An old wise proverb says: "an ounce of prevention is worth a pound of cure" and the deep truth of this ancient saw is today recognized in medicine as well as the social sciences. Preventive work stands nowadays in the center of interest and is really typical of the modern trend of mind.
However, what seems to us so new, so ultra-modern, so entirely the achievement of the last few years—preventive social work—is really a less recent development than we imagine. More than twenty-two years ago a group of women, conscious of their civic duties and enjoying the leadership of Mrs. Sidney C. Borg, united in the Jewish Big Sister Movement, a movement which did pioneer work in preventing boys and girls developing asocial tendencies and drifting through all the phases of ill-adjustment finally into criminality.
If, in the beginning, the Jewish Big Sisters, of which Mrs. Borg is still the chairman, acted mostly from a sentiment of personal responsibility toward the under-privileged or the problem child; if, in the beginning, it was the heart that informed and directed the work of these fine pioneer women ### the social service field, the Jewish Big Sisters have in the course of time made themselves familiar with all the newest findings of psychology and psychiatry.
While still working intimately, friendly, sisterly with the adolescents coming under their care, the Jewish Big Sisters have adopted scientific methods of proved value and make use of the results of the most modern research work. To look over the case book of any of the workers in the movement, to hear tales of girls almost gone astray, almost lost to themselves and the community, who under wise guidance yet found the way back to a useful and happy life, is indeed inspiring. One marvels at the patience, the sympathetic understanding that can achieve such splendid results, and one recognizes again that to do truly constructive philanthropic work one has to give more than money, one has to give unstinting personal service.
VOLUNTEER WORKERS
That is what the Jewish Big Sisters are doing, and the movement, therefore, attracts the very best elements in Jewish college-trained womanhood. Those volunteer workers are guided and supervised by professionally trained leaders and they also attend study groups dealing with the various social and educational problems touching on their work. These study programs are planned by Mrs. Leonard Wallstein, the chairman of the Program Committee.
The Jewish Big Sisters, nationally affiliated with the various Big Sister and Big Brother organizations throughout the country, work hand in hand with the Little Sisters, and both organizations supplement the program of the Jewish Board of Guardians, an institution specially interested in the care and the reclaiming of the delinquent child. Occupying the same premises, and therefore, as one of the leading women in the movement said smilingly, starting from the same premise as the Jewish Board of Guardians located at 228 East Nineteenth street, the Jewish Big Sisters have been responsible for many of the most important social reforms of the last quarter century.
Officers of the organization are: Mrs. Sidney C. Borg, chairman; and Mrs. Benjamin J. Buttenwieser, vice-chairman; Mmes. Cecil Borg, Samuel C. Coleman, Arthur Schuite, Irwin Untermeyer and Leonard Wallstein, committee members.
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.
