ABSTRACT
In part, the philanthropic activity was needed to carry out an agreement made in 1892 between Jewish leaders and the Secretary of the Treasury, Charles Poster, regarding the entry of Impoverished Jews who upon arrival in the United States received financial aid from charitable organizations. It was Jacob H. Schiff, the most powerful man in organized Jewish life in America, who went further, seeking directly to weaken the autocratic Russian government. Despite the recognized need to provide emergency aid for the next pogroms and to fight the restriction movement, the founders were ambivalent about forming this organization because they feared jeopardizing their status in American society. The most serious discussion focused on whether future members should be democratically elected representatives of religious congregations or appointed by a small founding coterie. In 1906 the American Jewish Committee knew what it needed to do in regard to these two types of discrimination.
