“A Scientific Humanitarian and a Humanitarian Scientist” Lee Kaufer Frankel and American Jewish Philanthropy, 1899--1931 (2013)
Following the great 1906 San Francisco earthquake and fire, in which 3,000 people were killed and between half and three-quarters of San Francisco's population was left homeless, Lee Kaufer Frankel and Judah Magnes traveled from New York on behalf of the National Conference of Jewish Charities. The section of the city where most immigrant Jews lived had been hit particularly hard by the fire, and Frankel, upon his arrival, met with Jacob Voorsanger, a local rabbi who had been appointed by San Francisco's mayor as chairman of the Food Committee following the disaster. Though Voorsanger had been unable able to ascertain exact statistics, he estimated that approximately 10,000 Jews had been left homeless and that American Jews would need to donate at least $30,000 to a special relief fund for the victims. Frankel, far more an advocate of statistics than of estimates, visited some of the victims' makeshift camps for himself, where he counted far fewer Jews than expected based on the rabbi's estimate---suggesting to him that such a fund would perhaps not be necessary. He also met with a representative of the American Red Cross who believed that Red Cross relief funds would be doled out "for rehabilitation purposes, along nonsectarian [sic] lines." Believing that the Red Cross allocations would be adequate for the displaced Jews, he concluded that "there was no need of a special fund for the immediate relief of Jewish sufferers."1 On the surface, Frankel's approach seems rather cold, and when we compare his decision to the major accomplishments of his life, it seems particularly out of place. As manager of New York's United Hebrew Charities (UHC) Frankel instituted convalescent care programs as well as programs aimed at reducing instances of marital desertion, and he also created new facilities for treating victims of tuberculosis. Moreover, he revolutionized the life insurance industry by proving to large corporations [End Page 207] that preventative care was profitable and in their best interest---saving, by one estimate, 200,000 lives and $18 million over a sixteen-year period. Furthermore, he risked his life to travel to Eastern Europe amid the devastation of World War I on behalf of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (Joint/JDC), helping to implement a more efficient plan to rebuild a destroyed Jewish world. And additionally, he helped to reconcile the often-bitter divide between American Zionists and non-Zionists, helping to create the Jewish Agency, which bettered the lives of Jewish refugees in Palestine. How can we reconcile Frankel's unwillingness to help the San Francisco sufferers with his life-long devotion to humanitarian causes?
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