One of the peculiar features of American Juda ism is the large development of the Sabbath schools attached to the congregations. As early as ISM a general Sunday-school was organized in Philadelphia. for .dews of all shades of belief. In 1845 the movement spread to New York; in 1848 the Educational Society was founded in Philadelphia. and in 1864 the Hebrew Free School Association was incorporated in New York. There were, in 1903, nearly 300 religious schools attached to congregations in the United States, and 27 .newish free schools.
The arrival of large numbers of Jews from Russia and Rumania has made necessary the founding of manual training and technical schools. in which the rising generation may he taught handicrafts. from which they have largely been excluded by legislation in Eastern Europe. Such schools exist in New York. Philadelphia. Chicago. and other cities, and have been fostered especially by the Baron de Hirsch Fund.
A remarkable development in modern Jewish life is that of the Zionist movement. In a measure it is the continuation of the old Jewish hope of restoration to the land of Palestine. It is also the ,Jewish answer to anti-Semitism. Starting with a pamphlet by Dr. Theodor Herz! of Vienna (.4. Jeicixli State: An Attempt at a Modern Solution of the Jewish Question, Vienna, 1896: Eng. trans. by D'Avigdor, London, 1896), it soon took hold of the Jewish people, and Zion ist, societies and clubs are now to be found wher ever Jews exist. lts object is to found a secure and legal home for the oppressed Jews in tine. Since 1897 five international Zionist con gresses have been held, four in Basel and one iu London. The Jewish Colonial Trust has been organized by the Congress, and has its head offices in London.
There being no international Jewish organiza tion, except that of the Zionist congresses. the Jews in each country have been forced to band themselves together in various ways in order to subserve interests, social and economic, which they have in common. In France, the Alliance Isra6lite Universelle (q.v.). founded in Paris in 1S6'0, has not only looked after the interests of .lews in Mohammedan countries supposed to be in the sphere of French influence, but has also on several occasions used its good offices to procure the amelioration of the condition of the Jews wherever its influence could be brought to bear. In England the Board of Jewish Delegates has attempted to do the same thing. Austria has its Israelitish Alliance, and Germany its Union of Congregations ( Deutsch-israelitische Gemeinde Band). In the United States no such single union has been possible. The Union of the American Hebrew Congregations comprises those bodies which belong to the reform wing of the syna gogue; and a union of orthodox Hebrew congrega tions was founded in New York in 1SSG. About
the middle of the nineteenth century, when Jews were scattered in out-of-the-way places, a number of orders similar to that of the Free Masons were called into being. The B'nai B'rith ('Sons of the Covenant'), founded in the United States in 1S43, in 1901 had 315 lodges in America and a few in Germany. Rumania, Austria. Algeria. Bulgaria, and Egypt. Other similar societies are the Sons of Benjamin, the Free Sons of Israel. and the Free Sons of Judah. As the number of Jews in the United States increased, extensive calls were made upon the .Jews already domiciled here to provide adequately for their more unfortunate brethren. There were in 1902 fifteen homes for orphans in the United States, twelve homes for the aged, and nine hospitals. In 1SS9 Rabbi Gus tav Gottheil organized the first Sisterhood for Personal Service, in connection with the Temple Emann-El. in New York City. Since then such societies, in which the work is done by the women of the congregation, have become attached to nearly every important synagogue in the land. In most of the cities the work of the Jewish charities has been organized. so that one central body directs it in a large measure—the United Hebrew Charities of the City of New York. On December 1. 1S99. a national conference of Jew ish charities in the United States was held at Cincinnati, with the end in view of bringing about a greater co;;peration among the relief societies situated in the various parts of the country. Of more recent date is the attempt by the Jews to do settlement work in the congested districts of the large cities where the poorer .lews live—a work until now undertaken almost exclusively by Christian organizations. The Educational In stitute, in New York. is a sort of people's palace. and a regular Jewish settlement exists in Chi cago. No account of Jewish charitable endeavor during the nineteenth century would lie com plete without the particular mention of Baron and Baroness de Hirsch, who bequeathed three hundred million francs for the purpose of aid ing the oppressed Jews of Eastern Europe. This fund is in the hands of a private corporation composed of a few trustees, and has its seat in Paris. It has pent vast sums in colonizing some five thousand Jews in the Argentine Republic; it assists colonization in Canada. and has recently taken over the Jewish colonies established by Edmund de Rothschild in Palestine; it also maintains schools and homes in several American cities to which the Russian Jews have emigrated.