Milwaukee Jewish Activities Prosper Despite Depression

Though given a setback by the recent affiliation of the Federated Jewish Charities with the Community Fund, Jewish communal life of Milwaukee still pulses strongly in its Jewish Center, its synagogues, and its philanthropic institutions.

By many, the merger of the Jewish charities into the Community Fund was viewed as a distinct loss to Jewish solidarity. The annual meetings of “charities” and the annual drives for support were looked upon as a strong cohesive force, bringing orthodox and reform elements into cooperation and harmony.

Proponents of the fusion, however, saw an advantage, in that a central drive for funds will be more efficient and less of a burden to Jewish givers. They pointed out, too, that with the deepening of the depression, the Jews could no longer as in formed days, “take care of their own” and that relief became more and more of a governmental task. Centralizing of charity drives thus became inevitable, they contended.

THE TOLL OF DEATH

The consolidation signified, too, the culmination of what has been a steady loss in Jewish communal leadership by death. First Nat Stone, late president of the Boston store, the city’s outstanding philanthropist, passed away. Then in rapid success, death took Edward Freschl, George Patek, Henry Hartmann, Nathan Glicksman, all of whom had been leaders in local Jewry and heavy contributors in charity efforts.

However, what has been lost in this field has been gained by the fact that the Jewish Center has kept up its activities, little curtailed, without borrowing money; that Temple Emanu-El B’ne Jeshurun has held fast to its cultural programs; that synagogues in general have still paid salaries to their rabbis, albeit noticeably reduced, though in many other cities spiritual leaders have gone unpaid for months.

The Jewish Center has established what may be a record for the country in passing through the depression with virtually little distress. This has been made possible by retrenchment in overhead, by the fact that it receives $5,000 a year from the profits of the Settlement Book Co.; that it did not burden itself with a pretentious new building, involving a heavy mortgage, but merely remodeled an old school structure; and that its leader, George Peizer, and its directors have shown marked efficiency in handling its financial, as well as its cultural, activities. Thus the Center during the depression has been more than a beehive of communal life for Milwaukee Jews.

LITTLE ANTI-SEMITISM

Other Jewish social institutions, outside the Jewish charities, such as the home for the Aged Jews and the Jewish Orphan home, have gone through the depression, little scathed, by frugality and by loyal support of their members.

Anti-Semitism has affected the city but little. Though it is one of the major German centers of the land, no Hitlerite chapter has openly appeared, though rumors existed for a while that an American Nazi cell would be organized here. The powerful socialist movement in Milwaukee would fight any outcropping of Nazi-ism, it was held certain, and German leaders would promptly condemn it.