charities constituted the building blocks in his overall design for remaking
the immigrants into proper citizens indistinguishable from other Ameri-
cans except for religion. As he told his fellow philanthropists, their en-
deavor should be “to give the poor Jews on the East Side a moral educa-
tion.”^16 Downtowners showed less enthusiasm about institutions that
assumed their need of a moral education, but the stewards usually ignored
the criticism.
For the sake of their own image among non-Jews just as much as for the
immigrants, Schiff and his associates crusaded determinedly for the
Americanization of the newcomers. As observers noted, no other ethnic
group, not the Slavs nor the Italians, shared the same intense concern. To
Jewish leaders, Americanization signified a veritable cure-all. In tune with
the environmentalist ideology of the Progressive era, it connoted optimism
and a belief in progress. Established Jews employed terms like “moral up-
lift” to describe the process that would transform the eastern Europeans
into clean, healthy, educated, and patriotic Americans. If the ghetto could
not be emptied physically, at least its “state of mind” or psychological
stranglehold could be broken. Once free of the ghetto’s alien way of think-
ing, the new Americans would be readily acceptable to the larger society.^17
Recognizing the key role of the public school in the Americanization
process, Schiff raised his voice to municipal officials on behalf of adequate
schools in the tenement districts. In 1895 he sought to “compel” the mayor
and Board of Education to assure enough classroom space for the over-
crowded neighborhoods. If the immigrant children were not Americanized
through the schools, he warned, they would become “a lasting menace” to
society. Similarly, when calling for public funds for free libraries, he
stressed the need of educational facilities for the poor and unlettered im-
migrants.^18 In his eyes the rapid integration of Jews into American society
did not conflict with the preservation of Jewish learning. Acting on his own
blueprint, he strove to mold an American Jew who was knowledgeable
about both American and Jewish culture.
Hardly a single Jewish institution on New York’s Lower East Side escaped
Schiff’s notice. Among the numerous charities that clamored for his sup-
port, the banker took a special liking to a few. One, the Hebrew Free Loan
Society, differed from most of the others. Founded in 1892 by the eastern
Europeans themselves, it was financed largely by dues and donations. The
Free Loan made modest non-interest-bearing loans requiring no collat-
eral; the loans were repaid in weekly installments, and losses proved mini-
mal. Gaining a reputation for not humiliating the newcomers, the agency
became a source of justifiable pride to the Eastsiders. “I used to attend
meetings of the organization,” Philip Cowen, publisher of the American
The New Immigrants 89