Formation of the American Jewish Committee—Its first fifteen members and its membership in 1911—The experimental Kehillah organizations—The re-organized Jewish Theological Seminary—Faculty of the Hebrew Union College—The Dropsie College of Hebrew and Cognate Learning—The Rabbi Joseph Jacob School—Other Orthodox “Yeshibot”—Talmud Torahs and “Chedarim”—Hebrew Institutes—They become more Jewish because other agencies now do the work of Americanizing the immigrant—Technical Schools—Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Associations—Federations of various kinds.
The massacres of 1905 aroused and united the Jews of the civilized world, and the necessity of an organization to cope with the situation and with similar situations in the future began to be generally felt. The time when the Alliance Israelite Universelle, with its preponderance of French Jews and French methods, could act for the Jewry of all countries was now past, and only a new organization in which each country was independently represented could answer the purpose. The same was also true, in a more restricted sense, in the United States itself. None of the national Jewish bodies, not even the Order B’nai B’rith, with its Board of Delegates, could now assume to speak with undisputed authority in the name of American Jewry as it is now constituted. An attempt to form a representative international Committee of Jews was made at the General Jewish Conference which was convened at Brussels, Belgium, in the last days of January, 1906, where a resolution to that effect was adopted. But the plan was not carried out.
Judge Mayer Sulzberger.
Photo by Gutekunst, Phila.
Within a week after the Brussels Conference (February 3–4), a conference was held in New York City “to consider the formation of a General Jewish Committee or other representative body of the Jews in the United States.”[57] A committee which was appointed by the chairman, Judge Mayer Sulzberger of Philadelphia, submitted its report to the conference at a subsequent meeting (May 19), which was referred to a Committee of Five, with instructions to select another Committee of Fifteen, representative of all Jewish societies of the United States, to be increased to fifty members, if considered desirable. About a month later, the chairman announced the following Committee as the nucleus of the American Jewish Committee, which was ultimately increased to sixty: Cyrus Adler, Washington, D. C.; Nathan Bijur, New York; Joseph H. Cohen, New York; Emil G. Hirsch, Chicago, Ill.; D. H. Lieberman, New York; Julian W. Mack, Chicago, Ill.; J. L. Magnes, New York; Louis Marshall, New York; Isidor Newman, New Orleans, La.; Simon W. Rosendale, Albany, N. Y.; Max Senior, Cincinnati, O.; Jacob H. Schiff, New York; Oscar S. Straus, New York; M. C. Sloss, San Francisco, Cal., and Simon Wolf, Washington, D. C.
The American-Jewish Committee was organized with sixty members, and adopted a constitution (November 11, 1906), which begins: “The purpose of this committee is to prevent infringement of the civil and religious rights of the Jews, and to alleviate the consequences of persecution. In the event of a threatened or actual denial or invasion of such rights, or when conditions calling for relief from calamities affecting Jews exist anywhere, correspondence may be entered into with those familiar with the situation, and if the persons on the spot feel themselves able to cope with the situation, no action need be taken; if, on the other hand, they request aid, steps shall be taken to furnish it.” The Committee was later again increased on account of the enlargement of the representation from New York City, owing to the organization of the “Kehillah,” and last year consisted of the following, representing the thirteen districts into which the country was divided for that purpose:
Dist. I: Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, South Carolina, 2 members: Ceasar Cone, Greensboro, N. C.; Montague Triest, Charleston, S. C.
Dist. II: Alabama, Mississippi, Tennessee, 2 members: Jacques Loeb, Montgomery, Ala.; Nathan Cohn, Nashville, Tenn.
Dist. III: Arizona, Louisiana, New Mexico, Texas, 2 members: Maurice Stern, New Orleans, La.; Isaac H. Kempner, Galveston, Tex.