The following are excerpts from an article in the magazine Charities, under the heading "The Jew and his Poor", a comparison of two charitable institutions of New York and Chicago:

In the last issue of the monthly magazine, Charities, a magazine dealing with questions of charity, a very fine article has appeared under the title, "The Jew and his Poor", many points of which we will here emphasize.

In this article the writer is mainly concerned with the question of why the United Hebrew Charities of New York closed its doors when so many of the poor desperately needed help. When they finally reopened they were nearly able to continue a sad existence and did not have sufficient funds to feed its needy.

The writer also adds that last year was a very lamentable one. Many people had no bread because of the crisis. It is strange, though, that in a city like New York, with a population of approximately one-million Jews, there should be 2only 257 persons who answered the call of the Hebrew Charities and sent in their donations.

"It is a fact (writes the author of the article) that the greatest Jewish charitable institutions are maintained solely by a handful of wealthy Jews. The Jew of the first generation was himself an immigrant; and in most cases, a philanthropist. However, his son, who is born in America, forgets all the Jewish traditions, Jewish customs, and even the Jewish faith, and if he contributes money he manages to donate it to an institution or organization where there is no trade of Judaism. There is but a small fraction of Jewish people of the first generation, and, therefore, there are very few philanthropists. It should be remembered that the Jew from Russia, Rumania and Austria are still too poor to contribute to charitable institutions."

The writer further points out that after the old generation of Jews have passed away, the Jewish charitable institutions will be placed in a very precarious situation, and eventually will force the closing of the doors of immigration 3on the grounds that if the Jewish institutions are unable to take care of their poor they eventually will close their doors entirely.

In Chicago there is also a United Jewish Charities, but it bears the name of Associated Hebrew Charities. Our organization, in comparison with that of New York, is quite an infant. It is only eight years old. The Jewish population of Chicago is but one-eighth of the New York population. As in New York, we have also passed a crisis, but nevertheless the Chicago Charities have, without any difficulty, collected $214,454.00, almost three times as much as the New York Charities; their collection for the same year being $78,775.00. With all their noise and rumpus, they had only 357 donors, while Chicago's Charities had 2,490. They had also responded voluntarily. No one had to drag them or write letters to them.

Obviously, there is something wrong with New York, where the largest Jewish community in the world is located. We will even go further and say that something must be wrong with the leaders of the New York Jewish Charities.

We are not attempting to point out their shortcomings, but we cannot understand why a Jewish community eight times smaller than one in New York should give three times as much charity, and possess donors who are always ready to answer an emergency call. Until the New York leaders answer our questions, we cannot accept such alibis as that the old German Jews are the philanthropists, that the young Jewish generation is dodging all that is Jewish; that the Russian and Rumanian immigrants are so terribly poor and unable to contribute.