Twenty-two per cent of the total expenditure for communal enterprises in 1927 in New York City was for the advancement of Jewish education. Of a total communal expenditure of $20,500,000, the sum of $4,500,000 was used to supply Jewish educational needs. These facts were presented by Ludwig Vogelstein of New York, at the National Conference of Jewish Social Service which is now holding its annual convention at the Hotel Breakers here. Mr. Vogelstein’s report was one of a series of three founded upon a three years’ survey of the communal resources of the largest Jewish city in the world, New York. A report on family welfare was delivered by Mrs. Sidney C. Borg and on health by Fred M. Stein. Dr. Lee K. Frankel of New York presided.
The money for Jewish education is the second largest item in the New York communal budget and is exceeded by a little over 50% by the hospital budgets, Mr. Vogelstein declared. Despite the size of the sum expended an additional yearly sum of $10,000,000 is needed if all Jewish children in New York are to receive a fairly adequate Jewish education, while not less than $2,500,000 is needed for buildings and alterations. The problem of elementary and high school education cannot, however, be solved without the cooperation of parents financially, by paying tuition fees, and morally by keeping the children in schools, he said.
Despite the increase in population. there has been a sharp downward trend in the number of dependents coming to the attention of the two major Jewish welfare agencies in Greater New York, according to Mrs. Borg. The estimated rate of dependency today in terms of Jewish population, today, she stated, is 10 per 1.000 for Manhattan and the Bronx. and 4 per 1.000 in Brooklyn. The downward trend noticed by the family welfare agencies is also noted by the major free loan and free burial societies.
The causes for this decline, she explained, are due in part to progressive social legislation such as workmen’s compensation, and pensions to widows, in a large degree to improvement of general economic conditions, the spread of insurance. decreasing morbidity. a decline in the birth rate, the effect of mutual aid societies, modern case work itself with its emphasis upon rehabilitation as against granting of doles and the practical cessation of immigration.
Jewish delinquency, she stated, is consistently less than the population at large and has shown a sharp decline in the past decade, particularly among juveniles.
The Jewish community of New York spent the sum of $6,357,000 for the maintenance of seventeen Jewish hospitals. representing an increase of more than $4,000,000 over the figures of 1917, it was stated in the report of Fred M. Stein.
Other speakers at the sessions included Virginia C. Frank of Chicago, Miss Frances Taussig, executive director of the Jewish Social Service Association of New York; Dr. Jacob J. Golub, executive director of the Hospital for Joint Diseases of New York; Mrs. Abraham N. Davis, president of the Council of Jewish Women of Brooklyn, Mrs. Alice I. Liveright, of Philadelphia, and Dr. Leon W. Goldrich. There also was a series of roundtables on various phases of social work.
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.
