EACH of the three divisions of the community has its own autonomous government, but there is a distinct tendency to co-operate in common matters under the leadership of the preponderating Ashkenazim. Thus the Reform Synagogue, which has no poor of its own, contributes towards the revenue of the Board of Guardians, to which it sends a delegate. The Sephardim also co-operate with this body, although they have a special organisation for the relief of their own poor. At the Board of Deputies, which watches the political interests of the Jews, all three congregations are represented under the dual Ecclesiastical jurisdiction of the Chief Rabbis of the German and Portuguese Synagogues, who also act together on the Board of Shechita. In the old days, the Board of Management of each synagogue was paramount within its own domain, but at an early period the Ecclesiastical headship of the Chief Rabbi of the Great Synagogue was recognised among the Ashkenazim. From the synagogue radiated the communal schools and institutions, in accordance with an ancient practice which makes the education of the young and the relief of the poor as incumbent on the congregation as the provision of Divine worship. The schools are now independent institutions; but to this day the Boards of Guardians, Deputies, and Shechita are more or less fiefs of the synagogues. The principal Ashkenazi are now federated into a powerful corporation called the United Synagogue, the Council of which is presided over by Lord Rothschild. This body has no jurisdiction in Ecclesiastical matters, which are vested in the supreme authority of the Chief Rabbi, who is guided by a Court called the “Beth Din” (House of Judgment), and the codification of Jewish law known as the Schulchan Aruch. The Sephardim have a rather more elaborate form of secular Government, which may be likened to the common form of a State constitution. It has a Cabinet, or Council, of five, termed the Mahamad; the ex-Wardens form a Chamber of Elders, or Upper House, and the seat-holders are a kind of House of Commons. The Reform Congregation is governed by a Council of Founders.
Of the charities and other communal institutions we have left our selves but little space to speak. To illustrate their far-reaching character, and the efficiency with which they are administered, it will suffice to recall what we have already written on the abnormal proportion of poverty in the Jewish community, and to state that they are thoroughly adequate to the heavy duties imposed upon them. No charitable institution in the country is more skilfully managed than the Board of Guardians for the Relief of the Jewish Poor. It is not merely a relieving body, but a remarkable depauperising organisation. It has all but stamped out pauperism among the native poor, and, but for the influx from abroad, would find little to do." During the past year it has distributed no fewer than 15,316 grants. Its most valuable work consists in aiding the poor to help themselves by loans of money and tools, by apprenticing boys to useful trades, and by emigrating the surplus poor. Its expenditure is about 20,000l. a year. The ephardi community also have a Board of Guardians, but on a much smaller scale.
Besides these institutions the community maintain two orphan asylums, ten sets of almshouses, two loan societies, eleven general philanthropic societies, two asylums for aged poor, a soup-kitchen, a deaf and dumb home, two convalescent homes, an association for preventive and rescue work, a temporary shelter for foreign immigrants, a visitation committee for prisons, hospitals, lunatic asylums, &c., two funds for augmenting the salaries of insufficiently paid ministers, two marriage portion societies, and minor societies for relief during the festivals and on Sabbaths, for assisting the aged destitute, for distributing pensions, penny dinners, bread, meat, and coal, and other necessaries, for relieving distressed widows and the indigent blind, and for assisting in the expenses of circumcisions and mournings. There are also a lying-in charity, and an emigration society, and at the great East End are Jewish wards partly endowed. Besides these charities, there are in the community twenty-two friendly societies, a club for working-men, three choral societies, and a literary society. The Board of Deputies watches the political interests of the Jews at home and abroad; the Anglo-Jewish Association does similar work, besides assisting in the formation and maintenance of schools among the Jews of the East. The Board of Shechita superintends the meat supply and licenses Jewish butchers. In addition to this list, which is not complete, there are a large number of trusts for special purposes, which are privately administered.
Left: Great Hall in the Jews’ Free School, Bell Lane. Right: Jews Orphan Asylum. Norwood. [Click on images to enlarge them.]
Noble as are these charities, the great glory of the London Jewish community centres in its schools. Of these there are a round dozen all remarkable for their efficiency. The Jews' Free School is, the largest and most successful elementary school in the country. It is the principal Anglicising element among the foreign Jews in the East End, whose children are mostly educated there. The number of its pupils is over 3,000, and its pass average at the Government examinations during the last few years has been over 98 per cent. Remarkable as this average may appear, it is not exceptional in the Jewish community, and has been more than once excelled by other Jewish Free Schools. Many of the synagogues have attached to them Sabbath classes for instruction in Hebrew and religion. There is also a seminary in which Jewish ministers are trained. It should be added that the London Jews support three weekly English newspapers and a quarterly review, which are conducted with considerable ability, and play a useful part in the intellectual and spiritual as well as in the administrative progress of the community.
Altogether, the machinery of communal government and administration is a model of comprehensiveness, liberality, and efficiency.
Bibliography
Wolf, Lucien. “The Jews in London.” 40 (16 November 1889): 599-604. Hathi Trust online version of a copy in the New York Public Library. Web. 17 July 2021.
Last modified 17 July 2021