c light--if only we will it.

[Illustration: Signature: Norman Bentwich]

The Jewish Problem Today

BY JACOB H. SCHIFF

[Illustration: _JACOB HENRY SCHIFF (born in Frankfort-on-the-Main,
Germany, in 1847, came to America in 1865), one of the world's leading
bankers (senior member of Kuhn, Loeb & Co., New York), and a prince of
philanthropists, noted for his personal devotion and munificent gifts
to many causes for human betterment. He was among the first to
encourage and befriend the Menorah movement, founding in 1907 the
annual Menorah Society Prize at Harvard. The present article forms the
approved substance of an interview granted by Mr. Schiff to the
Editors of The Menorah Journal on March 4, 1915. Mr. Schiff's
statement regarding the need for a separate Jewish Relief Fund is
given special significance by the fact that he is Treasurer of the
American Red Cross._]

It is hardly possible to exaggerate the horrors of the Jewish
conditions in the war-stricken countries, especially in the three
Polands. According to the reports we get, conditions in Russian Poland
are such that Belgium's plight is a mere _bagatelle_ in comparison.
The Jewish people there have been outraged in the most terrible
manner, both by the Poles who denounced them to the Russians as
enemies and spies and then by the Russians themselves, who treated
them as such. It is only after the Russian armies are forced to leave
that the Jews are given protection by the Germans. In saying this I do
not want to be misjudged, for it is well known that I am a German
sympathizer. But the fact is that the Russians and the Poles alike
have been inhumane to the Jewish population.

According to the latest reports, the conditions are not being improved
in any way. And the relief so far has been entirely inadequate. It has
never been adequate. We need millions for the immediate relief of our
brethren, and so far only about half a million has been forthcoming
from American Jews. This in spite of the fact that all parties and
factions in Jewry are acting together in the work of relief, except
only one organization, the B'nai B'rith, and for this there is some
reason, because the B'nai B'rith have their own lodges abroad and they
want evidently to apply their relief to their own members first.

"_We Must Have a Jewish Relief Fund of Our Own_"

We must have a Jewish Relief Fund of our own in addition to the Relief
Funds for other people in the war-stric