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This chapter details how charity is collected by Jewish communities. Traditional east European Jewish communities collected money in a number of ways; taxation was only one of the standard means. Communities had to make sure that payments required by the government were met and that communal facilities, such as synagogues, were kept in good condition. However, the needs of individuals were regarded as a very different matter and they were usually dealt with by voluntary, charitable activities. Donations had to be collected by charitable organizations which could not resort to coercion. One of the most popular methods employed by Jewish charities in recent generations was the pushke (‘charity box’ in Yiddish) which was found in many Jewish homes. While it may appear traditional, this was an innovation of the nineteenth century which spread quickly throughout all of eastern Europe. A careful look at the complicated dynamics behind the simple pushke reveals a great deal about the structure and values of east European Jewish society.

This chapter examines the impact of the economic crisis of 1929 on the philanthropic ties between Jews in Poland and the United States during the 1920s. It begins with an overview of the origins of American Jewish immigrant philanthropy, with particular emphasis on the emergence of landsmanshaft organizations such as United Brisker Relief. It then considers how interwar mass fundraising drives by American Jews produced new myths and symbols that deviated from traditional models of Jewish charity. It also discusses the consequences of the crisis of 1929 for American Jewish immigrants and especially their philanthropic activities. It describes the year 1929 as a turning point for the transatlantic Polish–Jewish community in terms of migration and charity.

This chapter examines the hekdesh, one of the grimmest institutions in East European Jewish society. The hekdesh, or Jewish hospital-cum-poorhouse, is a somewhat elusive historical phenomenon but also a useful venue for analyzing traditional forms of Jewish charity in the Russian Empire as well as the dynamics of social marginality among Russian and Polish Jews. The chapter first considers an important characteristic of Jewish charity—the tendency to distinguish between conjunctural poverty and structural poverty—before discussing the hekdesh as an institution. In particular, it describes efforts to transform the hekdesh into a true medical institution and its incarnation in the late nineteenth century as a place for beggars and other cast-offs of society, with only a nominal connection to caring for the sick. It also explains how the hekdesh may have served to perpetuate the problem of begging and vagrancy.

This chapter explores the living wage as an anti-poverty measure from the perspective of welfare economics and Jewish law. It discusses the following issues of economic morality: legitimate interferences of employers to the market forces and the accomplishment of the anti-poverty objective. It also provides an analysis on the anti-poverty policies such as the Earned Income Tax Credit for supply side and increase in employment opportunities on the demand side of the marketplace.