THE WEALTH OF THE LONDON JEWS.

OUR recent paper on Jewish pauperism showed the existence of so enormous a disproportion of poverty in the Jewish community of the Metropolis, that it becomes interesting to inquire whether this is balanced by any corresponding excess of wealth among the upper and well-to-do class of London Jews. By way of contrast, therefore, we proceed to give here a few figures bearing upon the incomes of the richer members of the Hebrew community. These figures will prove, on being com- pared with statistics referring to the United Kingdom at large, that public opinion is not altogether wrong in crediting the Jews with an amount of wealth larger by a good deal than is their due, and, what is perhaps more to the purpose, a proportion of rich families far and away beyond anything that is found among Gentiles. The preponderance of poor at one end, is seen to be more than balanced by an excess of wealth at the other end of the Jewish social scale. So that if there are many very poor Jews, there are many very rich ones to make np for it.

The figures we give are based upon an extremely able series

of papers published in the leading organ of the Jewish com- munity three years ago. They are the result of a series of investigations made by the most careful statistician in the Synagogue, a gentleman who occupies a semi-official position, and who had access to every available source of information. Of course, the figures are only approximate ; but as the Jewish community in London is very small, and the house-rental and charities of the principal Jews are easily known, there is no diffi- culty in arriving at the "least " amount of income possessed in a great majority of cases. Hence the data give with certainty the lowest aggregate of wealth with which it is possible to credit the Jewish body. The following table will show at a glance the division of the community of 47,000 persons into classes of rich,

well-to-do, lower middle, and poor people :-

Families. Individuals.

( A. Professional and retired, living West

B. Loh merchants ...

( C. Well-to-do merchants...

l D. Retired professionals ...

-• F

rG. Shopkeepers ...

F. Traders ... ... G. Servants and assistants R. Casual poor ... ...

I. Chronic ... ... J. Other poor ... ... ... ::: K. Russian refugees ... - ••• 1,200 3,000 2,000

1,884

234 ...

..• 900 800 200 1 1,200 5,400 3,600 800 15,000 1,200 7,912 2,242 947 The margin of possible error in the foregoing figures is very small. The annexed table gives the income of each class as near as the writer could determine it. The " very rich " class includes 50 out of the 78 Jewish brokers of the City of London,-30 great merchants and 20 families who have inherited their wealth, sad are not engaged in commerce:-

A glance at the manner in which this table is constructed will show that it yields the lowest possible income of the com- munity; for example, the estimate of £1,000 only as the average of Class B, " rich merchants," whose profits are over £1,000 without reaching anything like £10,000, is clearly greatly below what it should be. However, we reserve our remarks upon this point, and assume that the gross amount stated represents the annual earnings and income of the London Jews. We obtain then this result :-The £3,808,430 divided among the 47,000 individuals constituting the Jewish community, gives £82 per head. For the United Kingdom, the figures (£1,240,000,000 income, and 35,000,000 population) give £35 per individual. So that at the very lowest computa- tion, the Jews have per head about two and a half times as much money as the non-Jewish residents of the country. They form, to put it in another way, a seven-hundred-and-fiftieth of the population, but have between them about a three-hundredth of the total wealth.

It is, however, when we come to compare the ratio of big in- comes to population that the great preponderance of rich people among the Jews becomes evident, and we perceive how much larger is the proportion of wealthy Jews as against wealthy Gentiles. Taking Professor Leone Levi's tables (" Wages and Earnings," &c., 1885), which are based upon the Income-tax Commissioners' Returns, we find that in the United Kingdom the incomes over £10,000 per annum are 90 per million in- habitants; over £1,000 per annum, 1,700 per million; over £500, 3,000 per million ; and over £200, 15,700 per million resi- dents. These figures give us for every 50,000 inhabitants 4:5 incomes of £10,000, 85 incomes of over £1,000, 150 incomes.of over £500, and 785 over £200. Now, assuming that the Jews number 50,000 in the Metropolis-which is at least 3,000 too many, and lessens the proportion of wealthy people among them-we get the following results, tabulated so as to show at a glance the proportion of incomes in the case of the Jews and the community generally :- Incomes Number per 50,o00. Number per 50,000 Over- United Kingdom. Jews in Londoo. 01 A. Very rich 7.

. ...

0. Well-to-do D. Retired professionals E. Shopkeepers F. Traders G. Servants and assistants ...

J. and K. Very poor .

Total Income

Estimated Number. Inoome over- Total.

... £10,000 ...

... 1,000 500 ... £1,000,000 ... 1,400,000 400,000 200

250 50,000

3,000 200 ... 600,000 2,000 100 ... 200,000 1,000 30 ... 30,000 1,884 50 ... 94,000 3,423 10 34,230

... 23,808,430

£10,000 4.5

100 1,000

85 1,400

500

160 800

200

186 3,200

How greatly the proportion of very rich, rich, well-to-do, and even middle-class people among the Jews exceeds that in the general community, is here apparent. Men with incomes of over £10,000 a year are relatively more than twenty times as numerous in the Jewish community as in the country taken as a whole ; men with over £1,000 a year are nearly seventeen times as numerous ; those with over £500 are nearly six times, and those having over £200 more than four times as many as they would be in a similar body of Gentiles. The way in which wealth is distributed among Jews is curiously evident from the table given, for it will be seen that the ratio of incomes rises as the incomes rise, and the superiority of the Jew over the non-Jew is more marked in the larger amounts than in the smaller. Taking incomes in proportion to families, we get results more striking still. The number of families in the United Kingdom is jest over 7,700,000; the Jews have considerably under 10,000 families. For the United Kingdom, we get one income of £10,000 in every 2,500 families ; among Jews, one in every 100 families. The community at large has one income of over £1,000 to every 130 families ; the Jews, one to every 7 families. The United Kingdom counts one income of over £500 to every 75 families ; the Jews have one in every 12 families. The whole of the country reckons one income over 2200 for every 14 families, while the Jews can claim one in every 3 families. Again, throwing all incomes of the upper middle and higher classes together, it is found that the average amount per family per annum for the United Kingdom is £544. The Jews show the excellent average of £367 per individual, or over £1,400 per year. One of the most noteworthy things in connec- tion with these figures is the insignificant amount contributed by the Jewish working classes. In the general community, quite one-third of the entire income of the country (quite 450 millions) is derived from the labouring people. The Jewish working class shows for only £150,000 out of 23,800,000, or the absurdly small proportion of about a twenty-fourth. Looking at thie the other way, it will be found that four-fifths of the whole income of the Jewish community is held by one fifth of the members. As regards the proportion of " very wealthy " people among them, our figures show that though the Jews form only one- seven-hundred-and-fiftieth part of the general community, they claim one-thirty-fifth of the total number of big incomes, those over ten thousand pounds a year.

The figures in the second table above given represent, as we remarked, the lowest " aggregate " at which the income of the Metropolitan Jews can be reckoned. In the first place, the figures take no account of the millionaires of the community, men like the four Rothschilds and Sir Julian Goldsmid, whose in- comes are over, and a good deal over, £50,000 a year ; these alone would add another quarter of a million at least to the total. Then there are a number of Jews, like the De Worms, De Stern, Bischoffsheim, Goldschmidt, not to mention others, whose incomes are rather over than under £20,000. Then, again, the gap between £1,000 and £10,000 is a very wide one, and to class all " rich " merchants in the category of £1,000 a year, with nothing between that and £10,000, is obviously absurd. A careful examination of a number of charity-lists, and the probable house-rent paid by many included in this category, convinces us that a large number are enjoying far higher incomes; and assuming that they only vary in the same manner and proportion as in the community at large, we should be enabled to add another £500,000 to the £1,400,000 put to the credit of the " rich " Jewish merchants. And then, allowing for an increasing number of wealthy foreign Jews, who contribute nothing to the Synagogues or Jewish charities, we shall get a total income nearer five than four millions per annum, giving an average per head among the London Jews of £106, as against 235 for the whole of the United Kingdom.

The former calculation gives what is undoubtedly the lowest possible sum ; the latter, the highest probable amount at which the income of the Jews of the Metropolis can be rated. With the two extremes thus made clear, a fairly accurate notion may be obtained of the normal resources of the Anglo-Jewish community of London.