Identifer: CJF-RFC2015079

Medium
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Description
In the mid to late 1800s, a large number of Jewish immigrants entered the United States from Central and Eastern Europe.  Most settled in New York City.  They were poor and had fled from oppressive conditions in Europe, with the hope of obtaining a better life in the New World. 
                         
In the ten year period from 1880 to 1890 alone, approximately 72,000 Jewish immigrants settled in the Lower East Side of Manhattan.  They mostly resided in four and five story walk up tenement houses.  These houses were built on a portion of a 25’ x 100’ lot and had four apartments per floor.  Most of these houses had no running water, and the only toilet was either in the cellar or in an outhouse in the backyard.  The living conditions were wretched with many social and sanitary problems. 
 
In 1912 the members of a Romanian Synagogue located in Manhattan’s Lower East Side, concerned with the welfare of their elderly, established the Menorah Home for the Aged and Infirm.  It initially consisted of ten beds in a four room flat on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. 

The medallion was minted by the Klimpl Medal Company.  Not much is known about this company.  They are known to have existed as early as 1885.  By 1930, they had moved from their 13th street location to 303 4th Avenue and were advertised as makers of badges, medals and checks.
 
By 1924, when the above medallion was issued, the Menorah Home had moved to 1925 Bushwick Avenue in Brooklyn, New York.  The Federal Census in 1925 listed 43 elderly residents of the Home and 4 live-in employees, including a matron, caretaker, cook and porter. 
 
Of the 43 residents, who ranged in age from 65 to 95 years old, and 32 of whom were female and 11 were male, there were 18 residents who had emigrated from Romania, 11 from Russia, 4 from Poland, 4 from Germany, 2 from the United States, 2 from Austria, 1 from Galicia and 1 from France.  Of these residents, only 8 were citizens of the United States.
 
After 1924, the Menorah Home went through several additional moves over the succeeding years until 1950, when it established its Bushwick Avenue Division in Brooklyn, one of its two current locations.  The Menorah Home and Hospital is currently a 527 bed institution which occupies two campuses in Brooklyn, New York.  It has been so successful as an innovator in care for the elderly, the Federal government granted to it free of charge the property on which its current Manhattan Beach Division is located.