menu_book Chapter 24

section twenty four of london labour and the london poor volume two by henry mayhew this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by gillian henry of the charities schools and education of the jews the jewish charities are highly honourable to the body for they allow none of their people to live or die in a parish workhouse it is true that among the jews in london there are many individuals of immense wealth but there are also many rich christians who care not one jot for the need of their brethren it must be borne in mind also that not only do the jews voluntarily support their own poor and institutions but they contribute compulsorily it is true their quota to the support of the english poor and church and indeed pay their due proportion of all the parliamentary or local imposts this is the more honourable and the more remarkable among the jews when we recollect their indisputable greed of money

if a jew be worn out in his old age and unable to maintain himself he is either supported by the contributions of his friends or out of some local or general fund or provided for in some asylum and all this seems to be done with a less than ordinary fuss and display so that the recipient of the charity feels himself more a pensioner than a pauper the jews hospital in the mile end road is an extensive building into which feeble old men and destitute children of both sexes are admitted here the boys are taught trades and the girls qualified for respectable domestic service the widow's home in duke street aldgate is for poor hebrew widows the orphan asylum built at the cost of mr a l moses and supported by subscription now contains fourteen girls and eight boys a school is attached to the asylum which is in the tenter ground goodman's fields

the hand-in-hand asylum for decayed old people men and women is in duke's place aldgate there are likewise almshouses for the jews erected also by mr a l moses at mile end and other almshouses erected by mr joel emmanuel in well-close square near the tower there are further three institutes for granting marriage dowers to fatherless children an institution in bevis marks for the burial of the poor of the congregation beth hollum a house for the reception of the sick poor and of poor lying-in women belonging to the congregation of the spanish and portuguese jews magasim zobim for lending money to aid apprenticeships among boys to fit girls for good domestic service and for helping poor children to proceed to foreign parts when it is believed that the change will be advantageous to them and noten laben to distribute bread to the poor of the congregation on the day preceding the sabbath i am assured that these institutions are well managed and that if the charities are abused by being dispensed to undeserving objects it is usually with the knowledge of the managers

who often let the abuse pass as a smaller evil than driving a man to theft or subjecting him to the chance of starvation one gentleman familiar with most of these establishments said to me with a laugh i believe if you have had any conversation with the gentlemen who manage these matters you will have concluded that they are not the people to be imposed upon very easily there are seven jewish schools in london four in the city and three at the west end all supported by voluntary contributions the jews free school in belle lane spitalfields is the largest and is adapted for the education of no fewer than one thousand two hundred boys and girls the late baroness de northchild provided clothing yearly for all the pupils in the school in the infant school houndsditch are about four hundred little scholars there are also the orphan asylum school previously mentioned the western jewish schools for girls in dean street and for boys in greek street soho but considered as one establishment and the west metropolitan school for girls in little queen street and for boys in high holborn also considered as one establishment

notwithstanding these means of education the body of the poorer or what in other callings might be termed the working classes are not even tolerably well educated they are indifferent to the matter with many the multiplication table seems to constitute what they think the acme of all knowledge needful to a man the great majority of the jew boys in the street cannot read a smaller portion can read but so imperfectly that their ability to read detracts nothing from their ignorance so neglectful or so necessitous but i heard the ignorance attributed to neglect far more frequently than necessity are the poorer jews and so soon do they take their children away from school to learn and do something for themselves and so irregular is their attendance on the plea that the time cannot be spared and the boy must do something for himself that many children leave the free schools not only about as ignorant as when they entered them but almost with an incentive to continued ignorance for they knew nothing of reading except that to acquire its rudiments is a pain a labour and a restraint on some of the jew boys the vagrant spirit is strong they will be itinerants if not wanderers though this is a spirit in no way confined to the jew boys

although the wealthier jews may be induced to give money towards the support of their poor i heard strong strictures passed upon them concerning their indifference towards their brethren in all other respects even if they subscribed to a school they never cared whether or not it was attended and that much as was done far more was in the power of so wealthy and distinct a people this is all the more inexcusable was said to me by a jew because there are so many rich jews in london and if they exerted and exercised a broader liberality as they might in instituting jewish colleges for instance to promote knowledge among the middle classes and if they cared more about employing their own people their liberality would be far more fully felt than similar conduct in a christian because they have a smaller sphere to influence as to employing their own people there are numbers of the rich jews who will employ any stranger in preference if he work a penny a week cheaper this sort of clan employment continued my jew informant should never be exclusive but there might i think be a judicious preference

i shall now proceed to set forth an account of the sums yearly subscribed for purposes of education and charity by the jews the jews free school in spitalfields is supported by voluntary contributions to the amount of about one thousand two hundred pounds yearly to this sum a few christians contribute as to some other hebrew institutions which i shall specify while jews often are liberal supporters of christian public charities indeed some of the wealthier jews are looked upon by the members of their own faith as inclined to act more generously where christian charities with the prestige of high aristocratic and fashionable patronage are in question than towards their own institutions to the jews free school the court of common council of the corporation of london lately granted one hundred pounds through the exertions of mr benjamin s phillips of newgate street a member of the court the baroness lionel de rothschild as i have formerly stated of the late baroness supplies clothing for the scholars the school is adapted for the reception of one thousand two hundred boys and girls in equal proportion about nine hundred is the average attendance

the jews infant school in houndsditch with an average attendance approaching four hundred is similarly supported at a cost of from eight hundred pounds to a thousand pounds yearly the orphan asylum school in goodman's fields receives a somewhat larger support but in the expenditure is the cost of an asylum before mentioned and containing twenty-two inmates the funds are about one thousand five hundred pounds yearly christians subscribe to this institution also mr frederick peel m p taking great interest in it the attendance of pupils is from three hundred to four hundred it might be tedious to enumerate the other schools after having described the principal i will merely add therefore that the yearly contributions to each are from seven hundred pounds to a thousand pounds and the pupils taught in each from two hundred to four hundred of these further schools there are four already specified the jews hospital at mile end is maintained at a yearly cost of about three thousand pounds to which christians contribute but not to a twentieth of the amount collected

the persons benefited are worn-out old men and destitute children, while the number of amspeople is from 150 to 200 yearly. The other two asylums and so on, which I have specified, are maintained at a cost of about £800 each, as a yearly average, and the ams houses, three in number, at about half that sum. The persons relieved by these last-mentioned institutions number about 250, two-thirds or thereabouts being in the asylums.

The Lone Societies are three, the Jewish Ladies Visiting and Benevolent Lone Society, the Linusarian Lone Society, why called Linusarian a learned Hebrew scholar could not inform me, although he had asked the question of others,

and the Magazine Zobin, the Good Deeds, a Portuguese Jew's Lone Society. The business of these three societies is conducted on the same principle. Money is lent on personal or any security approved by the managers, and no interest is charged to the borrower.

The amount lent yearly is from £600 to £700 by each society, the whole being repaid and with sufficient punctuality. A few weeks grace is occasionally allowed in the event of illness or any unforeseen event. The loan societies have not yet found it necessary to proceed against any of their debtors. My informant thought this forbearance extended over six years.

There is not among the Jewish street traders, as among the costermongers and others, a class forming part, or having once formed part, of themselves, and living by usury and loan-mongering, where they have amassed a few pounds. Whatever may be thought of the Jews' usurious dealings as regards the general public, the poorer classes of their people are not subjected to the exactions of usury,

with all its clogs to a struggling man's well-doing. Sometimes the amount required by an old-clothes man or other street-trader is obtained by or for him at one of these loan societies. sometimes it is advanced by the usual buyer of the second-hand garments collected by the street jew no security in such places is given beyond strange as it may sound the personal honour of an old

clothes man an experienced man told me that taking all the class of jew street sellers who are a very fluctuating body with the exception of the old clothes men the sum thus advanced as stock money to them might be seldom less in any one year than £300 and seldom more than £500. There is a prevalent notion that the poorer Jews, when seeking charity, are supplied with goods for street sale by their wealthy brethren and never with money. This appears to be unfounded.

Now to sum up the above items, we find that the yearly cost of the Jewish schools is about £7,000, supplying the means of instruction to 3,000 children, out of a population of 18,000 of all ages, one-half of whom perhaps are under 20 years. The yearly outlay in the asylums and so on is, it appears, £5,800 annually, benefiting or maintaining about 420 individuals, at a cost of nearly £14 per head.

If we add no more than £200 yearly for the minor charities or institutions I have previously alluded to, we find £14,000 expended annually in the public schools and charities of the Jews of London, independently of about £2,000, which is the amount of the loans to those requiring temporary aid. We have before seen that the number of Jews in London is estimated by the best informed at about 18,000. Hence, it would appear that the charitable donations of the Jews of London amount on an average to a little less than £1 per head.

Let us compare this with the benevolence of the Christians. At the same ratio, the sum devoted to the charities of England and Wales should be very nearly £16 million, but according to the most liberal estimates it does not reach half that amount. The rent of the land and other fixed property, together with the interest of the money left for charitable purposes in England and Wales, is £1,200,000. If, however, we add to the voluntary contributions the sum

raised compulsorily by assessment in aid of the poor, about £7,000,000 per annum, the ratio of the English Christian's contributions to his needy brethren throughout the country will be very nearly the same as that of the Jews. Moreover, if we turn our attention to the benevolent bequests and donations of the Christians of London, we shall find that their munificence does not fall far short of that of the metropolitan Jews. The gross amounts of the charitable

contributions of London are given below, together with the numbers of institutions, and it will thus be seen that the sum devoted to such purposes amounts to no less than £1,764,733, or upwards of a million and three quarters sterling, for a population of about two millions. Readers note, there follows a table listing income derived from voluntary contributions and income derived from property, for various categories.

12 general medical hospitals. Income derived from voluntary contributions £31,265. Income derived from property £111,641. 50 Medical Charities for Special Purposes from Voluntary Contributions £27,974 from Property £68,690 35 General Dispensaries from Voluntary Contributions £11,470 from Property £2,954 12. Preservation of life and public morals From voluntary contributions £8,730

From property £2,773 18. Reclaiming the fallen and staying the progress of crime From voluntary contributions £16,299 From property £13,737 14. Relief of general destitution and distress

From voluntary contributions, £20,646 From property, £3,234 12. Relief of specified distress From voluntary contributions, £19,473 From property, £10,408

14. Aiding the resources of the industrious From voluntary contributions, £4,677 From property, £2,569 11. For the blind, deaf and dumb From voluntary contributions, £11,965

From property, £22,797 103 Colleges, Hospitals and Other Asylums for the Aged From Voluntary Contributions £5,857 From Property £77,190 16 Charitable Pension Societies

From Voluntary Contributions £15,790 From Property £3,199 74 charitable and provident, chiefly for specified classes From voluntary contributions £19,905 From property £83,322

31 asylums for orphans and other necessitous children From voluntary contributions £55,466 From property, £25,549. 10 Educational Foundations. From voluntary contributions, £15,000.

From property, £78,112. 4 Charitable Modern, Ditto. From voluntary contributions, £4,000. From property, £9,300. 40. School societies, religious books, church aiding and Christian visitings and so on.

From voluntary contributions, £159,853. From property, £158,336. 35. Bible and missionary. From voluntary contributions, £494,494. From property, £63,058.

491 total. Total income derived from voluntary contributions, £1,022,864. Total income derived from property, £741,869. In connection with the statistical part of this subject, I may mention that the chief rabbis each receive £1,200 a year. The readers of the synagogues, of whom there are 12 in London, from £300 to £400 a year each.

The secretaries of the synagogues, of whom there are also 12, from £200 to £300 each. the twelve under-secretaries from £100 to £150 and six dianim, £100 a year each. These last-mentioned officers are looked upon by many of the Jews as the poor curates, maybe by the members of the Church of England,

as being exceedingly underpaid. The functions of the dianim have been already mentioned and I may add that they must have received expensive scholarly educations as for about four hours daily they have to read the Talmud in the places of worship. The yearly payment of these sacerdotal officials then, independent of other outplay, amounts to about £11,700.

This is raised from the profits of the seats in the synagogues and voluntary contributions, donations, subscriptions, bequests and so on among the Jews. I have before spoken of a board of deputies in connection with the Jews, and now proceed to describe its constitution. It is not a parliament among the Jews, I am told, nor a governing power, but what may be called a directing or regulating body. It is authorised by the body of Jews and recognised by Her Majesty's government as an established corporation, with powers to treat and determine on matters of civil and political policy

affecting the condition of the Hebrews in this country, and interferes in no way with religious matters. It is neither a metropolitan, nor a local, nor a detached board, but, as far as the Jews in England may be so described, a national board. This board is elected triennially.

The electors are the seat-holders in the Jewish synagogues, that is to say, they belong to the class of Jews who promote the support of the synagogues by renting seats, and so paying towards the cost of those establishments. There are in England, Ireland, and Scotland about 1,000 of these seat-holders exercising the franchise, or rather entitled to exercise it, but many of them are indifferent to the privilege, as is often

testified by the apathy shown on the days of election. Perhaps three-fourths of the privileged number may vote. The services of the representatives are gratuitous and no qualification is required, but the elected are usually the leading metropolitan Jews. The proportion of the electors voting is in the ratio of the deputies elected. London returns 12 deputies, Liverpool two, Manchester two, Birmingham two, Edinburgh, Dublin, the only places in either Scotland or

Ireland returning deputies, Dover, Portsmouth, Southampton, Plymouth, Canterbury, Norwich, Swansea, Newcastle-on-Tyne, and two other places, according to the number of seat holders, each one deputy, thus making up the number to 30. On election days, the attendance, as I have said, is often small, but fluctuating according to any cause of excitement, which, however, is but seldom. The question which has of late been discussed by this board, and which is now under consideration

and negotiation with the education commissioners of Her Majesty's Privy Council, is the obtaining a grant of money in the same proportion as it has been granted to other educational establishments. Nothing has as yet been given to the Jewish schools, and the matter is still undetermined. With religious or sacerdotal questions, the Board of Deputies does not, or is not required, to meddle. It leaves all such matters to the bodies or tribunals I have mentioned.

Indeed, the deputies concern themselves only with what may be called the public interests of the Jews, both as a part of the community and as a distinct people. The Jewish institutions, however, are not an exception to the absence of unanimity among the professors of the same creeds, for the members of the Reform Synagogue in Margaret Street, Cavendish Square, are not recognised as entitled to vote,

and do not vote accordingly in the election of the Jewish deputies. Indeed, the Reform members, whose synagogue was established eight years ago, were formally excommunicated by a declaration of the late Chief Rabbi. But this seems now to be regarded as a mere matter of form, for the members have lately partaken of all the rites to which Orthodox Jews are entitled. Of the funeral ceremonies, fasts and customs of the Jews

The funeral ceremonies of the Jews are among the things which tend to preserve the distinctness and peculiarity of this people. Sometimes, though now rarely, the nearest relatives of the deceased wear sackcloth, a coarse crape. and throw ashes and dust on their hair for the term during which the corpse remains unburied this term being the same as among christians when the corpse is carried to the jews burial-ground for interment the coffin is frequently opened and the corpse addressed in a hebrew formula by any relative friend or acquaintance who may be present the words are to the following purport if i have done anything that might be offensive pardon pardon pardon after that the coffin is carried round the burial-ground in a circuit children chanting the ninetieth psalm in its original hebrew a prayer of moses the man of god

the passages which the air causes to be most emphatic are these verses three thou turnest man to destruction and sayest return ye children of men for for a thousand years in thy sight are but as yesterday when it is past and as a watch in the night five thou carryest them away as with a flood they are as a sleep in the morning they are like grass which groweth up six in the morning it flourishe and groweth up in the evening it is cut down and withereth ten the days of our years are threescore years and ten and if by reason of strength they be fourscore years yet is their strength labour and sorrow for it is soon cut off and we fly away the coffin is then carried into a tent and the funeral prayers in hebrew are read when it has been lowered into the grave the relatives and indeed all the attendants at the interment fill up the grave shovelling in the earth in the jews burial ground are no distinctions no vaults or provisions for aristocratic sepulchre the very rich and the very poor the outcast women and the virtuous and prosperous gentlewomen grossly familiar side by side consume

a jewish funeral is a matter of high solemnity the burial fees are twelve shillings for children and from two pounds to three pounds for adults these fees are not the property of the parties officiating but form a portion of the synagogue funds for general purposes payment of officers and so on no fees are charged to the relatives of poor jews two fasts are rigidly observed by the jews and even by those jews who are usually indifferent to the observances of their religion these are the black fast in commemoration of the destruction of jerusalem and the white fast in commemoration of the atonement on each of these occasions the jews abstain altogether from food for twenty-four hours or from sunset to sunset of the jew street sellers of accordions and of their street musical pursuits i conclude my account of the street jews with an account of the accordion sellers Although the Jews, as a people, are musical, they are little concerned at present either in the sale of musical instruments in the streets, or in street music or singing.

Until within a few years, however, the street sale of accordions was carried on by itinerant Jews, and had previously been carried on most extensively in the country, even in the far north of England. Some years back, well-dressed Jews travelled with stocks of accordions. In many country towns and in gentlemen's country mansions, in taverns and schools also, these accordions were then a novelty. The Jew could play on the instrument and carried a book of instructions, which usually formed part of the bargain, and by the aid of which he made out, anyone, even without previous knowledge of the practical art of music, could easily teach himself.

nothing but a little practice in fingering being wanted to make a good accordion player. At first, the accordions sold by the Jew hawkers were good, two guineas being no unusual price to be paid for one, even to a street seller, while ten and twenty shillings were the lower charges. But the accordions were in a few years made slop,

cheap instruments being sent to this country from Germany, and sold at less than half their former price until the charge fell as low as three shilling sixpence or even two shilling sixpence, but only for rubbish, I was told.

When the fragility and inferior musical qualities of these instruments came to be known, it was found almost impossible to sell in the streets even superior instruments, however reasonable in price, and thus the trade sunk to an unentity.

So little demand is there now for these instruments, that no pawnbroker, I am assured, will advance money on one, however well made. The itinerant accordion trade was always much greater in the country than in London, for in town, I was told, few would be troubled to try or even listen to the tones of an accordion played by a street seller at their own doors or in their houses.

While there were 100 or 120 Jews hawking accordions in the country, there would not be 20 in London, including even the suburbs, where the sale was the best. Calculating that, when the trade was at its best, 130 Jews hawked accordions in town and country, and that each sold three a week, at an average price of 20 shillings each, or six in a week, at an average price of 10 shillings each,

the profit being from 50 to 100%, we find upwards of £20,000 expended in the course of the year, in accordions of which, however, little more than a sixth part, or about £3,000, was expended in London. This was only when the trade had all the recommendations of novelty, and in the following year perhaps not half the amount was realised. one informant thought that the year eighteen twenty eight to twenty nine was the best for the sale of these instruments but he spoke only from memory at the present time i could not find or hear of one street jew selling accordions

i remember however having seen one within the present year most of the jews who travelled with them have emigrated it is very rarely indeed that fond as the jews are of music any of them are to be found in the bands of street musicians or of such street performers as the ethiopian serenaders if there be any i was told they were probably not pure jews but of christian parentage on one side or the other and not associating with their own people at the cheap concert rooms however jews are frequently singers but rarely the jewesses while some of the tuppenny concerts at the east end are got up and mainly patronised by the poorer class of jews jews are also to be found occasionally among the supernumeraries of the theatres but when not professionally engaged these still live among their own people i asked one young jew who occasionally sang at a cheap concert-room what description of songs they usually sung and he answered all kinds he it seems sang comic songs but his friend barney who had just left him sang sentimental songs

he earned one shilling and sometimes two shillings but more frequently one shilling three or four nights in the week as he had no regular engagement in the daytime he worked at cigar-making but did not like it it was so confining he had likewise sung but gratuitously at concerts got up for the benefit of any person bad off he knew nothing of the science and art of music of the superior class of jew vocalists and composers it is not of course necessary here to speak as they do not come within the scope of my present subject of hebrew youths thus employed in cheap and desultory concert singing there are in the winter season i am told from one hundred to a hundred and fifty few if any depending entirely upon their professional exertions but being in circumstances similar to those of my young informant

End of section 24