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= How the Jews Help Their Poor (1914 Film) = How the Jews Help Their Poor is a lost 1914 American silent film directed and written by Benjamin H. Namm and Max Ableman and produced by Universal Film Manufacturing Company in cooperation with The Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charity Collection, an agency for Jewish charities in Brooklyn.

Plot
After the death of her husband, a young Russian Jewish woman comes to America with her little boy and girl. Upon landing at Ellis island the three are met by a charitable worker from the Brooklyn Council of Jewish Women, who looks after their welfare. They are taken to live with the woman's brother, a poor tinsmith. A short time later the mother fails in health and dies. Her dying wish to her brother is that he will care for her children. He promises to do so, but misfortune befalls him, and he is stricken with illness. His friends notify the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities.

The brother is taken to the hospital, while the children are taken to the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum. After the uncle is discharged from the hospital he visits the children at the orphan asylum to find that they are cared for in an excellent way.

After several years the Board of Directors of the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities assemble at the orphan asylum to attend the commencement exercises of this institution. It so happens that the speaker chosen to deliver the valedictorian address is the little orphan boy who was left there by his uncle years before. His address is called “Charity, or How the Jews Care for Their Poor,” and with impassioned voice and tear-dimmed eyes extols the noble work done by the Federation.

The audience is deeply impressed, particularly one philanthropist, who decides to gives a large sum of money as a donation to the Federation, hoping that his act will serve as an example to all Jews to further the splendid charity carried on by the Federation.

Production
The Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charity Collection has been active in philanthropy and social aid between the years 1910-1927. In 1913 the Federation formed a special committee for the sake of fund raising with the use of motion pictures.

On October 18, 1913, in an announcement titled "How the Jews Care for their Poor", The Motion Picture World announced that “Director Sidney Golden is putting an educational picture of one reel length”. In a May 1914 account of the film however the Bulletin of the National conference of Jewish Charities refers to How the Jews Care for their Poor as “a film story in two reels by Benjamin H. Namm and Max Ableman”. The same article informs that the motion picture was produced by The Universal Film Manufacturing Company in cooperation with the Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities.

Screenings
How the Jews Care for their Poor was a popular film in the Federation’s fund raising events. Between January 1914 and January 1915 the film was screened at at least 11 different events. Several of these events took place at the Orthodox Congregation of Far Rockaway, Queens and enjoyed “a very large attendance”.