The Jewish Welfare Board is one of the agencies which has the great responsibility of helping the government to take the best possible care of our soldiers, both those in the training camps, and those on the battlefields. The Jewish Welfare Board has been recognized by the War Department as the official agency representing the Jews in America.

The B'nai Brith, and all the other organizations which had individually undertaken to do educational work among our soldiers, the "poor Russian immigrants", had to give way to the Board. The Jewish Welfare Board proposed to the government a healthier, better, finer, and more liberal plan by which it would orient its work. For this reason, and also because it does not wish to deal with too many organizations, the government recognized the Jewish Welfare Board. Since the B'nai Brith and the other organizations were concerned only with the welfare of the soldiers, 2they graciously permitted the Board to do the work among our soldiers as it saw fit, and also contributed money to its treasury.

Colonel H. Cutler of Providence, Rhode Island, is the chairman of the Welfare Board. He is one of the best-known Jewish figures in America, a man of great energy and ability. He is a Russian Jew from Elizavetgrad, and has the friendship and respect of the Reform as well as the Orthodox Jews; he is one of the Jewish welfare workers in America with whom both divisions of the Jews are well satisfied. He is often the peacemaker when differences [of opinion] arise between the two groups, on one question or another.

Because Mr. Cutler is chairman of the Board, many organizations have affiliated with it, and have pledged themselves to help in every possible way. They have brought into the treasury of the Board over a million dollars thus far; other organizations are expected to join and to do their 3share. There is a great deal of work to be done, and money is very badly needed.

We have to build centers in the various camps where there are Jewish soldiers so that they will have separate quarters in which to pray and to read Jewish books and periodicals. We have to provide properly qualified individuals to act as chaplains. These people must be trained for their work. Mr. Cutler said that that the Board has opened a school for this purpose in New York. One must have the proper qualifications in order to be worthy of such a position.

More than sixty clerks are working in the offices of the Jewish Welfare Board in New York. Through correspondence, they are constantly in touch with the representatives in the various camps, and with the secretaries of the community branches in the towns near the camps, where the Jewish 4soldiers go on their furloughs.

The Jewish Welfare Board has begun to create similar centers for our soldiers in France. There, the Board is affiliated with the Alliance Israelite [evidently, a French-Jewish organization similar to the Jewish Welfare Board in America], and it has already sent sixteen chaplains there. In France, they are also intending to build or rent buildings in military centers for our soldiers, so that they can come together, in their spare time, in a completely Jewish atmosphere.

Mr. Cutler says that his Board is now seeking suitable candidates to become its representatives among the Jewish soldiers. It hopes to find them among the Jewish intelligentsia, people with an avid curiosity for new experiences, and an eager desire to serve the interests of the Jewish people and also those of the government, at this critical time.

Various tasks fall to the lot of the Jewish representative in these camps.

He has to visit the sick and disabled Jewish soldiers in the hospitals; he has to visit those who are in the guardhouse; it is his duty to organize the leisure time of our boys; he must organize and arrange for the proper observance of Jewish holidays and services; he assists the Jewish soldiers in their necessary relationships with the higher military officials. These Jewish representatives must have a fair Jewish education and must know English very well.

Several Orthodox rabbis discussed with Mr. Cutler the possibility of instituting kosher kitchens for our soldiers in the camps because many of them cannot eat the heavy, greasy foods. Mr. Cutler was ready to accede to the wish of the rabbis, and discussed this matter with the War Department. But there they told him that it would be impossible to have kosher kitchens for Jewish soldiers, unless they organized a separate Jewish regiment, but that would be called "segregation", and would result in a great deal of harm to the Jews as a whole. They finally agreed on a compromise. The War Department issued an order that the post canteen of the regiment should 6 carry a supply of kosher articles in stock, and sell them at the lowest possible prices. This service will also be placed at the disposal of our soldiers in France.

For the year 1919, Mr. Cutler thinks that the Welfare Board will need five million dollars, and he hopes that the money will be raised. Several national organizations that are doing work among non-Jewish soldiers, with the exception of the Red Cross, are joining forces to make a joint drive to raise a hundred million dollars all over the country; and each of them will get a certain percentage to carry on its own individual work.

In the plans which Mr. Cutler placed before the government, for the establishment of the Jewish Welfare Board, he pointed out that the duty of the Board will be not merely to make the life of the Jewish soldiers more comfortable and pleasant, both in the training camps and on the battlefields, but also to provide homes here in our country for those who come back crippled. And furthermore, it should also provide them [disabled veterans] 7with work which they can do, so that they can feel that they are earning their broad and butter and are not dependent upon anyone's charity. More power and more encouragement to the Jewish Welfare Board!