community, for the management and defense of their interests. In accord
with the Progressive emphasis on broadening popular participation in the
political process, they aimed for a representative body, one that would
unite the vast array of Jewish agencies—synagogues, fraternal lodges, fed-
erations, and professional societies. The very idea was a vote of no confi-
dence in the AJC insofar as defense of the ghetto was concerned.
Ironically, democratization required elitist participation. From the start,
downtowners knew that the success of their plan depended on the AJC’s
cooperation. Only a partnership with the established Jews could provide
the funding and prestige essential to their task. The key objective was a
partnershipin place of the existing steward-ward relationship. The Yiddish
Tageblattexplained: “There is not a single Jew on the East Side who does
not recognize the importance to American Jewry of a Jacob Schiff and a
Louis Marshall.... But we wish self-recognition as well.... We want to
give our famous Jews their honored place in an American Jewish organiza-
tion... but we we wish them to work with us and not over us.”^80
Schiff and Marshall reacted positively. Schiff wrote: “To me and also to
others it was a question whether we should keep aloof and permit the [ke-
hillah] to be anyhow organized and represent New York Jewry, or whether
the element represented by the German Jews had not better secure a po-
tent voice in the proposed community and exert the conservative restrain-
ing influence which, without the co-operation of the German element,
might be wanting.” Whereas participation might allow the retention of
some form of control over roughly one million new immigrants and sub-
stantiate the committee’s lip service to democracy, a refusal to cooperate
could unleash a democratic monster. Moreover, here was an opportunity to
establish order out of downtown’s chaotic affairs and to relieve the ste-
wards of some of their burdens. Since Judah Magnes led the kehillah move-
ments, his ties to uptown (he was a member of the AJC, a former rabbi of
Temple Emanu-El, and Marshall’s brother-in-law) assured a hearing of
their views. Other possible gains looked attractive to Schiff. Not only
would organization aid in Americanizing the new immigrants, but a kehil-
lah could help turn the dream of a united Jewry into a reality. The banker
also recognized that the eastern Europeans by sheer numbers would ulti-
mately wrest control of the community from the established Jews. Cooper-
ation therefore provided the soon-to-be minority with the means of per-
petuating the stewards’ communal values for future generations of
American Jews.^81
The committee discussed the merits of the proposed kehillah at its 1908
annual meeting. Marshall led the defense, and Schiff argued the need to
encourage the eastern Europeans to greater independence under AJC
supervision. Pointing to the delight with which Jews greeted the proposal
for a kehillah, he added:
The New Immigrants 113