December 2003 Welfare Pioneering: American Jewry's Paean To Abraham By Rabbi Alvin Kass As the American Jewish community prepares to celebrate its 350th birthday, surely among its most admirable achievements is what the historian, Salo Baron, called "welfare pioneering," an elaborate structure of philanthropic endeavor to which Jews could always turn in times of need. These activities and institutions are rooted in the traditional Jewish values of tzedakah (charity) and gmilut hasadim (acts of kindness). However, in America, these acquired a new urgency from the moment Jews first settled on these shores in 1654. Peter Stuyvesant, the governor of New Amsterdam, was not happy to see these Jewish immigrants and permitted them to stay only as long as their poor "do not become a burden to the community, but be supported by their own nation." The Jews met the challenge with flying colors. From the very beginning, they assisted and helped other Jews deal with such sundry issues as food, shelter, money, medical treatment, care, consolation, information, and advice. The Jewish example inspired other ethnic groups to do likewise. Sometimes it embarrassed communities who devoted insufficient attention to the needs of the indigent and suffering. Thus, William Travers Jerome, the district attorney of New York City from 1901-9, told an audience of rich fellow Episcopalians: "You are of no use to this city... because of your heartlessness. The only civic and welfare work being done in this city is by Russian Jews." Surely one of the most important and productive charitable enterprises in America were the settlement houses in which volunteer workers interacted with the urban poor with the ultimate goal of elevating them. Most of the financing for New York houses was provided by Jewish philanthropists. The Henry Street Settlement was founded by Lillian Wald, a pioneer in public health nursing, who also inaugurated the city's first school lunch programs. Among her co-workers at the Henry Street Settlement were such stellar personalities as Herbert H. Lehman, Henry Morganthau, Jr., Francis Perkins, Adolf A. Berle, and Charles Beard. By far the Educational Alliance is the most famous of these great endeavors. David Sarnoff, who went on to create RCA and NBC, learned English there. Eddie Cantor began his career there. Morris Raphael Cohen, the preeminent intellectual colossus of CCNY, was a frequent speaker at the Alliance. Arthur Murray learned to dance there. Sholom Aleichem lectured on Jewish and world literature as an alliance member. Such outstanding Jewish artists as Sir Jacob Epstein, Jo Davidson, Chaim Gross, and Abraham Walkowitz studied art at the Alliance for three cents a lesson. The Workmen's Circle, organized in 1892, provided sick benefits and cemetery and funeral arrangements for Jewish factory workers. It is an integral part of the Jewish Labor Committee, which is the overall force behind Jewish trade-unionism in New York. The American Socialist August Claessens, a Roman Catholic, once expressed his wish to the poet Carl Sandburg, that he be buried in the Workman's cemetery, because "the last place the devil will look for a goy is in a Jewish cemetery." Among those buried on the grounds of the Workmen's Circle Cemetery are Abraham Cahan, editor of the Jewish Daily Forward, Sholom Aleichem, and the 145 victims of the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory fire of 1911. The saga of Jewish "welfare pioneering" in this country is one of the proudest and most glorious chapters in the annals of the Jewish people. I suspect that the Biblical patriarch Abraham, who gained fame for his own generous acts of charity and hospitality, would be very proud of his American descendants.