Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City of New York

On the night of September 20, 1941, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City of New York (HOA) held its annual dinner party, organized by its graduates. Usually, the dinner drew a few hundred of the Asylum alumni. On this night however; more than a thousand former residents attended the event - a rare scene. The most poignant moment occurred as everybody in the party sang the HOA alma mater and "Auld Lang Syne," knowing that HOA officially closed its doors earlier that day. 1 The closing of HOA not only marked the end of a great child-care institution, but the entire institutional child care system in America.

Originally named the Hebrew Benevolent and Orphan Asylum Society, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum (HOA) was created out of a merger of two New York Jewish benevolent societies in 1860: the Hebrew Benevolent Society (HBS) and the German Hebrew Benevolent Society (GHBS). After resisting a merger due to friction between German Reform leaders and Sephardic and Ashkenazi traditional leaders, the two groups finally joined after the threat of missionaries and conversion was made public by the Mortara Affair, in which an Italian Jewish boy, Edward Mortara, was kidnapped and converted by a servant girl. The possibilities of Jewish orphans being cared for by non-Jewish asylums with missionary goals was a major factor that led the two societies to pool resources and open the first Jewish orphan asylum in New York City. 2

The HOA's first location was bought in April 1860. A brick house located at 1 Lamartine Place, Chelsea, (now West 29 th Street between Eighth and Ninth Avenues), it was converted from a family home and considered temporary housing for the first enrollment of thirty children. Few records remain to tell the lives of these children, but it is not hard to imagine that with limited resources and no trained child-care personnel for supervision, children found life harsh. As Henry Bauer, recorded as "the first full orphan" described the daily schedule, "get up, say your prayers, get your breakfast, go to school, come back, study your lessons, study Hebrew, get your supper, and go to bed. Very little play---very little play!" 3

Fortunately, in 1860 a series of laws passed by the New York State legislature allowed the city government to offer a permanent site for the orphanage, located at East 77 th Street and Third Avenue. The state and city would contribute two-thirds of the building costs, as well as the land. The newly erected orphanage with fifty-two children was officially opened in November 1863. 4

Two years later, Dr. Max Grunbaum replaced the first superintendent Samuel Hart. A former Hebrew school principal, Grunbaum is called a "bungling administrator" by Hyman Bogen. Grunbaum sent the children to school on the High Holidays, causing deep criticism in the Jewish press. Grunbaum also dealt with the 1865 smallpox epidemic at the HOA, which resulted in the first death of a resident. He resigned in 1867. The HOA was fortunate to have Dr. Abraham Jacobi known as the "father of pediatrics," as chief of its medical staff. Dr. Jacobi would continue working for the HOA for fifty-nine years, guiding his patients through a severe dysentery epidemic in 1898, a polio epidemic in 1916, and adding a full time dental clinic and an eye clinic in 1918. Throughout his tenure, relatively few children died of illnesses, which was unusual for the time. 5

Louis Schnabel, Grunbaum's successor, was faced with full capacity enrollment of 150 in 1868. He reorganized the administration and made new rules for the children: each child now had a number and visits from relatives were strictly regulated. He also began an industrial school which taught older boys shoemaking and printing and converted a lecture room into a synagogue where he personally conducted regular religious services based on the tenets of Reform Judaism. The warden, ironically named Mr. Goodman, who did the majority of supervising, was known to use rawhide whip and other severe punishments. 6

In the 1870s, three New York State laws were enacted that had a profound impact on the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Jewish orphanages in general. The first two laws, passed in the 1874 session, allowed the HOA to sell its current property in the hopes of enlarging its facilities. In addition, a law was passed that put the HOA on the same level as the New York Juvenile Asylum, making HOA eligible for New York State funding. In 1874, 70% of the HOA budget was paid for by New York State. These generous subsidies continued into the 1920s. Additional funding for HOA came from individual and business donations, public benefits, and products created from its vocational schools. 7

The third New York state law, titled the Children's Law of 1875, was a victory against missionary movements. The law was two-fold; children were required to be removed from almshouses where they shared living quarters with the rest of the welfare population into their own orphanage asylums, and each child was to be placed in an asylum that matched their parents' faith. As a result, the number of private child institutions grew rapidly. 8

Population increases in the 1870s, due to economic depression, epidemics, and immigration, led Jewish leaders, such as Myer S. Isaacs, editor of the Jewish Messenger, and others to argue for a more efficient system of philanthropy. As Isaacs wrote, "the vital defect of our charities today is that intelligent study of the poor has been overlooked..." In 1874, the United Hebrew Charities was established by five organizations: HOA, Hebrew Benevolent Fuel Association, Ladies' Benevolent Society of the Congregation Gates of Prayer, Hebrew Relief Society, and the Yorkville Ladies' Benevolent Society. HOA would donate $647,100 to UHC over the course of 34 years, aiding the widows and poor families of the City. 9

Unable to care for all of its residents, HOA began a boarding out program, in which families are paid to house residents. The exact year when this began cannot be confirmed, due to a gap in annual reports in the collection. However; the first mention of "boarding out for want of room" appears in the 1875 annual report. This program continued until 1893 and was reintroduced by Superintendent Solomon Lowenstein in 1906. 10

Immigration surges brought new social problems to the Jewish community: unemployment, malnutrition, chronic diseases, destitute children and widows, etc. The relinquishing of one's children to the asylum not only prevented starvation, but also offered the possibilities of a vocational or college education, medical care, and easier adjustment to American life. The well established German-Jewish community, who had immigrated to New York City in the early and mid 1800s, used their benevolence to advocate Reform Judaism, which they had brought over from Germany. They restricted contact with the orphan's family, alienating many orphans from the Yiddish language, culture, and Orthodoxy of their parents, their goal being to Americanize the newcomers. As a President of the Ladies Sewing Society reports in 1913-1914; "…we shall meet to sew for the orphan children, many of them of foreign parentage, and now privileged to grow up as American citizens in the Jewish Home." 11

In order to educate their early charges, and later, to Americanize newcomers, the HOA offered a Home school and vocation training. In 1869, with Louis Schnabel as head, HOA opened a shoemaking factory and in 1871 added a printmaking shop. In 1883, the HOA Industrial School evolved into the Hebrew Technical Institute, which was formed by HOA, United Hebrew Charities, and the Hebrew Free School Association. HOA also sent its residents to the Baron and Clara de Hirsch Trade Schools and the Hebrew Technical School for Girls. Residents were sent to public schools until 1872, when overcrowding led HOA to establish its own school within its walls. By 1900, all of the residents through sixth grade attended this school (called P.S. 192); older children attended neighborhood public schools, vocational schools, and/or City College. 12

By 1878, enrollment had reached 300, leading HOA to transfer all female residents to two rented houses on East 86 th Street, and even more significantly, restricting applicants from Brooklyn. Faced with an emergency, the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City of Brooklyn was opened the same year. HOA would open its new building at Amsterdam Avenue and 137 th street with an initial inhabitancy of 370 children in 1884. 13

Hermann J. Baar, perhaps the most well known of the superintendents, was a talented preacher and preached sermons to children on Saturdays, which often were reprinted in newspapers such as The New York Herald and the American Hebrew . He also set up a Cadet Corps and military marching band, which brought wide acclaim from the public. The Corps and marching band won first prize in competition with other college and grammar school children during the George Washington Centennial in April 1889, with then President Benjamin Harrison looking on. 14

Dr. Baar was particularly remembered for his excessive disciplinary and religious training: his tight regimentation demanding conformity from the children, including silence at all times, and curtailing of parental visiting rights (limited only to four times a year). Little wonder that Hyman Bogen in The Luckiest Orphans terms Dr. Boar's managing style of HOA as "behind the Baars." In order to better monitor children's behavior, Baar introduced a monitoring system where older children and graduates (governors) supervised younger ones. Before long this system was widely abused by these inexperienced monitors; older children bullying younger ones became a common practice in the orphanage. 15

By the turn of the twentieth century, partly because of the influence of new theories of psychology and social work, the focus of child-care policy had gradually shifted to the psychological well being of individual children. The succeeding superintendents began to liberate the orphanage from the rigid institutional policies set up previously. Baar's successor, David Adler, relieved some of the regimentation; he added pockets to uniforms (according to Hyman Bogen "…the boys didn't know what to make of it; few of them owned enough possessions to fill even one pocket"), took away the silence rule, allowed mail to be written and sent by the children, and increased the amount of outings. Most importantly, Adler abolished corporal punishment, mainly by hiring governors who were not graduates; however, since he kept the monitorial system, the beatings continued. Rudolph Coffee, a Jewish Theological Seminary rabbinical student and the next superintendent, worked to "deinstitutionalize" the orphanage. He "abolished" the uniform, silenced the rising bell, allowed hair to grow, and established the first publication created by the children titled "The Chronicle of the H.O.A." 16

In 1909, President Theodore Roosevelt held the First White House Conference on the Care of Dependent Children which changed the course of future child-care policy by endorsing the home care / foster care system as superior to the institutional care system. The Conference marked a shift in the child-care paradigm, implying that if any child-care institution wanted financial support from the government, it would soon have to abandon its institutional practice. 17

The White House Conference coincided with the tenure of Solomon Lowenstein, a Reform Rabbi and the first HOA superintendent to have social work experience. Lowenstein was determined to "individualize the child," however; faced with over 1,000 residents, this proved to be a daunting task. During his tenure, HOA reintroduced boarding out on a big scale, paying families to board children. Lowenstein also convinced the Board of Trustees to rent a farm in Valhalla, Westchester, where sixty-three fortunate boys spent a year, learning how to farm in a relaxed atmosphere. Although the Valhalla experience was only to last five years before the farm was sold, the idea led to the HOA renting two camps for boys and girls in Bear Mountain Park in 1919. By the mid-1920s, almost every resident was able to attend a camp for a few weeks in the summer months. 18

During Lowenstein's tenure, HOA also established its first after-care facilities, pioneering the development for Jewish orphanages. Corner House, located at 21 Charles Street, was opened in 1916 to ease the transition of discharge for graduate boys, and was sponsored by the Junior League; Friendly Home for Girls was also opened in 1916, and was sponsored by the Ladies Sewing Society. 19

A significant successor to the 1909 White House Conference was the 1915 New York State Widow's Pension Law, which provided stipends to widows with dependent children. In 1917, HOA began experiencing its first decreases in population in "many years." As noted in the annual report; "It is difficult to determine to just what cause this decrease may be ascribed; probably several have co-operated. In the first place, times have been good and employment has been available for all who were disposed to work. Secondly, since the beginning of the European War, there has been a decided falling off of immigration. Thirdly, while the passage of the law providing for State aid to widowed mothers has not resulted, as was anticipated by some, in the actual discharge of many children from the Institution, it has, no doubt, been of some influence in averting the commitment of children....."20

In 1918, due to pressure from City officials and Jewish civil leaders, the Executive Board decided to experiment with a "cottage system" model and purchased a large parcel of land in the Bronx. In stark contrast to the institutional care system, in which children's daily activities were under close scrutiny by governors or governesses, the cottage system, pioneered in the U.K. and then adopted by the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society in 1908, allowed a smaller group of children to live together and to govern themselves under the limited supervision of the cottage mother. With greater autonomy and the home-life environment that self-government created, the cottage system made children's life more enjoyable and thus became a preferred child-care model when home care or foster care was not available. 21

In order to achieve this relocation plan, the HOA relied on the newly formed New York Federation for the Support of Jewish Philanthropies. The Federation was established in 1917 to coordinate fundraising efforts, distribute financial resources, and streamline welfare services among Jewish welfare services agencies in New York, eliminating duplicate services to preserve financial resources for better uses. Unfortunately, likely due to financial costs, a cottage system was never implemented at HOA and the residents stayed at Amsterdam Avenue. 22

Seeing that nothing could be done to shift their institutional child-care policy, Lionel Simmonds, the first former resident to become superintendent, as well as the HOA's last leader, continued to reform the institution's regimentation policy to a greater extent - replacing governors and governesses with counselors, hiring more counselors in order to pay individual attention to children as much as possible, relaxing family visiting hours, and increasing the number of extra-curricular activities mainly in music and athletics. 23

In 1922, a New York Jewish Children's Clearing Bureau was established due to the recommendations of a Federation child study. The Bureau became the centralized intake, follow up, and evaluation for dependent Jewish children, deciding which institution would be appropriate for each child. The Clearing Bureau favored foster care above institutional care, and in combination with widow's pension laws, New Deal legislation, and other factors the HOA was led to change its resident population from poor to emotionally disturbed children. After years of negotiations, HOA merged with the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society of New York (HSGS) and other child care agencies to form the New York Association for Jewish Children in 1940. NYAJC would concentrate on providing referral and foster care services as well as health care services for mentally retarded children. 24

Soon after the merger, the HOA quickly placed out the remaining children, who were either sent back to their parents or to foster homes; a few years later, the building was converted into offices for the New York Association of Jewish Children. After the farewell dinner on September 20, 1941, HOA was officially closed. In 1942, the building was acquired by New York City for $1.3 million. In 1955, after the city turned over the building to the Parks Department, it was demolished and became a public park. 25

After the HOA had closed its doors, its graduates turned a previous student publication called Rising Bell into an alumni publication. At the same time, alarmed by the fact that the closing of HOA meant no more new alumni, the members of the two existing alumni associations, the Seligman Solomon Society (S.S.S), formed in 1887 to commemorate the charitable work done by one of early HOA's Board of Directors, Seligman Solomon, and the Academy Alumni Association (A.A.A.), created in 1939, agreed to consolidate their resources to form a new alumni association in 1957 called the H.O.A. Association. 26 Today the H.O.A. Association still maintains its functions by holding annual reunion parties and gathers contributions for charity purposes. Interestingly, the much criticized "militarization" policy set up by Dr. Baar seemed to have paid off when America joined the two world wars. A large number of HOA children were enlisted to serve the country; and found that their HOA cadet corps training adjusted them well to military life. During the wars, quite a number of these graduates received high honors and promotions from the government for their bravery. 27

The records of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City of New York are dated from the early 1850s. The records document not only the early Jewish philanthropic efforts to help newly arrived immigrants, but the long-term struggle of desperate immigrant families to situate themselves in a new and culturally alien country, while preserving their Jewish heritage. The same records also reflect the gradual evolution of American child-care policies; the effect of government funding and programs; the development of child psychology, social work, and pediatrics; and provide a vital insight into New York City history.

From the guide to the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City of New York, records, undated, 1855-1985, 2004-, (American Jewish Historical Society)