“Sacrifices upon the Altar of Charity”: The Masculinization of Jewish Philanthropy in Mid-Nineteenth Century America

With the dissolution of the traditional structures of Jewish life, philanthropy emerged as a characteristic of modern Jewish identity in the United States. American Jews portrayed themselves as engaging in benevolent activity in fulfillment of traditional religious obligations and out of the inherent benevolence they claimed characterized the Jewish people. However, this notion of Jews as inherently charitable, embraced by nineteenth-century Americans Jews, came into conflict with American gender norms, which classified benevolence as an inherently female trait. This conflict between a Jewish identity based on charity and an American charitable identity rooted in gender had implications for the development of American Jewish philanthropy. Jewish men attempted to reconcile their masculine and Jewish identities by remaking Jewish charity in a more efficient and institutional form. In distancing their charitable activity from women’s benevolence, Jewish men challenged Jewish women’s abilities to participate as civic equals in the philanthropic public sphere.