Gratz remained actively
involved in the Philadelphia Orphan Asylum for more than
forty years. Deeply committed to the cause, she served not
only as secretary of the board, but was also an active
fundraiser for the organization. In addition Gratz advised on
the subject of running an orphanage, Gratz advised other
women, including her sister-in-law, Maria Gist Gratz in
Lexington, KY, on establishing their own institutions. As
a respected member of the benevolent community Gratz was
afforded special status. Kind, charitable and hard
working, she was accepted on the boards of charitable
institutions in spite of her Judaism. Gratz was
conscious of such distinctions and was put off by the
sectarianism of the asylum managers. Things came to a
head one day when Gratz's application for her friend Mrs.
Furness to adopt a child was denied. As she wrote:
“You know I promised our
friend Mrs. Furness to apply for a little girl out of
the asylum for her—well there is a good little girl I
have kept my eye on and she is ready for a place—and my
application is rejected because it is for a Unitarian—
(but ‘Ladies, said I, there are many children under
my special direction—you all know my creed—suppose I
should want to bring up one in my family?’—
‘you may have one, said a church woman—because Jews
do not think it a duty to convert.’) I am ashamed of
such an illiberal spirit.... What a pity that the best
and holiest gift of God...should be perverted into a
subject of strife.”
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