Dr. Frank’s column appears every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
Under the New Deal, taxes, both federal and state, will be more heavy and more rigidly enforced in order to provide the means for the wide projects of social insurance against sickness, invalidism, old age, and unemployment. This legislation aims at creating increased purchasing power for the majority of our people and, as its counterpart, a steady domestic market for the output of our industry.
Now, this predominant feature of the New Deal, to wit, heavier taxation, will affect the very people who have traditionally supported Jewish communal life in America. They will have to carry the burden of this support, even if and when the federations for support of Jewish charities are democratized.
The depression has impaired the money-giving ability of the Jews of America, so much so that the Jewish philanthropic and social-cultural agencies grapple for years with the problem of decreased voluntary giving. And this pressing problem more likely than not, will be aggravated by the financial policy of the State.
In our time, new tremendous responsibilities confront American Jewry, with innumerable domestic problems crying out for solutions and the fate of millions of Jews in Europe trembling in the balance. What is needed is our own New Deal. In this way, then, we shall be able to fulfill the deeply rooted Jewish traditions and cravings for social justice and a good life of all members of the community.
Dr. Frank’s column appears every Monday, Wednesday and Friday.
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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.
