Intermountain Jewish news., 1926-02-04
tJewlsh Telegrnphic Agency

tJewish Telegrnphic Agency
New York-The inherent hardness
of the Jewish race which other peoples
lack was pointed 10 as the reason for
the unusually low death rate among the
Jewish population OF the congested dis
tricts Of New York City by DIR. William
II. Gnilfoy. head of the statistical di.
vision of the New York City Health De-
partment. in survey made public sew.
eral days ago
1T Is curious and interesting thing
TO take a look at the infant death rate
in two typical Jewish districts-just as
crowded. just as congested. ms the other
districts which have high infant death
rates. These districts ranged from 4s
to - per 1.O0O--a record just as good
as the Washington Heights district,
where the average income Is over
81 100.
Crowded East Side Has Low Infant
Death Rate
The Jews are unusually eager to
take advantage OF public health elm
ics,' DIR. Gullfoy said, "but even this
does not explain such an unusual rec
ord. And inspections show that they
are no better and no worse housekeep-
ers than their neighbors. Apparently
1t can he explained only ms an inherent
hardness"
The infant mortality rate in two
crowded Fast Side Italian districts ran
from 81 to 90 per 1000. The infant
death rate In two crowded negro dis
tricts Of Harlem ran from 100 to 100
per 1000.
look at the tuberculosis map, COW
crlhg n period of five years, In the of
ficc Of Dr. I. ]. Harris, city Health
Commissioner, tells the story Of poor
housing and its relation to health at
one glance.
tuberculosis High In Tenements
The districts with a death roll Of
over 400 per 100000 inhabitants are
shown in solid black. A heavy dia.
gonal stripe indicates districts with a
death rate of 200 to 400 per 1OO, 1000. I'm
der that there is lighter diagonal
stripe, and districts where there is
practically no tuberculosis at all re-
main white, the survey stated.
The whole lower end of Manhattan
ISlu from, canal ct, ss, II
most solid black. This includes the
lodging house district the Bowery dis
trict and the Greek sections. One of
these sanitary districts had death
rate as high as lib per 100000.
On the West Side ms high MS Fifty
eighth street the map is marked with
heavy black stripes. This section in
clndcs many old law tenements, with
Irish, Scotch. English, German and
some Italian residents.
Harlem is almost solid black on the
map. The Jewish East Side, however
shows up as well here as the Riverside
Drive and Fifth Avenue districts. des-
pite its unfavorable housing conditions
and terrible congestion.
GhettOs Gave Immunity
Although physicians differ as to the
reason. some advance the opinion that
the Jewish race, herdcd together in
ghettos for centuries, long since paid
IFS death tribute to the great white
plague with the result that the race
has built up natural immunity.
But when the same results are shown
in pneumonia, in all sorts Of children's
diseases and in all other tagions, as
well as in The general death rate, 1t
seems logical TO assume that the cause
must be an inherent racial hardihood
which may have resulted from the op-
Grafton of the law of survival of the
littest With all the weak weeded out
in generations past.
Negroes Higher In Tuberculosis
The 1925 figures on tuberculosis, in
their relation to living conditions. show
the typical Italian tenement house sec
ton has a death rate of 14S per 10O,-
900: typical negro district, with some
white people. has a rate of 1So, and
still another has 19G while all records
IRE broken in one district in Harlem
with death rate of $40 per 100000
! from tuberculosis.
This would indicate that the negroes
ms n race have not yet built up i'm
munity to tuberculosis having lived for
centuries under conditions in which
tuberculosis seldom makes its appear.
ance.
Compare these figures with the River