It is estimated that in 1833, a century ago, there were a thousand Jews who inhabited the community today known as the borough of Brooklyn. A thousand times that number, approximately one million, have their homes in the same radius at the present time and their activities, social, political, economic, charitable and otherwise, their achievement in these fields, would fill a great many pages of a great many volumes.
How slowly and surely these Jews filtered into the Williamsburg teneflats, the Brownsville two-family stuccos, the Bensonhurst redstones, the Eastern Parkway mansions, establishing flourishing businesses where there were empty wastelands, building civilization where there was swampy terrain and insect-ridden flatlands, how the Jews were directly responsible for the astonishing changes which have taken place must perhaps remain an untold tale. But a typical year, 1932-3, which in spite of anemic business conditions discloses the astuteness and the bustling activity of Brooklyn Jewry, will possibly give an idea—a brief idea to be sure—of how Jewish is Brooklyn borough.
HELPED 1,300,000 PERSONS
In the year of depression, the Federation of Jewish Charities with headquarters at 94 Clinton Street, was responsible for aid given to 1,300,000 persons. About $3,000,000 was expended by the twenty-five affiliated agencies of the Brooklyn Federation. The bulk of the aid went to relieve the poor, sick, widowed and aged, and in medical care. Service which was rendered at considerable cost went for orphan and child care, Hebrew education, boys’ and girls’ delinquency work, immigration aid and education, Y.M.H.A.’s, aged and incurables in institutions, federation deficit campaigns and general loans. The affiliated societies of Federation consists of two hospitals, an orphanage, six Talmud Torahs, five Y.M.H.A.’s and community centers, the United Jewish Aid Societies, the Jewish Social Service Bureau, which does corrective and preventive work with delinquent children, the Council Home for Jewish Girls, etc. In addition, the Federation works in co-operation with non-affiliated societies, including the National Desertion Bureau, the Bureau of Social Research, the Graduate School of Jewish Social Work, etc.
Founded in 1910, the Federation was created by many now famous American Jews, including Nathan S. Jonas, former president of the Manufacturers Trust Company; Abraham Abraham, founder of Abraham & Strauss; Major A. I. Namm; Simon F. Rothschild; Supreme Court Justice Mitchell May; Presiding Justice Edward Lazansky of the Appellate Division; Supreme Court Justice Meier Steinbrink, and others. At Federation Founders’ Day Exercises, held Wednesday, June 17, 1931, speakers, who included Governor Herbert H. Lehman, sounded the keynote that the bond of fellowship among the Jews in Brooklyn is “comparable with that of any body politic that ever existed in history”
UNITED SOCIETIES’ RELIEF WORK
The United Jewish Aid Societies, an affiliated body of the Federation with offices at 1095 Myrtle Avenue, which was organized in 1909, gave during the year relief to about 3,000 families, including about 12,000 individuals. The Brooklyn Jewish Hospital gave treatment to about 150,000 persons in dispensary service, free ward beds totaling 43,449. Forty percent of the total amount of the work done at the Hospital was gratis. The
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.
