representatives of congregations, fraternal
and educational organizations, the plans of those who wanted to have
the American Jewish Committee re-organized on a more democratic basis,
and to make it the elected and authorized representative of the Jewish
masses, was partially carried out. The twenty-five members of the
Executive Committee of the New York “Kehillah” are the New York members
of the American-Jewish Committee. The Jews of Philadelphia have now
also formed a “Kehillah” on the same basis of representation. But
these new forms of amalgamating the large communities and forming
authoritative Jewish central bodies is yet in the experimental stage,
and several years, perhaps several decades, will have to pass before
their permanent existence will be assured and justified. The great
difference between the Committee and the “Kehillahs” is, that in the
first men of power and authority who worked effectively for Jewish
interests before, individually or as leaders of communal bodies, have
united to work together in the same direction. The “Kehillahs” on the
other hand, have yet to create the forces which are to sustain them
and make them formidable. Their chief value consists of their being
symptoms of the times, indicating the approach of the end of the period
of chaos in general Jewish affairs, and an inclination to submit to
representative authority in communal matters. The most conspicuous act
of the New York “Kehillah” was its foundation of a Bureau of Education
under the direction of the well-known Jewish educator, Dr. Samson
Benderly (b. in Safed, Palestine, 1876), who conducted Jewish schools
in Baltimore with marked success and is now working out his original
plans in educating Jewish teachers who should be capable of suitably
performing their duties to the coming generation. But the soundness
and the practicability of his plans are as problematical as that of
the “Kehillah” itself.
Illustration: Prof. Solomon Schechter.
Much other valuable work was done in the cause of Jewish education
in the last ten years. The Jewish Theological Seminary, which was
reorganized in 1902, when the presidency was assumed by the famous
Roumanian Jewish scholar, Solomon Schechter, now has on its faculty
as professors: President and Professor of Jewish Theology, Solomon
Schechter; Biblical Literature and Exegesis, Israel Friedlaender;
Talmud, Louis Ginzberg; History, Alexander Marx; Homiletics, Mordecai
M. Kaplan; Instructor in the Talmud, Joshua A. Joffe; Instructor in
Hebrew and Rabbinics, Israel Davidson; English Literature and Rhetoric,
Joseph Jacobs. There is also now a Teachers’ Institute connected with
the Seminary, of which Prof. Mordecai M. Kaplan is the principal.
The Hebrew Union College of Cincinnati, which is maintained by the
Union of American Hebrew Congregations, has also been considerably
strengthened in the last few years. Its faculty consists of the
following professors: Homiletics, Theology and Hellenistic Literature
(President), Kaufman Kohler; Jewish History and Literature, Gotthard
Deutsch; Ethics and Pedagogy, Louis Grossman; Jewish Philosophy, David
Neumark; Biblical Exegesis (Associate), Moses Buttenwieser; Biblical
Literature, Henry Englander; Instructor in Bible and Semitic Languages,
Julian Morgenstern.
The youngest of the Jewish higher institutions of learning in the
United States is The Dropsie College of Hebrew and Cognate Learning of
Philadelphia, which was incorporated in 1907. Moses Aaron Dropsie (b.
in Philadelphia, 1821; d. there 1905), an attorney and street railway
owner of Dutch descent, bequeathed the bulk of his fortune, amounting
to nearly one million dollars, to the foundation of that college, which
was opened in 1909. The faculty consists of: President, Cyrus Adler;
Max L. Margolis, in charge of the Biblical Department; Henry Malter,
in charge of the Rabbinical Department; Jacob Hoschander, Instructor
Department of Cognate Languages; Hon. Mayer Sulzberger, Resident
Lecturer in Jewish Jurisprudence and Institutes of Government.
An institution of an entirely different kind is the Rabbi Joseph Jacob
School, or Yeshibah, of New York, which was organized in 1901, whose
founder, Samuel S. Andron, still retains the presidency. It is the
only considerable Jewish school on the denominational or parochial
plan, where English and general studies according to the curriculum
of the public schools are pursued together with the study of the
Hebrew language, Bible, Talmud and Rabbinical literature. It is the
first attempt to combine a strictly Orthodox and a thorough American
education, and, if possible, to educate American rabbis who should
be acceptable to the old style pious immigrant as well as to the
generation which is growing up here. There are other Yeshibot in all
of the large cities in the United States, but most of them simply
follow their prototype, the Talmudical Academy of the Slavic countries,
where there is no other official subject of study except the Talmud and
Rabbinical literature, and secular studies are pursued clandestinely
or not at all. In some of the Yeshibot here, like in the Rabbi Isaac
Elchanan Theological Seminary of New York, some concessions were made
to secular studies, but there was no attempt, and perhaps no desire,
to harmonize the systems and to supply a good American education.
The original forms of the elementary Jewish school, the private
“Cheder” and the public or semi-public Talmud Torah, is represented
among the Jews of the Slavic countries in all its varieties, from
the old-fashioned Russian school, where the Hebrew text is translated
in a traditional Yiddish, which the pupil who is born or brought up
here understands but imperfectly, to the Americanized place, where
the translations are made in the English, and the modernized Russian
school, in which Hebrew is used in interpreting the Scripture and the
text books prepared for the purpose. Naturally the oldest and largest
Talmud Torah of New York, the “Machzike Talmud Torah” of East Broadway
(organized 1882), of which Moses H. Phillips is president and I. A.
Kaplan superintendent, is looked upon as a model institution of its
kind. There are nearly two score Talmud Torahs in New York City, some
of them attached to synagogues, but most of them separate institutions
with buildings of their own, several of which, like the Up-Town
Talmud Torah and the one in Brownsville (Brooklyn), are magnificent
establishments, with incomes which prove the material well-being of
the immigrant classes, as well as their willingness to pay for Jewish
education.
There are large Talmud Torahs in every city where there is a
considerable Jewish population, and, as in many other respects, New
York conditions are duplicated in Chicago, Philadelphia and other great
centers. In the smaller towns a Talmud Torah is now established soon
after the foundation of a synagogue, and the private teacher, who is
often also the Shochet and Chazzan or Mohel, usually antedates them
both. There is one important difference, however, between the Talmud
Torah of the Old World, especially Russia, and the same institutions
here. There the Talmud Torah is mainly for the children of the very
poor, for destitute orphans, foundlings and the like. Here the scarcity
of good private teachers, the high compensation which they require,
and the limited time which could be given to Jewish studies, makes
the organized school preferable also for the children of parents who
are willing and able to pay for tuition. Some Talmud Torahs which are
maintained by single synagogues for their members, especially in small
communities, partake of the nature, and even of the exclusiveness, of
the Sabbath School which is an adjunct to almost every well conducted
Reform Temple. _Volks-Schulen_, or Hebrew schools for girls, have
lately been established in several sections of New York, and also in
other cities.
There are also in every large community and in some sections of large
cities educational institutions whose chief object is to facilitate
the Americanization of the immigrants. The model institution of that
sort is the Educational Alliance (formerly the Hebrew Institute) of
New York. Some of them bear the name Educational Society, and a large
number, among which the Chicago institution, of which Julius Rosenwald
(b. in Springfield, Ill., 1862) is the chief patron, prefer the
old name of Hebrew Institute. This class of institutions have been
undergoing material changes for the last ten or fifteen years, and
those founded lately are entirely unlike those which belonged to
the earlier period. All fear that the newcomers will not become
Americanized sufficiently fast has now disappeared; and, besides, the
work of Americanization which was formerly done by private charity,
like the maintenance of evening classes and even of day classes for
adult immigrants, to instruct them in English and elementary knowledge,
is now done by the cities themselves. Private efforts are now made more
in the direction of Jewish education and religious or semi-religious
activities, and some of the Hebrew Institutes, notably the youngest and
those established and maintained by immigrants themselves, are almost
Talmud Torahs, often combined with synagogues, in which the religious
element predominates, and in some of them rabbis occupy the leading
positions.
Lastly, there is a class of splendid educational establishments,
founded and endowed by Jewish philanthropists, for the technical
development of the young Jewish immigrants. The most important of
these in New York are the Baron de Hirsch Trade School, the Hebrew
Technical Institute (organized 1883), and the Hebrew Technical School
for Girls. Chicago has the Jewish (formerly the Manual) Training School
(incorporated 1887); Baltimore its Maccabean House (incorporated 1900);
Boston its Hebrew Industrial School (organized 1889), and the Jewish
Educational Alliance of St. Louis, Mo., has a large industrial school;
Cincinnati has a Boys’ Industrial School; while Philadelphia has the
B’nai B’rith Manual Training School and the Industrial Home for Jewish
Girls. The Young Men’s Hebrew Associations, the Young Women’s Hebrew
Associations and other Jewish organizations of a like character in
numerous places, maintain various classes――religious, technical,
etc.――offering educational opportunities to new arrivals and to young
working people who ♦cannot utilize the regular institutions of public
education.
The efforts to organize and to federate, which resulted in the
formation of the American-Jewish Committee, produced several other
communal federations of variegated character. The oldest and most
substantial of these is the Federation of Galician and Bukowinian
Jews in America (organized 1904), which founded and maintains the Har
Moriah Hospital in New York. There have also lately been organized
a Federation of Roumanian Jews and one of Russian-Polish Jews. There
is also in New York a Federation of Contributors to Jewish Communal
Institutions and a Federation of Jewish Organizations, both of which
were organized in 1906.