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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