A Tireless Worker, S.a. Goldsmith Began Welfare Endeavor As Youth

One of the speakers at the recent national conference of Jewish social workers who aroused the most spontaneous outbursts of applause was Samuel A. Goldsmith, executive director of the Jewish Charities of Chicago.

Direct, blunt, incisive of speech, Goldsmith is the epitome of sincerity and intelligently applied zeal in one of the most difficult of professions. His intensity, informed and brightened with a deep understanding of the problems of those he strives to aid, communicates itself to any audience he addresses.

In a field where statistics sometimes tend to obfuscate the people around whom they have been collated, with deadening results for the statistician, Goldsmith has never permitted himself to be victimized by facts and figures. The statistics never become a Frankenstein; they’re always under his thumb, put in the shade by his own vibrant personality and alert realization of the important but not all-important role they necessarily play in his work.

RELENTLESS WORKER

Goldsmith is of medium height, a bit heavy around the waist, on the swarthy side in complexion. In his brown eyes there’s a sparkle dimmed only little by glasses. His sturdy frame, holding resources of physical energy, announces the secret of an ability to drive himself at a relentless pace that makes him the marvel of his associates in Chicago and his former colleagues in New York, where he was for ten years executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research.

The Chicagoan, who was born in New York City, learned the value of driving himself at top speed at New York University en 1911 and 1912, Goldsmith was a crack track man, competing as a two-miler, where endurance and the knowledge of how to conserve energy for a last-lap burst of speed is vital to success.

When Goldsmith wasn’t burning up the cinder paths, he was burning up his opponents in the equally difficult field of forensic competition. He was captain of the debating team of New York University. Where his flying feet sometimes failed to humble an intercollegiate opponent, his cutting tongue seldom fell short of turning the trick for alma mater.

SENSE OF HUMOR

One of the noteworthy characteristics of this social worker from the gusty city is that the seriousness of his job hasn’t injured his sense of humor.

He tells with relish two stories that represent the opposite poles of his job. One is of the time in 1922 when, as secretary of a special commission of the Joint Distribution Committee which was sent abroad to study conditions in various European countries, he arrived in Wilno.

There the commission was met by a fervent plea for aid by the heads of the Jewish community. The population of the city was destitute and terror struck because of the current occupation by Polish troops. Reflecting the demoralized state of the people, the leaders made a dramatic plea for several million marks. Then, apologizing for the size of the request one of the leaders explained as follows:

“You see, we ourselves have had to collect 3,000,000 marks to send to our brothers in the Volga district.”

The story at the opposite pole concerns a well-known philanthropist. One day not so long ago, Goldsmith relates, this millionaire rushed into a meeting room where one of the philanthropic boards was in session. Clutching at his hair, he exploded:

“My God, last year I gave $100,000 to something and I can’t for the life of me remember what it was.”

Goldsmith has his serious moments, also. As a married man and the father of three children, he says, he is obliged to have. In one of those moments, he said he would like Jews of the country to realize the vital importance of this message:

“Strengthen by every possible means the community-wide organization of Jews. Plan for a centrally organized American-Jewish community. Federation is only a starting point. The problem involves almost complete reorganization of the social and economic structure of the Jews of the country.”

Looking at his past record and listening to his informed, intensely sincere speech, one has the feeling that for such a reorganization there would scarcely be a better moving spirit than Goldsmith himself.

Following is a brief outline of his experience in social welfare work since 1915. A graduate of N. Y. U. in 1912 and awarded his M.A. by Harvard the following year, also a member of Phi Beta Kappa, Goldsmith became field secretary and general secretary of the Council of Young Men’s Hebrew and Kindred Associations. This position he held for seven years. The next ten years he spent as executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research he has been executive director of the Jewish Charities of Chicago. He is on the executive committee of the National Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds.

In his first post, he helped in the development of Jewish community centers throughout the country and in raising initial building funds for that movement. Prior to the entrance of the United States in the World War, he organized the Board of Jewish Welfare Work in the Army and Navy, now the Jewish Welfare Board.