As a population, the Jews exert more power in New York than they have ever exerted during the Christian Era in any place, with the exception of the present Russia. The Jewish Revolution in Russia was manned from New York. The present Jewish gov¬ ernment of Russia was transported almost as a unit from the lower East Side of New York. The New York Ghetto has long since overflowed the lower East Side. Brownsville, Brooklyn, is a Jewish town, with its own language, theaters and press. The upper East Side of New York is practically in large sections a Jewish ghetto. The prosperous West Side and the middle class section of the city north of Central Park are practically Jewish.
With the exception of one great department store and a few lesser ones, all the large department stores in New York are Jewish. Men and women's readyto-wear apparel, laundries, furriers, the general run of shopkeeping is practically monopolized by Jews. The legal profession is predominantly Jewish. It is estimated that of the 27,000 news stands that control the distribution of New York’s reading matter, 25,000 are in the hands of Jews. There are 360 synagogues on the East Side of New York alone.
The New York Kehillah is a very powerful organ¬ ization, whose membership strength is not accurately known. It may be described as the Jewish govern¬ ment of that city. It was organized in 1908 as the result of a statement by General Bingham, then police commissioner of New York, that the Jewish popula¬ tion, which then amounted to 600,000, contributed 50 per cent of the criminals of the city. The Kehillah is the bar before which the authorities must answrer for statements or acts touching the Jewish community. Its power is very great and its methods far reaching.
Politically, while the rest of the country is enter¬ tained with the fiction that Tammany Hall rules the politics of New York, the fact is rarely published that the Jews rule Tammany.