Virtue out of necessity: A study of Jewish philanthropy in the United States, 1890-1918

This study has used the Jewish community and its philanthropy to explore the formation, persistence, and evolution of ethnic groups. It analyzes several organizations assisting immigrant and indigent Jews with arrival, settlement, work, education, and preservation of civil rights, and notes the role of both providers and recipients. Placing Jewish philanthropy within the context of industrializing America, the thesis explores an ethnic Progressivism. These organizations were leaders in social welfare initiatives; an additional concern of providers was a "politics of respectability" because the behavior of recipients affected the image of the entire Jewish community. Primarily a response to genuine hardship, providers hoped philanthropy would allow a diverse community to unite in the public arena, create a secure place for the group, and counter rising anti-Semitism. Jews crossed lines of class, culture, religion, and politics to pursue a common public identity. Jewish philanthropic organizations implemented these goals in different ways. The American Jewish male leadership of the Baron de Hirsch Fund focused on industrial retraining and agricultural pursuits, hoping to invoke legacies of the artisan republican and yeoman farmer, powerful symbols of America's independence and self-reliance. American Jewish women's organizations, such as the National Council of Jewish Women and the Clara de Hirsch Home for Immigrant Girls, focused on the status of immigrant women as victims and worked to promote their purity and domesticity. Unlike the established leadership, which viewed immigrant religion as distasteful, immigrant Jewish leaders of the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society extolled immigrant religiosity and argued that piety would enhance the newcomers' ability to benefit from and contribute to their adopted country. Philanthropy also allowed Jewish leaders to praise the virtues of America as a land that welcomed and protected Jewish immigrants as it had embraced others throughout its history. Jewish leaders understood the gap between rhetoric and reality and appreciated the ambiguous nature of the nation in which their community was constructing its ethnic identity.