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The “Centenarian Ball” of 1923 at the Hebrew Friendly Inn and Home for the Aged was reported to be a gay affair. Its 100-year-old residents (as well as their younger compatriots) danced the waltz, polka, quadrille, turkey trot and pigeon-wing. At 101 years old, Isaac […]

The 58-year-old man didn’t know what to do. For 24 years, he supported his wife and eight children through his work at a clothing factory. Then, suddenly, he was laid off. Lacking any other skills, he didn’t know how he was going to pay his […]

At the outset of World War II, American Jews were asked by numerous international organizations for funds to support the victims of Nazism. In response, the leaders of the Baltimore Jewish community created the Jewish Welfare Fund (JWF), which was charged with raising money for […]

When Louis H. Levin was appointed the first executive director of the Associated Jewish Charities in 1920, he was faced with a daunting task: uniting the German-Jewish Federated Jewish Charities with the United Hebrew Charities, a group of comparatively new immigrants from Russia and other […]

Soon after the newly formed Associated Jewish Charities launched, the organization sought to raise funds. It kicked off its first campaign in 1920 with a dinner at the Lyric Opera House, and a lofty fundraising goal of $500,000 or the equivalent of $6.5 million today. […]

In the early 1900s, Baltimore’s Jewish population was mainly divided into two distinct groups: German Jews, who had immigrated in large numbers during the 1850s and Eastern European Jews, who arrived during the 1880s and 1890s. In 1906, the German Jews, who predominantly lived uptown, […]

On January 18, 1971 nearly 1,500 members of Baltimore’s Jewish community marched from Mt. Vernon Place to Johns Hopkins University to express their protest of the treatment of Soviet Jews. Walking up Charles Street, they shouted, “One, two, three, four, help break down the iron […]

With the world redrawn after World War II, people were once again on the move, desperate to improve their circumstances. In Hungary, in the aftermath of 1956’s Hungarian Revolution, refugees escaped Communist oppression and arrived in Baltimore. Many were survivors of the Holocaust and were […]

If you were a European Jew looking to improve your lot at the turn of the 20th century, you looked toward the promise of the United States. And if you could afford passage—and were in relatively good health—chances are, you would have been allowed to […]

Providing summer activities for kids—and a place to escape Baltimore’s oppressive heat—was also an early mission of the Associated Jewish Charities. The Woodland Country Home, located in Catonsville, opened in 1922. Women, children and families would visit to regain their health, eat nutritious meals and […]