The Denver Jewish news., 1921-10-05
Two Letters to Nathan
Straus
DIR. POOL .CONINiENDS PHILAN.
THROPlST FOR HIS WORK.

''iNNu WV h-''iN III. I'lNl'l w
Sola Pool. Regional Director for the
.Ioinc Distribution committee in Pal
cstinc. The letters deal with Mr.
Strauss free Soup Kitchens and hi>
Mothcr-Of-Pearl factory, which the
great philanthropist established in
the Holy Land and which DIR. Pool
is supervising so efiiciently.
Grants for emergency relief in Pal
estine have ceased, bringing untold
misery TO the sufferers there, particu-
larly the thousands of Jewish war or
phans. But read DIR. Pools letters
They tell the story of the wonderful
good Mr.. StraIs has accomplished and
they point the way TO what can he
American .Iewry:
My Dear Mr.. Straus:
Il am in receipC of your cablcgram
in which you inform me that you are
sending $4,000, the budget for your
Soup Kitchens for August. September
and October. and | wish to thank you
from the bottom of my heart. do
not know what we would have done
had the Soup Kitchens closed up NJ
the same time as the relief grants had
been stopped. Some seventeen to
eighteen hundred old, sickly and desti-
tute people whose relief allotment has
suddenly come to an end are saved
from starvation thru their meal Il
dow in, rnnr I.
Il say kitchens and not Kitchen
because we have continued your work
in your kitchen in the Old City and
are also continuing the work formerly
done in the so-called Dreyfous Soup
Kitchen but now done in that building
under the name of che Straus Soup
Kitchen. Thru n series of economies
in the salaries, etc, we have made it
possible to maintain both kitchens,
your main kitchen and the branch, ON
the money which you are sending us.
We could NOT humanity do anything
else. i, for instance, had not the
heart TO conduct the work of your
original kitchen in the Old City on
more generous scale. while closing
up the kitchen which fed the poor of
Meah- -Shearim. Shaare-Pinna. the Box
haran District and the whole of the
Ghetto of that district. There is now
in Jerusalem only the aNthan Straus
Soup Kitchen, but it has a branch.
Both kitchens. of course, are under
one central management so far as
concerns purchasing. bookkeeping. sup
crvision and general administration. .
My Dear Mr. Straus:
"On Tuesday. August the 2nd, was
the formal opening of your Mother-of-
Pearl Button Factory. 1t was pleas
ant little function, the external cele-
hrution consisting of drinking to the
prosperity of the undertaking with our
good Palestine wine. The real cclc-
bration. however. was the happiness
to see the machines at work and To
see the workers busily occupied at
them.
THE workers are most interesting
as types. There are some of the free
thinking recent immigrants; there are
some boys and young mef with long
side locks who have been sent thru
the Mizrachi, and there are orphans
from our own Joint Distribution Com
mittee Orphan Department. AT the
present time. while the men are learn
ing they are getting their experience
and their skill on the cheapest mater
ial in preparing the cheapest kind of
buttons. and only when they have de
veloped Il certain aptitude and skill
shall we proceed to give them the more
expensive material for the preparation
of better quality buttons.
AT the present minute there are
twenty-five workmen employed in the
factory, tho we expect to increase the
number in the near future. We are
proceeding conservatively, as until we
know whether we shall be able to
dispose of the goods, it does not seem
to he advisable that we should increase
the production
Subsequent letters from DIR. Pool
show that between 40 and 30 men
are now at work, and that the factory
ms it now stands will be able 20 en-
ploy 400 men after market for their
product is obtained. This is not to
he expected in the near future.
Since 1914 Nathan Straus has spent
n fortune quite out of proportion to
his means for the relief of victims OF
the war. In addition he has lent nu-
merous services to suffering humanity
in various fields of activity.