Page:The part taken by women in American history.djvu/682

Rh In Philadelphia, besides the main bureau of the United Hebrew Charities, various organizations of women have been formed as auxiliary to the United Charity, such as the Ladies' Auxiliary Committee, the Ladies' Volunteer Visiting Committee, and the Personal Interests Society, whose activity has aided to a great degree in mitigating the suffering among the Russian Jews. Another of the older charities of Philadelphia, the Esrath Mashim, or Helping Women, is to be noted in this regard. This society was organized in 1873 in aid of lying-in women at their homes, and after the year 1882 devoted its effort chiefly to the needs of the refugee immigrants from Russia. In 1891 the demands on this charity as on all others grew beyond the confines of the organization, and the society was reorganized as the Jewish Maternity Association, establishing a hospital known as the Maternity Home, which has grown to be one of the large charitable institutions. A training school for nurses was added in 1901, and at the same time a branch of the work inaugurated at Atlantic City as the Jewish Seaside Home for invalid mothers and children. This splendid work has enlarged immensely in the more recent years. In Philadelphia, too, we find a loan society conducted by Jewish women, which makes loans without interest to deserving persons in amounts of from five dollars to twenty-five dollars, repayable in installments.

So we find in every city these evidences of the intense vitality of the Jewish women's spirit for uplifting unfortunates. We find Jewish women on the committees for improved housing in the congested sections of our cities. We find Jewish women serving on the boards of trade schools, figuring in the organization of bureaus and federations of the United Hebrew Charities, opening public baths for the poor and investigating tirelessly the conditions of health and sanitation among them. It is with great regret that we are obliged to curtail the list of individual endeavor, for certainly many of the names of the