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Every man must be his brother’s keeper, if the race is to survive.
In times of old, the keeping was done within the family, and later,
within the tribe, until it was done by giving alms at the door of the
house of worship.
Through the centuries, Jewish response to suffering had been
counted as one of the highest attributes of humankind. ‘Tzedakah’
is the old Hebrew word for it meaning ‘charity, justice and righteous
ness.” In our religious precepts it has been placed above faith and
hope; generous giving was to save a fellow-man from the damnation
on earth—utter loneliness.
IN TIMES OF OLD
Jewish philanthropy can be traced to the very beginnings of the
Jewish people. It dealt with the special meaning of Jewish charity
which is much more than justice and became an important foundation
stone in Jewish group organizations. Hillel wisely warned: “Separate
not thyself from the community.”
The development of humanitarian principles and practices during
Biblical and post-Biblical times, is shown in rare old documents. The
oldest known legal document describing the freeing of a Jewish slave
was executed by a Jewish soldier stationed in Egypt 2500 years ago.’
In ancient and medieval Bibles, in Talmud, rabbinical literature and
illuminated manuscripts, there may be found numerous illustrations
of Jewish thought and community activities in the field of human
welfare. There are mementoes of fund raising in the Middle Ages for
Jewish settlements in Palestine and for the freeing of Jewish slaves.
There exist replicas of the now disintegrated mural paintings of
Jewish life from the walls of the third century synagogue of Doura,
the oldest surviving Jewish house of worship in the world.
BREAD FOR THE HUNGRY
The development of ‘tzedakah’ from the very origin of the Jewish
people through the timid, hazardous founding of American Jewish
communal services in colonial Philadelphia up to our present day,
shows how the idea of man’s responsibility toward his fellow-man
originated and developed in the Jewish tradition along with the idea
of man’s relationship to God.
In American pioneering days, these ideas were eagerly introduced
in the new World and became an integral part of the American herit
age.
The first Jewish charitable society in America was established
in Philadelphia with Hayim Solomon, revolutionary patriot, as one
of its founders.
Thy
Brother’s
Keeper
by S. SINGERMAN
STANDARD FEATURE SYNDICATE
BROTHERS IN NEED
From 1870 on, some 30,000 Russian Jews fled to the United States.
In 1881, the Hebrew Emigrant Society was established along with other
charitable organizations to help the immigrants.
Baron Maurice de Hirsch (1831-1896) was famed for his broad
philanthropy and after the death of his only son, devoted his entire
vast fortune to the relief of human distress. He established the Baron
de Hirsch fund in New York to help Jewish immigrants and then em
barked on another relief project by setting aside ten million dollars
for the Jewish Colonization (ICA). Baron Edmond de Rothschild
founded the Jewish National Fund in 1888. He gathered large sums and
bought land in Palestine to help the great number of Jewish refugees
fleeing the pogroms in Russia and Austria.
GEMILUTH CHASODIM
For Moses Maimonidies, the highest rung on his “golden ladder of
charity’ is to help a man to help himself, to teach a man a trade and
to eliminate the need for charity altogether. This is Gemiluth Chaso-
dim, the Hebrew term that means ‘deeds of loving kindness',, which is
much wider than the word denoting “charity.” For charity can be
shown only to the living and the poor and there is a maximum limit
for it, in rabbinic law; a man should not devote more than one-fifth
of his income to almsgiving. Not so with ‘loving kindess’; it has no
measure and can be shown to all, even to the dead; and it can be shown
by all, for a person that has no money may possess the noble impulse
to kindly action and charitable thought. In addition to the provision
of food and ramment, it demands sympathetic consideration for the
feelings of the needy, patience with their shortcomings, forbearance
with their faults, as well as tactful provisions for the wants of those
who are too sensitive to accept charity.
In a word ‘rachmones.’ The Talmud states bluntly: “Anyone de
void of ‘rachmones’ and human fellow-feeling with sufferers, is not
a descendant of Abraham.” The Jew has suffered so much hurt, has
endured so many injustices, experienced so completely the miseries
of life that pity for the poor and the humiliated has became a second
nature to him. In his long, agonized wanderings, he has seen at close
range so many men of all races and of all countries, different every
where and everywhere alike, that he had understood and has felt in
the flesh of his flesh that man is one and God is One.
To be a good Jew means to understand the concept of ‘tzedakah,’
to fullheartedly support it, to teach it to our children. It is truly a
golden thread in the multicolored, rich texture of our millennia-old
heritage.
—Alms box attached to the
lobby of the Rema Synagogue
in Cracow (Poland), framed
by pilasters carrying an en
tablature and a 'richly deco
rated gable. The Hebrew in
scription—“gold, silver, cop
per" means that even the
smallest contribution is wel
come.
fc
The Southern Israelite