‘camps’ Used by Racketeers As Bait

Every cause calculated to appeal to the better nature of the Jewish people is seized upon by unscrupulous racketeers to defraud Jews of millions of dollars yearly.

A racket not uncommon in New York City is the “summer-camp” scheme. Telephone solicitation, form letters and the other common procedures are used to gain funds ostensibly to send indigent children to a summer camp.

In most cases a camp actually is operated. But it is a camp to which a mother would hesitate to send her child. A swampy lot, a few tents, a “counsellor,” make up the “camp.” The food supplied at such camps is of the cheapest.

MONEY TO PROMOTERS

Usually less than twenty per cent of the funds collected is actually spent on the camp. The rest goes into the pockets of promoters and solicitors.

These camps seldom pass the New York State hygiene requirements. Many are ordered closed by inspectors only to open again elsewhere.

There is a case on record of a “counsellor,” getting wind that inspectors were to visit the camp, fleeing and abandoning a hundred children with no food or means of reaching home. Were it not for the fact that inspectors actually did arrive, the children might have starved or wandered off into the forest.

There is a type of racket which operates by house-to-house canvassing. A bearded man rings the bell of a house located in a Jewish community and identifies himself as a “meshulach” (agent) for a Jewish orphan asylum, foreign university or synagogue. He requests a donation. The orthodox Jew, taken in by the beard and engraved credentials, may give a sum of money to the solicitor. He thereby directly abets one of the most widespread rackets preying on the Jewish community.

MANY ARE FRAUDS

It has been estimated that from forty to sixty per cent of the house-to-house solicitation organizations are frauds. Oftimes the solicitor himself is the entire organization.

A ##egro knocks on the door of a Jewish household. He says he is an Abyssinian Jew collecting money for the starving Jewish settlement in Abyssinia. Rabbi William F. Rosenblum, chairman of the Pro-Falasha Committee, New York representative of the Abyssinian Jews, yesterday told this reporter that there is not one Abyssinian Jew in America today.

Rabbi Rosenblum was also chairman of a committee which conducted an investigation of the Negro-Jewish congregations in Harlem, are active solicitors of funds in the Jewish community. Two of the three congregations he investigated were frauds, Rabbi Rosenblum said.

“SUCKER” LIST

There are indications that there exists in New York a “sucker list” of Jewish people especially susceptible to appeals for funds for Jewish causes. These indications are strengthened by the findings of this reporter and welfare agencies that for some reason the same people are appealed to by many “charity” organizations.

Every charity—bona fide and otherwise—seem to have a judge connected with it. Telephone solicitations of fraudulent charities invariably include mention of a judge’s name. Often it is promised that if a contribution is made to a charity, the judge backing it will “fix it up” when the contributor gets a summons for some minor offense.

“COURT” HEARD ON PHONE

One person told this reporter that he was called on the phone. A voice told him, “I am calling for Judge Jones. He is on the bench just now and would like to speak to you in a moment.” Then three bangs are heard, and a voice in the distance said, “Court is adjourned.” Next, feet were heard stamping down a flight of steps, and the “judge” picked up the phone to ask for a donation, following his request with the usual promise to “fix up” traffic summonses.

JUDGES UNWITTING “TOOLS”

Well-meaning judges often give permission to use their names in connection with charities without first investigating the organizations. In this way they often indirectly aid in defrauding the public.

So widespread is the custom of judges sponsoring charity organizations that many cannot recall all the charities they have given their backing to.

A person, asked for a donation from a relief organization, should communicate with the Department of Public Welfare. The department, however, cannot keep track of the plethora of Jewish charities such as foreign yeshivas and synagogues. In such cases, the Jewish Daily Bulletin will be glad to investigate an organization brought to its attention by a reader.

Would-be philanthropists should beware of all telephone solicitations and solicitations where messengers are sent to collect the donation. An appeal for funds including a judge’s promise to help the contributor is invariably fraudulent.

In general, if a person feels charitably inclined, he is advised to make his donation to the Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropic Societies, 71 West Forty-seventh street. In this way he can be assured that the money will be used for genuine charitable work.