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The Long Path from a Soup Kitchen to a Welfare State in Israel

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  04 April 2013

John Gal  and
Mimi Ajzenstadt
John Gal
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
Mimi Ajzenstadt
Affiliation:
Hebrew University of Jerusalem
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Journal of Policy History , Volume 25 , Issue 2 , April 2013 , pp. 240 - 263
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Copyright © Donald Critchlow and Cambridge University Press 2013

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References

NOTES

1. The literature on soup kitchens includes: Auyero, Javier, “The Logic of Clientelism in Argentina: An Ethnographic Account,” Latin American Research Review 35 (2000): 55–81CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Biggerstaff, Marilyn A., Morris, Patricia MacGrath, and Nichols-Caebolt, Ann, “Living on the Edge: Examination of People Attending Food Pantries and Soup Kitchens,” Social Work 47 (2002): 267–77CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed; Doron, Abraham and Gal, John, Soup Kitchens in Jerusalem at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century (Jerusalem, 2006)Google Scholar; Glasser, Irene, More Than Bread (Tuscaloosa, 1988)Google Scholar; Johnsen, Sare, Cloke, Paul, and May, Jon, Soup Run and Soup Kitchen Survey (University of Bristol, 2002)Google Scholar; Mosley, Jane and Tiehen, Laura, “The Food Safety Net After Welfare Reform: Use of Private and Public Food Assistance in the Kansas City Metropolitan Area,” Social Service Review 78 (2004): 267–83CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Mulquin, Maire Eve, Siaens, Corinne, and Wodon, Quentin T., “Hungry for Food or Hungry for Love? Learning from a Belgian Soup Kitchen,” American Journal of Economics and Sociology 59 (2000): 253–65CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Poppendieck, Janet, Sweet Charity? Emergency Food and the End of Entitlement (New York, 1999)Google Scholar; and Reschovsky, James D., “The Emergency Food Relief System: An Empirical Study,” Journal of Consumer Affairs 25 (1991): 258–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

2. On the Ottoman imarets, see Singer, Amy, Constructing Ottoman Beneficence (Albany, N.Y., 2002); “Serving Up Charity: The Ottoman Public Kitchen,” Journal of Interdisciplinary History 35 (2005): 481–500; and “Soup and Sadaqa: Charity in Islamic Societies,” Historical Research 79(2005): 306–24.Google ScholarSee also Peri, Oded, “Waqf and Ottoman Welfare Policy,” Journal of the Economic and Social History of the Orient 35 (1992): 167–86.Google Scholar

3. Li, Lillian M. and Dray-Novey, Alison, “Guarding Beijing’s Food Security in the Qing Dynasty: State, Market, and Police,” Journal of Asian Studies 58 (1999): 992–1032.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed

4. Redlich, Fritz, “Science and Charity: Count Rumford and His Followers,” International Review of Social History 16 (1971): 184–216.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

5. Stevenson, John, “Social Control and the Prevention of Riots in England, 1789–1829,” in Social Control in Nineteenth-Century Britain, ed. Donazgrodzki, A. P. (London, 1977), 27–50Google Scholar;Woolf, Stuart Joseph, The Poor in Western Europe in the Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries (London, 1986).Google Scholar

6. Ó Gráda, Cormac, Black ’47 and Beyond (Princeton, 1999)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Woodham-Smith, Cecil, The Great Hunger, Ireland, 1945–1949 (London, 1962).Google Scholar

7. Kusner, Kenneth L., Down & Out, on the Road (Oxford, 2002).Google Scholar

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9. Ellis, Edward Robb, A Nation in Torment (New York, 1995)Google Scholar; Poppendieck, Janet, Breadline Knee-Deep in Wheat (New Brunswick, 1988)Google Scholar; Watkins, T. H., The Great Depression: America in the 1930s (Boston, 1993).Google Scholar

10. On Jerusalem during this period, see Bachi, Roberto, The Population of Israel (Jerusalem, 1976)Google Scholar; and Ben-Arieh, Yehoshua, Jerusalem in the Nineteenth Century (Jerusalem, 1984).Google Scholar

11. Monnickendam, Menachem, “From Charity to Right: Work and Ideology During the Prestate Period,” Society and Welfare 25 (2005): 461–84 (Hebrew).Google Scholar

12. Friedman, Menachem, Society in a Crisis of Legitimization: The Ashkenazi Old Yishuv, 1900–1917 (Jerusalem, 2001).Google Scholar

13. Eliav, Mordechai, Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv in the Nineteenth Century, 1777–1917 (Jerusalem, 1978).Google Scholar

14. On the imaret, see Myres, David “Al-İmara Al-Àmira: The Charitable Foundation and Khassaki Sultan,” in Ottoman Jerusalem, ed. Auld, S. and Hillesbrand, R. (London, 2000), 539–82.Google ScholarOn another soup kitchen, see, for example, the report by Theodore F. Meysels in the Palestine Post (11 May 1941) entitled “Roxane’s Soup Kitchen.”

15. Eliav, Eretz Israel and Its Yishuv in the Nineteenth Century.

16. Eliashar, Eliahu, Living with the Jews (Jerusalem, 1980) (Hebrew).Google Scholar

17. Sharabi, Rachel, The Sephardic Community in Jerusalem at the End of the Ottoman Period, 1893–1914 (Tel Aviv, 1989) (Hebrew).Google Scholar

18. On the General Soup Kitchen, see Shiryon, Y., Memories (Jerusalem, 1943) (Hebrew)Google Scholar, and Lorenz, A. M., The Israel Calendar for the Year (1914) (Hebrew).Google Scholar

19. This soup kitchen, generally termed the “Eliach Soup Kitchen,” was established in 1919 by Rabbi Solomon Eliach. For details, see a report by the Information Bureau of Charitable Organizations in Palestine, the Department for Social Service, May 1938, Central Zionist Archive (CZA) J1 12461. See also a request from the soup kitchen to the Social Service Department for financial assistance, 11 April 1948, CZA J1 12461.

20. Ben-Arieh, Yehoshua, A City Through the Prism of a Period (Jerusalem, 1977) (Hebrew).Google Scholar

21. Letter to Louis Lipsky, chair of the Executive Committee, Federation of American Zionists, 20 June 1912, Nathan Straus Papers, New York Public Library (NYPL), box 4.

22. Quoted in “Straus: Palestine’s New Judah,” Boston Evening Transcript, 6 December 1913, 34.

23. de Sola Pool, David, “Nathan Straus,” American Jewish Year Book 33 (1931): 135–54.Google Scholar

24. Straus, Lina, Disease in Milk: The Remedy Pasteurization (New York, 1937).Google Scholar

25. Urofsky, Melvin I. and Levy, David M., Letters of Louis D. Brandeis, vol. 3 (Albany, N.Y., 1973).Google Scholar

26. See Straus, Nathan, “Our Work in Palestine,” The New Palestine 14 (1928): 105–8, and “Nathan Straus Plans Big Work for Holy Land, New York Times, 21 December 1913.Google Scholar

27. On the notion of “scientific charity,” see Axinn, June and Levin, Herman, Social Welfare: A History of the American Response to Need (New York, 1975)Google Scholar; Katz, Michael B., In the Shadow of the Poorhouse (New York, 1986)Google Scholar; and Trattner, Walter I., From Poor Law to Welfare State (New York, 1984).Google Scholar

28. “Nathan Straus’s Philanthropy has Enabled Unemployed to Obtain Relief without Becoming Objects of Charity,” New York Times, 12 April 1894.

29. de Sola Pool, David, “Without Regard to Race or Creed,” The New Palestine 14 (1928): 131 and 150.Google Scholar

30. Ibid.

31. Summarized Report of Nathan Straus Soup Kitchen, Joint Distribution Committee (JDC) Archives AC2132, file 322.

32. Letter to Samuel Horowitch, 13 December 1914, Nathan Straus Papers, NYPL, box 4.

33. Quoted in Handlin, Oscar, A Continuing Task (New York, 1964), 23–24.Google Scholar See also Jacobson, Abigail, “A City Living Through Crisis: Jerusalem During World War I,” British Journal of Middle Eastern Studies 36 (2009): 73–92.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

34. See Shiryon, Memories, and U.O. Schmeltz, Modern Jerusalem’s Demographic Evolution (Jerusalem, 1987).

35. Lucas, Albert, “American Jewish Relief in the World War,” Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Sciences 79 (1918): 221–28.CrossRefGoogle Scholar See also Handlin, A Continuing Task.

36. Elmaliach, Abraham, Eretz Yisrael and Syria During the World War (Jerusalem, 1928).Google Scholar

37. On the American Colony, see Dudman, Helga and Kark, Ruth, The American Colony (Jerusalem, 1998)Google Scholar; and Vester, Bertha Spafford, Our Jerusalem (Beirut, 1950).Google Scholar

38. Report by Rabbi Solomon, administrator of the soup kitchens, to the JDC offices in New York, 5 November 1919, JDC Archive, 19/21, file 184. See also Elimaliach, , Eretz Yisrael and Syria During the World War, 1:188–89.Google Scholar See also Shilo, Margalit, “The First World War: An Arena for the Empowerment of Women in the Jewish Community in Palestine,” Journal of Modern Jewish Studies 7 (2008): 1–15.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

39. Memorandum by Advocate Horace B. Samuel, 16 March 1924, JDC Archives AC2132, file 321.

40. Report by Rabbi Solomon.

41. Report by the JDC commissioner for the Near East, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, sent to Albert Lucas, secretary of the JDC, 15 July 1919, JDC Archive, 19/21, file 167 (10F2).

42. Memorandum by Advocate Horace B. Samuel, 16.3.1924, JDC Archive AC2132, file 321. See also letter from the U.S. Consul Glazebrook to Straus, 26 February 1920, JDC Archive, 19/21, file 167 (10F2).

43. Report by Teitelbaum.

44. Report by the JDC Commissioner for the Near East, Rabbi Aaron Teitelbaum, sent to Albert Lucas, secretary of the JDC, 15 July 1919, JDC Archive, 19/21, file 167 (10F2).

45. See letter from de Sola Pool to Straus, 21 June 1921, JDC Archive, AC2132 322.

46. See the minutes of the committee, Jerusalem Municipal Archive (JMA), L3–177.

47. See letter from de Sola Pool to the JDC in Paris, 25 January 1921, JDC Archive, 19/21, file 167 (20F2).

48. Letter from David de Sola Pool to Lehman dated 27 April 1931, CZA A125 48.

49. For more on the economic and demographic situation in Palestine in this period, see Halevi, Nadav and Klinov-Malul, Ruth, The Economic Development of Israel (New York, 1968)Google Scholar; Metzer, Yaacov, The Divided Economy of Mandatory Palestine (London, 1998)CrossRefGoogle Scholar; and Schmeltz, U. O., “The Decline in the Population of Palestine During World War I,” in Siege and Distress, ed. Eliav, M. (Jerusalem, 1991), 17–47.Google Scholar

50. On the various social welfare initiatives in Jerusalem during this period and, in particular, those of Hadassah, see Simmons, Erica B., Hadassah and the Zionist Project (Lanham, Md., 2006).Google Scholar

51. See, for example, the correspondence between Henrietta Szold and Straus regarding changes in the soup kitchen staff, 14 May 1926, CZA A125 45; and the monthly financial reports sent to Straus, 6 March 1929, CZA A125 47.

52. As noted by Henrietta Szold in a letter sent to her friend, Sophia Berger, in July 1924, regarding her membership on the Soup Kitchens Committee and her ideas for changes in the running of the kitchens: “Unless you are cautious, the mold members will league themselves against you, and will denounce you to Mr. Straus. You will recall that most pleasant relations were established between him and the committee. They feel entrenched in his good opinion and, indeed, he is satisfied with the way the work is being done” (Hadassah Archive, RG13 23 10).

53. The Straus family and Szold were longtime friends. Initial evidence of this can be found in a letter sent to Szold on 7 June 1912, Nathan Straus Papers, NYPL, box 3. Indeed, in early 1913, he funded the sending of a Hadassah-sponsored nurse to Palestine. See Simmons, Hadassah and the Zionist Project, 16. In later years, Straus was not only one of the major funders of the Hadassah organization but evidently financially supported Szold’s public activities, as evidenced in a letter from Szold to Mrs. Straus in 1924: “I really don’t know in which words to tell you how deeply I am touched by your willingness to enable me to go on with public work without having to put a single anxious thought on means of livelihood” (6 October 1924, Hadassah Archive, RG13 30 20). As noted, during the 1920s and until the closure of the soup kitchens, she represented Straus in running the institutions. See letter from Straus to Sophia Berger (a member of the Soup Kitchens Committee), 23 February 1926, CZA A125 45.

54. A number of biographies and scholarly articles have been devoted to Szold and her social welfare activities in Palestine. They include: Brown, Michael G., “Henrietta Szold,” in The Israeli-American Connection, ed. Brown, M. (Detroit, 1996), 133–60Google Scholar; Dash, Joan, Summoned to Jerusalem: The Life of Henrietta Szold (New York, 1979)Google Scholar; Fineman, Irving, Woman of Valor (New York, 1961)Google Scholar; Schindler, Reuben, “Reform and Welfare Policy: The Contribution of Henrietta Szold,” Journal of Jewish Communal Service 58 (1982): 143–49Google Scholar; Lowenthal, Marvin, Henrietta Szold: Life and Letters (New York, 1942)Google Scholar; Zeitlin, Rose, Henrietta Szold: Record of a Life (New York, 1952).Google Scholar

55. Simmons, Hadassah and the Zionist Project.

56. On the Progressive movement, see Axinn and Levin, Social Welfare; Roy Lubove, The Progressives and the Slums (Pittsburgh, 1962); Stuart, Paul H., “Linking Clients and Policy,” Social Work 44 (1999): 335–47, and Trattner, From Poor Law to Welfare StateCrossRefGoogle Scholar

57. Simmons, Hadassah and the Zionist Project.

58. See letters from Szold to Berger, 22 July 1924 and 21 May 1927, HA RG13 23 10.

59. See letter from Szold to Berger, 21 December 1925; and letter from Szold to Mr. and Mrs. Straus, 14 May 1926, CZA A125 45.

60. Report of Nathan Straus Soup Kitchens Investigation, January 1927, CZA, J1 7996.

61. Kark, Ruth and Glass, Joseph B., “The Jews in Eretz-Israel/Palestine: From Traditional Peripherality to Modern Centrality,” Israel Affairs 5(1999): 73–107.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

62. The Nathan and Lina Straus Health Center Annual Report, HA RG2 47 1.

63. An Inquiry into the Activities of the Nathan Straus Soup Kitchens, Jerusalem, CZA, A125 55.

64. A Report on the Dietary of the Straus Soup kitchen located at the Straus Health Centre, January 1931, CZA A125 55. See also Bachi, Roberto, The Population of Israel (Jerusalem, 1976).Google Scholar

65. Letter to Szold, dated 28 August 1931, CZA A125 48. In a similar vein, she wrote to Szold: “I have been in social work myself long enough to know that free meals are about the most demoralizing thing for everybody concerned,” in a letter dated 2 December 1931, CZA A125 48.

66. See letter from Straus’s son, Nathan Straus Jr., to Judge Julian Mack, 9 April 1931, in which he cites the negative impact of the Depression on the income of the foundation as a reason for suspending the foundation’s ongoing financial support for Szold, CZA, A405, 108 B. The financial situation of the foundation worsened later that year, as can be seen in a letter from Lehman to Straus dated 16 December 1931, in which she noted that the income from rentals upon which the foundation was based had ceased due to the default of the tenant, CZA A125 48. See also Brown, Michael G., The Israeli-American Connection (Detroit, 1996).Google Scholar

67. See, for example, a letter from Szold to Lehman, dated 24 April 1931, and a letter from David de Sola Pool to Lehman dated 27 April 1931, CZA A125 48.

68. See the letter to this effect from Szold to Lehman, dated 31 July 1931, CZA A125 48.

69. See letter from the Soup Kitchens Committee chair, Braude, to Lehman, 14 August 1931, CZA A125 48.

70. An Inquiry into the Activities of the Nathan Straus Soup Kitchens.

71. Ibid., 14.

72. Ibid., 17. The reference here is to those clients of the soup kitchen—“the aged, the maimed, and the chronically ill, who are not equipped to earn their livelihood”—who would require substantial support in the future.

73. Ibid., 19.

74. See letter from Sissie Lehman to Henrietta Szold, dated 9.3.1932, CZA A125 48.

75. Recommendations of Henrietta Szold, July 1932, CZA A125 50.

76. See letter Alice Seligsberg, 10.9.1931, quoted in Lowenthal, 228. See also Schindler, Reuben, “Reform and Welfare Policy: The Contribution of Henrietta Szold,” Journal of Jewish Communal Studies 58 (1982): 143–49.Google Scholar

77. This criticism of the indirect support that the soup kitchens provided for the “Kollelim” can be found in a long letter written by Szold to Lehman, dated 27 April 1931, CZA A125 49.

78. See Dash, Joan, Summoned to Jerusalem (New York, 1979).Google ScholarAs Szold noted in her submission to the subcommittee, in which she recounted her discussions with Lehman regarding the future of the soup kitchens and her suggestion to undertake a study of the clients: “Towards this decision I was influenced . . . by the hope that a genuine investigation, calculated to reveal the social service needs of Jerusalem, would show the value of continuing to apply the funds hitherto expended on the Soup Kitchens to other, more constructive purposes in Jerusalem, 7.8.1932, CZA A125 49.

79. See letter from Szold to Harry Viteles, dated 4 August 1932, CZA A125 50.

80. See letter from the Sephardic Community Committee, dated August 1932, CZA A125 53. See also letter from Szold to Harry Viteles, dated 25 August 1932, CZA A125 50.

81. See “Notes on Discussion between Miss. Szold and Mr. Braude on Report on Inquiry into the Activities of the Straus Soup Kitchens,” 5 August 1932, CZA A125 49.

82. Notes on meeting of the Straus Soup Kitchens Committee held on 14 August 1932, CZA A125 50.

83. See letter from the committee chair, I. Braude, to Sissie Lehman, dated 8 September 1932, CZA A125 50.

84. Letter from Braude to Szold, dated 28 October 1932, CZA A125 49.

85. See letter from Viteles to Szold, dated 9 October 1932, in which he related to her the gist of a conversation with the Straus family, CZA A125 50.

86. Palestine Post, 11 January 1933.

87. One of the initial tasks of the Social Work Department was to undertake, with the collaboration of a U.S. Jewish organization, a survey of the religious social welfare institutions operating in Palestine and receiving funding from the Diaspora. A copy of the report can be found in CZA J1 3065.

88. As expressed in a letter to Viteles, dated 25 August 1932, CZA A125 50.

89. Loewenberg, Frank A., “Preparing for the Welfare State: A Reexamination of the Decision to Establish the Social Service Department of the Va’ad Le’Ummi,” Journal of Social Work and Policy in Israel 7–8 (1993): 21–30.Google Scholar

90. On the reemergence of food insecurity, soup kitchens, and food banks in Israel during this period, see Doron and Gal, Soup Kitchens in Jerusalem at the Beginning of the Twenty-First Century; Kaufman, Roni, “A University-Community Partnership to Change Public Policy,” Journal of Community Practice 12 (2008): 163–80CrossRefGoogle Scholar; Levinson, Esther, The Mapping of Nonprofit Organizations in the Field of Food Security in Israel 2004: Scope and Patterns of Activity (Beer Sheva, 2005)Google Scholar; and Nirel, Nurit, Rosen, Bruce, Erez, Shira, Ben-Harush, Ayala, Berg-Warman, Ayelet, Brodsky, Jenny, Nitzan-Kaluski, Dorit, Haviv-Messika, Amalia, and Goldsmith, Rebecca, Food Security in Israel in 2003 and Its Implications for Patterns of Nutrition (Jerusalem, 2005).Google Scholar