In lieu of an abstract, here is a brief excerpt of the content:

4. Volunteer Activists: The First Two Generations The immigrant Jewish women garment workers spent some of their brief hours of leisure organizing and planning philanthropic functions for their needy sisters and brothers. However, among the middle and upper classes of native American Jewish women, more time could be spent in volunteer charitable activities. By the 1880's, most of the Jewish women of Sephardic and German descent enjoyed a comfortable existence. According to one study based upon the 1890 census, forty percent of the German Jews in New York had at least one servant and ten percent had three or more.' The husbands and fathers of these women were generally of the merchant and manufacturing classes and the women were the beneficiaries of their success. Their numbers were small relative to the thousands of immigrants newly arriving from Eastern Europe after 1880, but they used their economic and social power to establish Jewish institutions that affected the new immigrants as well as all subsequent generations of American Jews. Fraternal organizations, synagogues, Jewish hospitals, and B'nai Brith chapters already existed among American Jewry by the late nineteenth century. And Jewish women acted as volunteer workers in the synagogues and hospitals in the Jewish community. But none of these organizations could deal effectively with the immigrants' needs; none was geared toward aiding the new arrivals in finding a place to live and to work. In the prevailing mood of the time it was assumed that all individuals would help themselves; no public monies were spent aiding the unemployed, training the deprived, or encouraging the education of poor children. American Jews knew that if they did not help their fellow Jews, no one else would. The mammoth task of staffing the philanthropic organizations created by the Jewish community fell upon the able shoulders of Jewish women. 46 Consecrate Every Day Performing good works, after all, was a natural extension of women's work, and economically privileged Jewish women were well suited to such activity. As one magazine writer noted in 1927: "[Jewish women] are more active than ever in philanthropic service-a natural sphere for the mother-instinct of the sex."2 Many of these prosperous women had extensive experience administering their large households and could readily transfer their skills to charitable work. Ambitious, competent Jewish women could not, given the cultural imperatives within which they lived, rebel against their society and become lawyers in great numbers. Everyone expected them to marry, raise a nice Jewish family, and perpetuate their culture. Most middle- and upper-class Jewish women conformed to this set of expectations. But when given the opportunity to act beyond their home in philanthropic endeavors or synagogual activities, many grasped the opportunity offered them. They rightly interpreted their good works as mutually beneficial; they personally grew and utilized their native talents for organization, leadership, and administration while serving their fellow Jews. Further, this activity harmonized with their social role of wife and mother. There was no role conflict; nurturing and caring for the underprivileged was, after all, woman's traditional work. Society positively approved of their generous support of the immigrants. Further, synagogue activities and Jewish cultural activities were also viewed as proper extensions of the role of the Jewish wife. Both the shtetl experience of Europe and the religious commitment to preserve their organic community ensured the creation of Jewish philanthropic and social-service structures. By the late nineteenth century, each city with a large Jewish population boasted a hospital, fraternal organizations, orphanages, and senior citizens' homes. Middle- and upper-class Jewish women, by virtue of their position in the community, were expected to be the fund raisers, often the volunteer teachers, and the cultural sponsors. The Jewish men decided how to spend the money raised by the women. Many of the first generation of women who became volunteer activists devoted a lifetime to public philanthropy and Jewish social service. As the organizations they worked for changed, so did they, adapting and altering their contributions depending upon the changing needs. Many of the volunteer activists to be described in these pages became major interpreters and analysts of the whole socialservice enterprise. Many observed, with some trepidation, how the Volunteer Activists 47 volunteer worker was shunted away in favor of the new "professional "; some tried to adapt to the new organizational structure while others retired from public activity. Volunteers have never received their due in the Jewish or American culture. Most often, "volunteer" has meant female, free labor, and such...

Share