With the kind permission of University Library Frankfurt am Main, Digital Collection Judaica, Compact Memory
hastening to send you the following
“appeal” that has just been published here,
and whose primary author is “The exhilarating
feeling of finally having reached,with the liberation from all civic and
political obstacles,
the goal of their hopes, efforts, and fights of many years
lites to immortalize this event by a memorial
conceived of in the spirit of our times and befitting
the importance of said event. In this sense, the
estab-lishment of a large
foundation
for free
housing
matter assured of the most general recognition. Such a
foundation initiated by us Israelites would make it as clear as daylight that
we do indeed consider our affairs as
intertwined with the welfare of all citizens,
and that we see the liberation of one class – our
own – merely as a part of solving
the great task: to spread the blessings of an accomp-
lished humanity among all our comrades in
civilized states. For we make no secret of the fact that
we, should our efforts succeed, believe ourselves
justifiedin assuming that our example will be
emulated outside of this
will thus make a contribution to seeing the destitute
classes led towards a better, more secure,
more dignified future. However, we first focus on the
possibility to provide, in a given number of
years, entirely rent free apartments to most,
maybe all needy residents of
the entirety of their lives. Having gone through the school of
hard knocks and with the large majority among us little inclined to turn
towards broad theories, we German Jews are
perhaps particularly qualified in these times to put
the finger on what ails our fellow citizens
and say: this is where the illness is located, it is here
that we must and can help. We have identified such an
afflicted area as the constant worry among
penniless families for shelter and housing,
and we believe that healing this area can also
bring about the healing of the entire body. The main means for
accomplishing our purpose is to be a perpetual weekly collection of shillings,
based on a system already in existence here,
and at the same time a subscription of
monetary donations, also perpetual, is to
be established. We wish both
first levels of a solid foundation by them,
in memory of the happy occasion, and thus it is
our intention to appeal to the wider public only once
the accomplishment of this point is sufficiently se-
cured. We believe we can entirely justify the desire
for the renown of true inventors and founders
to anyone. Moreover, a monument in the
narrower sense of this word is to be incorporated
into the foundation. The articles adopted as the first
outlines of the institution are confined precisely to the bare
necessities and reserve the actual organization, espe-
cially of the shilling collection, for the society
itself once it has constituted itself. Thus with this day may
the new foundation step from the stage of a project into that
of the first period of its life, and may the root of a large
association be formed by immediately preparing
the subscription.