East River New Demarkation Line for Social Service Leagues, James J. Brooke Urges in Statement; Outlines Plan for Greater Effectiveness Throughout City Boroughs
The amalgamation of the Brooklyn and New York Federations into one Jewish community chest for Greater New York, including the five boroughs without distinction as to geographic location, was advocated by James J. Brooke, member of the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities and prominent communal worker in the borough of Brooklyn, in an interview with a representative of the Jewish Daily Bulletin.
The proposal to amalgamate the two Federations, periodically renewed during the last few years, was viewed by Mr. Brooke as a far sighted and progressive measure dictated by the needs of the growing city.
“It matters little from what side of the East River the cry for help emanates. As Jews, it should be our bounden duty to answer the call to furnish aid in whatever direction it is required,” Mr. Brooke stated, in advocating the abolition of geographic divisions within the city. “Besides, the constant fluctuation of Jewish population groups which is being effected through migration from borough to borough, including both the prosperous and the poor, makes all geographic lines of division an absurdity. Under these conditions, it is futile to attempt to fix an obligation upon one borough which is in reality an obligation of the community at large, embracing the entire Greater New York.”
Arguing on the basis of the fact alleged to be known to many observers of Jewish welfare work in the city that close to fifty percent of the welfare work which is being carried on in behalf of the Jewish population is outside the control of the supervision of either the Brooklyn or Manhattan Federation, Mr. Brooke said that “It would be a measure toward efficiency and effectiveness to provide for the progressive inclusion into the amalgamated Federation of such Jewish welfare institutions and societies as may be deemed fit both during and after the amalgamation.
“The new Federation, representing all the boroughs of Greater New York, should be constituted on a widely democratic basis so as to provide representation to all those elements who are liberally contributing towards the greater budget of the necessary institutions.
“It is time that the efforts in behalf of the needy be coordinated under systematic administration centralized under supervision of leaders of the several boroughs so that we may once and for all eliminate the possibility of some of our wealthy Jews avoiding their responsibility by claiming support in either one or the other borough and in the confusion of things, escape their just responsibility.
“Local pride and narrow provincialism are largely responsibile for the great waste of energy and duplication of effort as well as the tremendous expense that results from such duplication. For years, two organizations engaged in the same charitable activities, apralleling each other in the endeavor to raise funds aiming to relieve the needy of this great city, have conducted what appears to be a competitive appeals system, apparently unable to realize the crying need for cooperation.
“It is my firm belief that a truly representative directorate, embodying in its membership the leaders in Jewish endeavor, will tend to present a truly united Jewry capable of administering to the handicapped, deficient and needy in a manner that befits a community having the largest Jewish population in the country and perhaps in the world.
“With such a coordinated body, were the two principal fund raising organizations of this city to unite their efforts, it would be possible to include a number of unaffiliated societies who are now conducting independent campaigns and are continually harassing the generous minded Jews of this city. It is high time that we take cognizance of the continuous procession of drives, appeals, dinners and bazaars for one purpose or another, making their appeal to the spotted few. We can no longer sit idly by and permit unscientific disorganized hit and miss effort to exist and must either take definite steps to remedy the evil or frankly admit our impotency and inability to cope with the situation.
“We are living in an age of centralization. Cooperation is the keynote of our business enterprises and we should therefore take a leaf from the experiences of commercial enterprises as a guide for our activities in philanthropic endeavors.
“It is a well known fact that many more can be enlisted in the ranks of the givers were a more comprehensive program worked out and methods devised by which we will be able to reach those who are now avoiding their responsibility.
“We are fast approaching the stage when the leaders in Jewry must face the challenge to either unite and sustain their leadership or be brushed aside by the orientation of new forces born of the rapidly changing social and economic conditions.
“It will be interesting to observe whether our leaders have the vision and courage to meet the issue or complacently sit by and permit the disintegration of the agencies they have so laboriously builded,” Mr. Brooke stated.
The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
