Maurice de Hirsch 5 - Galician Foundation

Since Hirsch lived the greater part of his life in Austria, it was quite natural that the deplorable condition of the Jews in that empire should especially appeal to him. In 1889, after consultation with Dr. Adolf Jellinek of Vienna, he formulated a plan to aid the Jews of Galicia. The objects of his proposed foundation, which was to commemorate the forty years' jubilee of the reign of Emperor Francis Joseph (1888), were stated to be as follows:

1.

The establishment of primary schools and of children's recreation-grounds in Galicia and Bukowina.

2.

The granting of subsidies to teachers.

3.

The providing of school-books and other educational requirements and of clothing and food for pupils.

4.

The granting of subsidies for the establishment of schools for Jewish children.

5.

The apprenticing of Jewish youths to handicraftsmen and agriculturists.

6.

The granting of assistance to Jewish pupils at commercial and professional schools.

7.

The granting of loans, free of interest, to artisans and agriculturists.

8.

The establishment of commercial, technical, and agricultural schools.

In 1891 the Austrian government agreed to the plan; and the baron thereupon placed 12,000,000 francs at the disposal of the trustees.

The foregoing are only a few of the benevolent foundations made by the baron. In addition may be mentioned the Canadian Baron de Hirsch Fund, and the large sums given to London hospitals, to which he also devoted the entire proceeds of his winnings on the turf. He always said that his horses ran for charity.

It is impossible to form an accurate estimate of the amount of money Baron de Hirsch devoted to benevolent purposes. That, including the large legacy (amounting to $45,000,000) left to the Jewish Colonization Association, it exceeded $100,000,000 is an estimate justified by the amounts given by him from time to time to the foundations already referred to. There were, besides, many gifts to individuals of which there is no record. In an article referring to his charitable work he said:

"In relieving human suffering I never ask whether the cry of necessity comes from a being who belongs to my faith or not; but what is more natural than that I should find my highest purpose in bringing to the followers of Judaism, who have been oppressed for a thousand years, who are starving in misery, the possibilities of a physical and moral regeneration?"

The baron was a remarkable man, gifted with extraordinary powers, with a genius for large affairs, which was displayed even in a higher degree in his gigantic plans for the exodus of the Russian Jews than in the amassing of his great fortune. He loved pleasure, but disliked vanity. He was not endowed with sentiment, nor was he religious in the ordinary sense. His ideals were all merged in his devotion to his far-reaching, carefully planned scheme of benevolence. In 1887, when he lost his only child, his son Lucian, a gifted and promising young man of thirty, he said in reply to a message of sympathy: "My son I have lost, but not my heir; humanity is my heir." No appeals made to him—and there were many—to endow some great institution in France, or to erect some artistic public building to perpetuate his name and family, ever induced him to turn aside from his plans for effecting the emigration of the Russian Jews and converting them into agricultural communities. He was firmly convinced that as the Jews were originally an agricultural and pastoral people, they, and especially those in Russia, would under favorable conditions again become tillers of the soil. In an article contributed by the baron to the "Forum," Aug., 1891, he set forth his views and purposes as follows:

"In the lands where Jews have been permitted to acquire landed property, where they have found opportunity to devote themselves to agriculture, they have proved themselves excellent farmers. For example, in Hungary they form a very large part of the tillers of the soil; and this fact is acknowledged to such an extent that the high Catholic clergy in Hungary almost exclusively have Jews as tenants on mortmain properties, and almost all large landholders give preference to the Jews on account of their industry, their rectitude, and their dexterity. These are facts that can not be hid, and that have force; so that the anti-Semitic movement, which for a long time flourished in Hungary, must expire. It will expire because every one sees that so important a factor in the productive activity of the country—especially in agriculture—can not be spared. My own personal experience, too, has led me to recognize that the Jews have very good ability in agriculture. I have seen this personally in the Jewish agricultural colonies of Turkey; and the reports from the expedition that I have sent to the Argentine Republic plainly show the same fact. These convictions led me to my activity to better the unhappy lot of the poor, downtrodden Jews; and my efforts shall show that the Jews have not lost the agricultural qualities that their forefathers possessed. I shall try to make for them a new home in different lands, where, as free farmers, on their own soil, they can make themselves useful to the country."

His particular concern was to avoid overcrowding with his Russian protégés the countries to which they might emigrate. Of his own accord, quite apart from restrictive laws, he took measures to regulate the exodus and to select men who would apply themselves to handicrafts and agriculture. He never tired of impressing upon his agents and upon the emigrants the importance of directing their energies in these channels exclusively, so that they should become a part of the sturdy yeomanry of the countries wherein they settled, and should "sit every man under his vine and under his fig-tree." He realized that colonizing, like planting a forest, required time and patience. His hopes rested upon the second generation; he knew that the forty years in the wilderness might be shortened but not escaped. His idea was that as colonies became firmly rooted in differ ent parts of the world, they would become self attracting, and would draw from Russia greater and greater numbers, so that in one or two generations Russia would materially suffer from the loss of the energy and activity of her Jews, and would either stop the exodus by according to those who remained full civil rights, or would fall, as she deserved, the logical victim of her own intolerance.

Source: www.jewishencyclopedia.com

Ver detalles de:
* Historia: Argentina, Baron Maurice de Hirsch