The one man who could break up the charity rackets incorporated as Jewish congregations, Attorney General John J. Bennett, has consistently avoided doing so, even in the face of an appeal from Governor Lehman.
This was the charge made yesterday by Magistrate Jonah J. Goldstein, a tireless campaigner against rackets masquerading as charity.
Striding back and forth in his office in the East Fifty-seventh street Magistrate’s Court, Judge Goldstein demanded to know why Attorney General Bennett has done nothing about these rackets which Goldstein termed a “chilul leshem” (sacrilege).
“I told Bennett he is in a position to stop the racket,” Judge Goldstein angrily declared to this reporter. “All he has to do is to bring injunction proceedings against these racketeers to enjoin them from soliciting funds and then bring action to revoke their charter.
“I wrote, I conferred with his office. The Henry Street Settlement urged him to do something. Governor Lehman appealed to him to start injunction proceedings. For some unknown reason that I cannot fathom, the Attorney General has taken no step.
“If he said the State couldn’t afford it, I offered him a special assistant attorney general at no cost to him. If he said he was afraid to mix in Jewish religious business, I offered to get him the signatures of Jewish religious leaders to a petition backing the proceedings.
Attorney General Bennett, who will come up for reelection this Fall, could not be reached yesterday to answer the charges.
Judge Goldstein placed the burden of the blame for the religious charity rackets on the prominent citizens who, without investigating charity organizations, permit their names to be attached to them.
“I hold these prominent citizens responsible. If they hold positions of respect they should protect them. By giving consent to the use of their names, these men endorse the rackets.”
TELLS OF OTHER RACKETS
Judge Goldstein charged that Superintendent of Schools O’Shea gave a fraudulent charity organization permission to use his name after receiving a letter telling about the great work the organization was supposed to be doing.
“In Port Jefferson,” the Judge said, “there is a Justice of the Peace named Carl F. Ruck. He gave an organization permission to use his name, and the solicitors of the organization now say over the telephone, ‘This is Supreme Court Justice Ruck calling’.”
Judge Goldstein told this reporter of various other charity rackets. He told of an ambulance drivers’ association which collected funds for its needy members. The association could not count in its membership one real ambulance driver, the Judge said.
There was another case of a fireman’s association. The members paraded around in blue uniforms lined with red flannel, suspiciously like the regulation fireman’s uniforms. They sold tickets for charity affairs. Yet not one member of the association had ever been a fireman.
ENOUGH CHARITY GROUPS
“There is no necessity for more charity organizations,” Judge Goldstein asserted. “If any one feels kind-hearted, there are enough organizations that will gladly accept offers of assistance. Bonafide charity organizations today haven’t nearly as much help as they need.”
At present, charity organizations incorporated as religious congregations are immune from investigation by the Department. Most charity organizations organized as congregations conduct only sham religious services, it has been found.
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.
