Jewish Board of Guardians (United Kingdom) facts for kids

The Jewish Board of Guardians was a charity started in London in 1859. It was set up by wealthy Jewish people in the East End. This group aimed to help Jewish immigrants and poor people. Soon, it became the main helper for Jewish poor in London.

In the 1990s, the Jewish Board of Guardians joined with other charities. It then became Jewish Care, which is still helping people today.

How the Jewish Board of Guardians Started

The Jewish Board of Guardians was founded in the East End of London in 1859. It was created by members of the Jewish community. By the late 1800s, many Jewish poor people in London faced problems. Other charities were not helping them enough.

Christian groups were also trying to convert poor Jewish people. This worried the Jewish community. So, they decided to create a new, better charity. The Board of Guardians was formed to bring together relief efforts.

A new law called the Poor Law Amendment Act 1834 made things harder. This law meant people had to go to a workhouse to get help. Workhouses were not suitable for Jewish people due to their religious rules.

So, three main synagogues in London decided to act. These were the Great Synagogue, the Hambro' Synagogue, and the New Synagogue. In 1858, they voted to form a committee to help the Jewish poor.

The first meeting of the Jewish Board of Guardians was on March 16, 1859. It was held at the Great Synagogue. Ephraim Alex led the board at first. He was in charge of helping the poor for the Great Synagogue. He got less than £500 from the synagogues to check on the Jewish poor.

Seventeen members started the Board. They were delegates from the synagogues. These members included bankers, business people, and other professionals. Lionel Louis Cohen was the board's secretary. He later became president in 1869. Baron Ferdinand de Rothschild was treasurer in 1868 and 1875.

The charity's first office was next to the Jewish Soup Kitchen. Later, it moved to Middlesex Street. When it started, the board said it wanted to give "enlarged and expansive charity." They saw this as different from just giving out small amounts of money.

The board later started helping poor people from the Netherlands and Germany. More and more, they helped those from Eastern Europe.

What the Board Did

Helping People Without Making Them Dependent

The Board of Guardians was set up to help the poor Jewish community in London. They wanted to create a system that helped people for the long term. They did not want people to become fully dependent on the charity. As one writer said, they tried to avoid any aid that would make someone "passive" or "dependent."

Unlike other charities during the Victorian era, the Board could not use workhouses. So, they had to find new ways to help their community. They wanted to provide help that would last.

From the start, the Board found it hard to meet all the needs. The number of poor Jewish people kept growing. The Board relied on money given by important Jewish families. But the community's needs quickly grew bigger than the money they had.

Who Could Get Help?

The Board was very careful about who received help. They did not give relief without checking first. Visiting officers would visit homes to make sure the money was used well. This meant they visited every person who asked for help. They also checked on cases that lasted longer than six months.

New immigrants could not get help right away. They had to be in the country for at least six months. The Board even advertised in newspapers in other countries. They hoped this would stop people from coming to England just to get help. By 1896, a special committee checked cases. They even took legal action against people they thought were misusing the charity.

Who Asked for Help?

People who asked for help from the Jewish Board of Guardians were usually in great need. Many different groups of people applied. These included widows, children, orphans, asylum seekers, and people needing medical or money help.

A report from 1905 showed that sick people received the most temporary help. People whose husbands were in prison received the least. The board tried to help those they thought needed it most. But they also helped deserted wives because there were no other options for them.

The Board tried to help people based on their situation, like orphans or widows. They also used ideas from the government about "deserving" and "undeserving" poor. The "deserving" were people who could not work because they were old, sick, or disabled. The "undeserving" were people who could work but did not want to. The Board tried to avoid helping these people.

The number of people asking for help changed over time. The number of poor immigrants varied from about 250 to 1,000 each year. This depended on conditions in other countries. The Board focused on the welfare of children. They believed children were "the future" and helping them would stop future generations from being poor.

Most applicants were immigrants escaping persecution. From 1800 to 1900, only 10% of applicants were born in England. Many earlier immigrants had settled in London and relied on the Board. From 1889 to 1914, the Jewish Board of Guardians was the main group helping foreign poor. This was especially true in the East End, which was very crowded.

Controlling Immigration of Jewish Poor

The Board had helped Jewish poor since 1859. But they were not used to the huge numbers of Jews coming to London. This led to many problems. There was too much crowding, which made rent higher and living conditions worse. Bad living conditions and poor sanitation caused illnesses to spread. This meant medical help was limited. There was also more competition for jobs and many people were unemployed.

The Board worried that many Jews were coming just for temporary help. They wanted people to aim for long-term self-improvement. So, they created the "six-month rule." This meant new Jewish immigrants would not get help for their first six months. Ephraim Alex, the first president, suggested this rule. However, in emergencies, new immigrants could still get help.

In the 1880s, many immigrants started arriving from Eastern Europe. They were either starting a new life in England or stopping there on their way to America. The Board realized it could not stop immigration. So, they tried different ways to control it. These included transmigration, dispersion, and repatriation.

Transmigration meant helping Jews move to other countries like America, Canada, or Australia. Repatriation meant sending them back to their home countries. From 1881 to 1914, the Board helped 17,087 people settle in London. But they also helped reduce crowding by sending 8,152 people to other countries and sending 7,574 people back home.

Nathan S. Joseph, a leader of the Board, helped classify Jewish immigrants. He wanted to see how "industrially fit" they were. The groups were:

• Skilled workers who were strong and healthy.
• Those fit to move to another country.
• The poor, weak, adventurers, and beggars.

Generally, young, healthy, skilled people were offered help to move to other countries. But more immigrants were sent back home because it was cheaper. Some historians say it was a Jewish tradition to give people just enough to get to the next town.

Ways the Board Gave Help

Loans

The Board gave help mostly through loans. They almost never gave out cash. They saw giving cash as a very last resort. The Board set up a loans committee to manage this. In its first 17 years, the Board gave out 1,767 loans. These loans totaled £22,632. Even though they wanted to keep loans low, the number of loans increased.

One of the first things they loaned was sewing machines. These machines were given to people who deserved them. The borrowers paid for them in installments. The money they got back was used to buy more machines. By 1864, they had bought 26 machines. Later, the company Messrs Singer took over this system.

In 1866, the loans committee became its own department. David Benjamin, who supported the committee, oversaw it. This new system helped organize and control loans better. It also allowed more respected people to apply for loans privately. The loans committee's good reputation encouraged more donations. The rules for the loans also helped make sure they were used properly.

In 1887, the loans committee got more money. Donations, like 3 million francs from Baronesse de Hirsch, helped the committee grow. By 1907, it handled £13,000 each year.

Education, Apprenticeships, and Jobs

The main goal of the Jewish Board of Guardians was to help people become self-supporting. They focused on education and apprenticing young people. This was to stop future generations from becoming impoverished. The work committee joined with the loans committee and became the industrial committee in 1872. The Board wanted to provide apprenticeships for both boys and girls.

After loaning sewing machines, the industrial committee used the money for two main things:

• Loaning tools to carpenters, cabinet makers, shoe-makers, printers, and book-binders. This was like the sewing machine loans.
• Giving security for tailors and mechanics. This helped them get work from warehouses and workshops.

In 1896, Helen Lucas became the president of the JBG workrooms. Girls there learned embroidery and other needlework skills. This helped them find jobs. In 1903, a ladies' sub-committee was formed. It focused on helping girls get apprenticeships. The Board saw education as a key goal. They wanted to create an educated group of people. They also wanted to keep skilled workers in long-term jobs.

Emigration, Transmigration, and Repatriation

The Board faced problems with many Jewish immigrants and refugees coming to London. Most of these "strange" poor people came from Europe. In 1881, the number of immigrants grew. Many were seeking refuge from attacks (called pogroms) in Russia. The Board of Guardians worked with the Mansion House Fund to deal with this. By 1885, the problem was even bigger, so the Board set up temporary shelters.

The Board also encouraged repatriation and transmigration. They sent many migrants back to their home countries. They also sent them to other countries, especially the United States. The Board did not give welfare to those who had been in England for less than six months. The Jewish Board of Guardians did not want new immigrants to become a burden on the existing community.

Some people who came to England could not be sent to countries like the United States by the Board. In 1886, officials in New York stopped people from entering if they could not show they had money or someone to support them. They had similar problems in Hamburg. This meant the Board could not help these migrants move on. The Board paid for immigrants to travel to Hamburg and other countries if they could not find employment in England. But in September 1886, Hamburg authorities stopped this. This led to more people staying in England and more work for the Board.

Health, Cleanliness, and Social Care

The Board cared a lot about the living conditions of the Jewish community. They believed that poverty problems often started in people's homes. Homes in the East End were often not good enough. The Board set up Medical and Sanitary committees to fix this. The medical board got money and officers to solve issues. These issues included not enough food or clothes, poor cleanliness, bad air, crowded homes, and not enough light.

A visiting committee started in 1862. It looked at housing conditions. They reported what they found to the Jewish Board of Guardians. The medical board also provided nursing until 1906.

The Board gave out prescriptions. These were filled by the Metropolitan Free Hospital. By 1871, visits and requests for medical help reached 41,000. By 1873, the medical committee was changed to stop money from being wasted. The Board later closed the medical committee. They preferred that the government provide health help.

To make sure things were clean, the Board started a sanitary committee. This committee visited 2,317 homes and 132 workshops. This committee was later renamed the Health Committee.

Working with Other Groups

The Russo-Jewish Committee started in 1882. It looked after all matters related to Jewish immigrants. The Conjoint Committee was a mix of the Russo-Jewish Committee and the Jewish Board of Guardians. It aimed to handle all immigration issues. This committee worked with the Board from 1893 to 1909. It became the main source of help for the Jewish poor.

Even though they worked together, the Board of Guardians usually made most of the decisions. Sir Julian Goldsmid, who led the Russo-Jewish Committee, worked with Benjamin Cohen. Cohen was the president of the Jewish Board of Guardians at that time. Any disagreements were solved based on what was best for the wealthy Jewish community as a whole.

Because of the six-month rule, other charities started up to help immigrants. These immigrants were helped by family, friends, and smaller groups like Hevras. Hevras was another charity in the East End. It helped immigrants with the difficulties of moving. This charity was less strict and more democratic than the Board. For many, Hevras followed traditional Jewish values more closely. Many immigrants went to Hevras because of the Board of Guardians' strict rules, like the six-month rule.

The Board in the 1900s

The work of the Board of Guardians became less important in the 1900s. The medical committee had closed. Now, the government provided more help. Other committees also reduced their work as the government offered more welfare. The Board had been very innovative at first. But it did not change much, so it became less important. One historian said that for its first 30 years, the Board was a leader in social work. But for the next 30 years, it fell behind.

The Board slowly changed its ways of managing and its plans. The Liberal government passed more social welfare legislation in 1905 and again after 1910. New laws like old age pensions in 1908 and national insurance in 1911 affected the Board's work. The 1905 Aliens Act also helped the Board. It reduced the number of immigrants allowed into Britain. However, some of these new government helps did not apply to many of the Board's recipients. This was because many were not British citizens.

By 1920, new unemployment laws started to help the Jewish community. Much of the Board's work moved to the public sector. Most help was now given by the government.

In the 1990s, the Jewish Board of Guardians joined with other Jewish charities. It became Jewish Care, which is still active today.

Criticisms of the Board

Even though the Board was a charity, it received criticism. Some of the main complaints came from within the Jewish community itself. People criticized how the Board was organized. Some said that private donors gave money to the wrong people or in the wrong way. One person even said there was "no attempt at budgetary control."

However, these mistakes happened because the Board was trying to handle more and more cases. This meant that staff had less time for each case. Also, they had less money to give out.

The way the Board checked if someone deserved help was also criticized. People said the Board lacked sympathy. They claimed applicants were interviewed while standing behind a brass rail. The Board was also accused of losing sight of people's real needs. They failed to give helpful, long-term support in the early 1900s.

But the biggest criticism was about emigration and repatriation. Many felt that the Board's good work encouraged people to come to England just for a better life. This made it seem like the Board was encouraging immigration. However, the Board's way of dealing with this was also criticized. They created the six-month rule. This rule meant new immigrants in the most distress were denied help. But the Board could still help people in need, even if they had been in the country for less than six months.

Sending people back home (repatriation) was also criticized. Many believed it was "endangering the lives of the repatriates." They said it sent people back into discrimination and terrible conditions. However, after the Pogrom in 1905, the Board stopped repatriation completely. But they were asked by many applicants to bring it back.

The Board was also watched closely by other organizations. The "American-Jewish establishment" suggested the Board was not trying hard enough. Also, former Board members published "sustained criticism in the Jewish Chronicle."

Still, this was an organization facing growing pressure. They relied almost entirely on donations. The Board was also "always hampered by the fact that if they developed their services too far they might be encouraging immigrants."