Social Welfare Activity in the Jewish Community in Jerusalem during the Mandate Period

Abstract

In this article, I analyze the factors that shaped social welfare activity in the Jewish community in Jerusalem during the British Mandate in Palestine. First, I review the attitude towards social welfare activity in the City Council—the body that preceded the Community Council—during the 1920s. Second, I examine the activities and efforts of the Social Welfare Bureau by way of the Community Council in the early 1930s. Third, I analyze on two levels the impact of political events in the Jewish Yishuv from the mid-1930s until late in the Mandate period on social welfare activities: on the municipal level, with emphasis on the impact of Jerusalem’s unique factors and characteristics, including the Sephardic Community Council’s political influence on community-social welfare activities; and at the national level of the Jewish Yishuv, which included the influence of the Fifth Aliyah and the Yishuv fundraising organizations on the activities of the Social Welfare Bureau in the 1940s. Based on the analysis of each of the aforementioned players, I propose that the nature and scope of social welfare activities in Jerusalem were the result of three combined influences: the Jewish Yishuv – initiatives originating from the National Institutions; the community influence – activities based on the Community Council’s status and a community-oriented outlook; and the local influence – norms and attitudes that were prevalent in Jerusalem before the British conquest. Therefore, I show in this article that the Jewish Yishuv framework is one of the components that shaped social welfare activity in Jerusalem.