back and explain to you in a moment. But it is due to the fact
that the steamship lines terminate at New York. I said I would
take it back that it wasn't the choice of New York, because
it has been the decision of the charitable Jews of New York
that if this tide must come here, and must be handled by the
American Jews, it must be dealt with as an American proposi-
tion; our energies will be weakened if they come at various
sea ports rather than at one; it is better to have them at one
place than to divide our forces all along the Atlantic seaboard.
But I can say to you that if the Jews of New York had set
themselves energetically to the task, we could offer inducements
that would compel the immigration companies to divert the im-
migration to Charleston, to Baltimore, to New Orleans, to Bos-
ton, to any place on the American coast, and looked at from a
purely financial standpoint, money could not be better invested.



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 4^

But they have never argued that feature, but, on the contrary,
have always taken the position that if we must take care of them,
it is better that they come where they can be handled scien-
tifically, than to let them be landed on the seaboard indiscrim-
inately and receive no particular attention.

Now, in New York a great many charitable institutions exist
and a very few charitable people. (Applause.) And we are
handling problems which impel us to deal with them familiarly ;
to smile when we hear of troubles that are related at a meeting
like this — as obtaining in other communities. When we hear
some one speak of these settlement districts in such and such
a community, or something or another that is established in some
other community, we can not help recalling that not only could
we not say the settlement house, but those among us who are
best informed do not know the location of the many settlement
houses which we have in the city of New York and of the
Jewish • charitable institutions, so numerous are they ; and yet
so great are the problems that these many institutions scarcely
make an impression. When I took a visitor through the Edu-
cational Alliance building in New York, and told him the aver-
age attendance there was 7,000 a day year in and year out, he
was amazed, as almost any one unfamiliar with the situation
would be-, that it does not make a greater impression upon the
tone and the civilization that obtain here, and the answer to it is :
That if we had 20 institutions located at proper places in the
lower east side of New York, each a duplicate of the Educational
Alliance, each one would have a like daily attendance, so
stupendous is that problem there. Now to get down to the
practical question to which I wish to address myself; it is this:
What is the solution, what are we going to do? Now, I want
to avoid as much as possible speaking of any matter in which
I must employ the personal pronoun I, which, if I had my way
about it, would be blotted out of all vocabularies, but I am
compelled by circumstances to say that when the Roumanian
persecution drove the first installment of victims to the United
States in the early part of the summer of 1900, the Independent
Order of B'nai B'rith undertook to distribute them in different



42 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

localities in the United States, and thereupon organized a move-
ment in conjunction with philanthropic individuals and societies
located in the city of New York, and up to the first day of
February, 1901, had located in a most desultory and unscien-
tific way somewhere between 1,600 and 2,000 people. Now.,
you must understand we had no machinery provided for han-
dling such a problem. We had nobody who understood how
to handle these people. We did not know whom to employ for
that purpose, because there was no one who had had any expe-
rience. The people living in the interior of the United States
did not understand these people nor how to handle them, and,
in the nature of things, mistakes were made and duplicated and
multiplied over and over again, but out of all that turmoil an^
confusion and apparent chaos the fact remains that about 60 per
cent, 60 to 66 per cent of those who were moved out were finally
successfully located and became self-supporting in different parts
of the United States. But quite a large percentage of those who
went out did not stay in the places to which they were sent. They
drifted. If they were sent within 300 or 400 or 500 miles of
Chicago, they had a desire to see Chicago. Most everybody has.
Or if they were anywhere near St. Louis, they wanted to go to
St. Louis, and they wanted to go to Cincinnati in the same
way. The large cities always attract these people, and there
was what we called a drift. Somebody said this morning when
a man gives $5 to this hospital and $5 to that asylum, and $50
to another, every week, that at the end of the year he thinks he
has given away a fortune. He is astonished when you sum up
and find out how little his contribution is. Now I am glad that
was mentioned, because I have found out that if in January
two Roumanians drifted into St. Louis and besieged the relief
committee there for aid, and in February one, and in March
four, and in April another one or two, before the end of the
year, it was firmly believed that all the Roumanians in the
country were being dumped into St. Louis. (Laughter and
applause.)

When I was in Chicago last March, I was told by the man-
ager of the United Hebrew Charities there that 400 Roumanian



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 43

refugees who were sent out by the New York Committee had
drifted into Chicago, and I said, "Won't you feel more com-
fortable if you reduce that?" and he said, "Well, to be certain
I would reduce it to 300." Afterwards, through the courtesy of
Mr. Senior, President of this organization, I saw the figures,
the names of the men tabulated. I do not undertake to be
exact, but I am safe in saying that the number that were sent
there was under 70, and of that list of 70, we could only check
out about 45. There were fewer than 50 who really were sent
by the Committee in New York to various parts of the west and
who drifted to Chicago. Well, the same was true in Baltimore,
and the same was true in Cincinnati, and the same vv^as true
everywhere else. In fact, when you tabulate the drift of Rou-
manians that were sent out, we discover that by some miraculous
process these Roumanian refugees had been able to multiply
themselves. W^ell, our figures showed 60 per cent remained
where they were, and the other 40 per cent had multiplied them-
selves into 200 per cent of the whole number. I refer to that
because it presents a grave 4)ractical problem. What are you
going to do about it? After experiences which we profited by,
we reorganized our affairs and our statistics from the first of
February will show that in our removal work 80 per cent of
those who were sent out remained where we had sent them and
are self-sustaining and prosperous. We sent out the heads of
families. Remember, we never sent anybody to any community
without the consent of that community. That is an inflexible
rule, but when the head of a family who has gone forth as the
pioneer, can get a certificate from the local charitable organiza-
tion or from the B'nai B'rith Lodge, if there be one, or any other
lodge, that he is able to take care of his family, his family is
sent to him. Those are what we call reunion cases. And our
reunion record confirms beyond any peradventure, the absolute
success of this movement. Now, when that movement had been
demonstrated as a success, it was suggested that possibly in
removal work we could solve the Ghetto problem. We could give
the children of those people, herded like cattle, the opportunity
to breathe fresh air, to get proper surroundings and proper



44 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME,

educational facilities, to take their places in the rank of Ameri-
can boys and American girls and become worthy American
citizens; we urged them to take advantage of the different por-
tions of the United States, and there we had, as we have now,
untold obstacles to overcome; and we have gone forth to make
a propaganda among the Jews, to impress upon them the duty,
nay, more than that, the privilege of taking part in this great
historical movement. Stamp your individuality upon it so that
your children and children's children may say that there was a
time when the exodus was repeated, when the exodus from
Spain was repeated, when the Jews moved from Southeastern
Europe to the United States, and my father or my grandfather
was one of the active spirits in that movement, opening his arms
to those refugees, furnishing them with the beginnings of a
career and enabling their children to become worthy citizens,
whose descendants are now the leaders of Jewish life in the
United States. Can you appreciate that? Let me tell you some-
thing which brought it to my mind more forcibly : At an early
stage of the movement I instructed my secretary to take an
ordinary railroad folder, a map of the United States, and mark
with a blue pencil the points to which the Roumanian refugees
had been sent, so that he might have it as a guide for the work,
and I mentioned it casually one day to the Superintendent of
the Educational Alliance, a Russian, Dr. Blaustein, and he said,
''Let me have that. That little worthless railroad folder will
become of priceless value when the Roumanian has become a
fixed fact in American civilization. It will be a precious souve-
nir to their descendants to show how they were first introduced
into the interior of the United States and where they first lo-
cated." Now, I do not appreciate his enthusiasm about the
historical value of that little map, but I do say, without respect
to any special feature of the work, that the work itself is of
great historical significance ; it appeals to your emotion ; it should
appeal to your judgment, and if it does not, it is not the fault of
the situation, it is your fault. It would indicate to my mind,
and I think it would to the mind of any one of you who is capable
of passing upon the subject, that you engaged in charity work



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 45

which you are doing for pleasure. Now, there is a great deal
of pleasure in charity work. There is a delightful emotion when
we do somebody a kindness, and I have observed in myself and
in others, too, that we always like to do a kindness to some-
body who needs it least. I know when I go down into the
Ghetto and I see a group of children, my inclination is to do
something for the prettiest child in the group. If you find in a
group of men one that looks the most respectable, who is the best
dressed, who appeals to you because he has an intelligent face,
he is the man that is most likely to arouse your first impulse
to aid, but if he is uncomely, if he is untidy and malodorous,
why, you turn from him with loathing and disgust; and yet if
you are animated by the true spirit of charity, you ought to
reflect that the one from whom you turn in loathing and dis-
gust is the one that is most entitled to your assistance. The
other man can get along himself. (Applause.) To do true
charity work is to make sacrifice. What values it to sit down in
your comfortable office and write a check and flutter it out, to
avoid coming in contact with those cases because it may soil
your gloves; to deal with them with tongs, to write magazine
theses on charity work — ^beautiful specimens of literature such
as I have heard and seen time and time again, and possessing
great merit? It endures forever, because it is not subjected to
wear and tear. But if you want to do effective charity work
you must soil your hands. You must come into contact with
things that are loathsome and repulsive, and feel you are giving
of your own comfort and happiness in order to secure comfort
and well-being to others. I have always said it is no holiday
business. It is not a holiday jaunt. It means trouble. It
means a tax on your patience. It means you are going to be
betrayed. It means you are going to be the subject of ingrati-
tude and treachery and a thousand other things that will make
you recoil because you must not expect these people to be
perfect specimens of humanity. Why should you? Are those
who have lived with you in your own community, are they per-
fect, are they all sensible, are they all truthful, are they all up-
right, are they all courteous, are they all loyal? and you will



46 LE© N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

answer no, a thousand times no, and if that be true of the aver-
age of any community, how should you expect these poor,
persecuted refugees who come over here should measure up to a
loftier standard than that which you apply to your own people?
Now I want you to reflect on that because that is of great
weight, not because it comes from me, but because it will help
you in your work. You will observe, in dealing with the pre-
judices of our Gentile friends towards the Jews, they always
msist upon comparing the average Jew with the best Qiristian.
And, of course, that is manifestly unfair. And the American
Jew compares the Russian and Roumanian Jew with the best
American Jew. But if you compare averages, I think you will
find the scale will not tip much one way or the other. (Ap-
plause.) I heard this morning a question put to one of the
distinguished delegates of this conference: How can we bridge
the chasm between the Russian and the German Jew? How
can we get rid of the prejudices which exist on both sides? And
I was delighted when I heard the interrogation coupled with
the statement of the prejudices which exist on both sides, and
I was pained to hear a reply made which would indicate that
the prejudice only existed on one side, and that it was well
grounded. I have had to deal with that problem and to study
it, and I have found that the closer I got into it, the nearer I
got to the fact that the prejudices on the part of the Russian
Jew towards the American and the German Jew are absolutely
well founded from his viewpoint. And that the prejudice of the
American and the German Jew against the Russian and the
Galician and the Roumanian Jew is absolutely well founded from
the viewpoint of the American and the German Jew. But I
have always found that both viewpoints are wrong, and that if
those who settle the question will take a broad view of it, will
separate themselves from prejudices, and look at the underlying
facts, they will find there is a misunderstanding which should be
removed ; that the Russian should not be driven to the loss of
self-respect by the arrogant assumption of superiority on the
part of the German or the American Jew. Right there is per-
haps the main root of the evil. These people will not tell you



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 47

SO to your face, but they understand your arrogance, and they
will have nothing to do with you as long as you assume to
patronize them from the standpoint of superiority. They do
not recognize your superiority, and I do not blame them. On
the other hand, they do not participate in our charities to the
â– extent you think they ought, and you censure them. I think
they ought to participate more than they do. I think that also
of the American and the German Jew. I want to make this ob-
servation as applicable to New York — I do not know whether it
applies to St. Louis. I will say it is applicable to New York, and
I will call your attention to the proof of the truth of it. The
Jewish population of New York may be divided into three parts
Russian and the allied races to one part of the American and
the German Jew. That is to say, 350,000 to 120,000, or in that
proportion, three to one. And I will say this, that of the 350,000
or 300,000 of Russian, Galician and Roumanian Jews in New
York, there are fewer who are able to contribute to organized
charities, yet do not, than there are among the 120,000 German
and American Jews who are able to do it and do not. I know
that between 5,000 and 6,000 names is the largest we can muster
as contributors to organized charities in the great city of New
York. How is it with other large cities? Take the lists and
compare them with the lists of the American and German Jews,
and ask yourself whether it is not proper to sweep a little before
our own doors before we comment upon the accumulated dirt
before the doors of our neighbors. We must deal with this
question in a catholic spirit. We must remember a man can
not get to the top unless he climbs from the bottom. We must
remember those who came to this country 50 years ago had to
climb from the bottom to the top, and we ought to be manly
enough to know there is nothing more cowardly and disgrace-
ful than to climb to the top of a wall by a ladder and then kick
the ladder away so that nobody can climb up afterwards. (Ap-
plause.) Now, in a great many of the communities great work
has been done. One of those who addressed you a few minutes
ago, a representative from Pittsburg, himself a Roumanian, has
successfully taken hold of the work in Pittsburg under the lead-



4S LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

ership of Mr. Rosenbaum, the President of the B'nai B'rith
district No. 3, of which Philadelphia is the capital city, who is
here, and I hope he will have occasion to tell you from the stand-
point of the American native Jew something about co-operation
in this work of establishing refugees in different parts of the
country. We have other friends who have done so. But we
have some natives to deal with that are as ignorant, apparently,
as the most benighted Jew that ever lived in Southeastern Eu-
rope, whose horizon is the limited local community; who do not
understand that beyond the hilltops which limit their view there
are other people ; who can be uplifted to a realization of the fact
that the Jewish question is a question pertaining to all the Jews ;
that the concern of all the Jews is the concern of each Jew, and
the concern of each Jew is the concern of all Jews. They will tell
you, whenever a propaganda is sought to be made among them,
that they have their local troubles, and as soon as they do their
part with those who are immediately with them, they perform
their full duty, and I say they do not know what trouble is. I
called the attention of my friends from New York before we
left New York to this: When you come out to Detroit and
meet the representatives from the west and south and listen to
the recital of their so-called troubles, you will find they have no
trouble. It reminds me, when I heard the recital from Kansas
City this morning, of the bright side work in a certain Sabbath
School where some young teacher conceived the idea of putting
herself in communication with the managers of the hospitals of
New York to ascertain the wants of patients and on Sunday
morning she came before the assembled children and she said:
"Here is a little child with curvature of the spine; she broke
her doll the other day and she wants a new doll with blue eyes
and black hair — now who will furnish that?" And immediately
there was an array of little hands raised up. Every little girl
in the Sunday school wanted to furnish that doll. Well, there
is a little boy in another hospital who wants a ball. And there,
again, the little hands go, and everybody wants to furnish the
ball. Of course, only one can do so; and it seems as if the rest
did not meet with the favor of the teacher, and their eyes filled



ADDRESS TO UNITED JEWISH CHARITIES. 49

with tears, and they go home very much disappointed, because
there was not enough trouble to go around. Now, let me say
to you, my friends, in the communities where there is not enough
trouble to go around, it is your duty to hold up your hands like
those children, and to clamor for your share. And there is plenty
of it to go around if it is properly distributed. And the work
that I and my friends are engaged in is to bring about a proper
distribution that you shall understand that that condition which
prevails there in New York is not our problem. It is your prob-
lem. It is the problem of all of us. It is your burden as it is
our burden; and that you can not get rid of your responsibility
simply because you do not see it, or because you live a thousand
miles away from it. Be manly and womanly, and face the situa-
tion, and when you realize your duty either you will perform
it, or not perform it, but do not indulge in sophistries and fal-
lacies, and say it is no concern of yours. Now, I do not want
to be invidious ; I do not want to mention names, but I do wish
to say there are communities in these United States that have
insisted repeatedly that we of New York are trying to unload
out troubles on other communities, and that they were not going
to be used as a dumping-ground for the poverty-stricken Jews
of New York. Now, let me tell you how much proof there is
to any such accusation. I have already told you they are com-
ing to New York at the rate of 50,000 a year. Our scheme of
removal involves the removing of 2,400 a year, so you can see
how much disposed we are to unload our burden upon the coun-
try. We are very much concerned in not creating a congestion
elsewhere. We are very much concerned in properly distribut-
ing these people; we are very much concerned in looking after
their welfare after they go beyond the confines of New York,
so much so that we will never send to any community without
its consent, and we are not urging communities to take more than
they can properly care for. On the contrary, time and time
again, when small towns have said we will take care of ten, or
any particular number, our experience shows and we have told
them you can not stand up under such a burden as that. Take
a smaller number first. Our problem is an old problem. We



50 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

think we are broad enough to grasp it; we are trying to teach
the breadth and depth of that problem to the Jews in other parts
of the United States, and it is unfair to themselves and to us t©
belittle it with a discussion of little details — the consideration of
little trifles and little mistakes made in the movement. Mistakes,
of course! You could not conduct a big business without mak-
ing mistakes. You could not conduct a great enterprise like
this without mistakes. And when you reflect that the people
who are engaged in this work are without the hope of any kind
of reward, you ought not to be unforgiving towards their errors,
even though you be infallible yourself. (Long continued ap-
plause.)



UNION AMONG JEWS.

Oration delivered by Brother Leo N. Levi, President of
Executive Committee, L O. B. B., at the celebration of the fiftieth
anniversary of District Grand Lodge No. i, L O. B. B., Sunday,
March 8th, 1903, at Temple Beth-el.

Brethren and Friends:

The celebration in which we are engaged is not merely a
festive occasion. We are not assembled chiefly for pleasurable
entertainment. We have been called together to review what we
have done and have left undone; to take an account of what
we are doing and leaving undone and to make a budget, as it
were, of what the future holds for us to do. In such delibera-
tions we hold no secret conclaves. We present our history with
all its successes and its failure to the public; and along with it
we set forth the scope and plan of our future activities. It is an
appropriate time to reconsider first principles, however well they
may seem to be settled ; to answer any challenge which the world
can make to us, and in turn to issue our own challenge to the
world.

One of the features of this jubilee is a history of District
No. I, prepared by brethren identified with it from the beginning,
and who can acquaint us from their own recollections with the
spirit in which the District was formed. I shall not enter the
field which they have so well covered, except to pluck here and
there a sheaf from the harvests they have gathered.

From that history we learn that after the Independent Order
of B'nai B'rith had been in successful existence for some years,
it was found expedient, for purposes of practical administration,
to create territorial districts in which it might operate with a
due regard to local considerations. The First and Second Dis-
tricts were simultaneously established in 1851. Since then five
other districts in the United States and three in Europe have

.SI



52 LEO N. LEVI MEMORIAL VOLUME.

been established. None which was created has ceased to exist
While the first and second districts were officially born at the