Henry Zucker, longtime executive of Cleveland federation, dies at 88

NEW YORK, July 28 (JTA) — Henry Zucker, a longtime leader in Cleveland’s Jewish community, has died at the age of 88. “Henry Zucker was one of the giants of Jewish communal service, not only of his day, but forever,” Stephen Hoffman, executive vice president of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland, said in a telephone interview this week. Zucker, who died on July 23, led the federation for nearly 30 years and remained active in Jewish communal affairs even after retiring as federation executive vice president in 1976. Born on March 11, 1910, in Cleveland, Zucker graduated from Western Reserve University — where he spent much of his senior year as an untrained caseworker at what is now the Jewish Family Services Association. “Those were horrible years, in the depth of the Depression,” Zucker told the Cleveland Jewish News in 1992. After getting his master’s degree, he joined the Cuyahoga County Relief Administration, where he rose to the position of assistant to the chief executive. He then spent 10 years at the Welfare Federation of Cleveland, serving in several executive positions. Zucker joined the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland as associate director in 1946 and two years later was named to the top professional position in the agency. Zucker led the Cleveland Jewish community’s fund-raising effort on behalf of the newly established state of Israel. He also served as a consultant for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, helping to revive Jewish communal life in 10 European countries after World War II. His work for the JDC primarily focused on the relief and rehabilitation of individual survivors and their families. Zucker’s 30 years at the federation brought about significant and lasting changes in the organization. It developed from an essentially fund-raising, budgeting and planning body to a full-fledged, service-oriented agency. “There was no limit on what could be accomplished or who got the credit for him. He brought his vision and compassion to bear on solving problems of Jewish people around the world and of those in the general community of Cleveland,” said Hoffman. His achievements proved to be significant in both the social welfare and community fields. He was able to engage more participants into the process, create and build the endowment program, strengthen the social planning capabilities, streamline the delivery of services by local agencies and develop a structure for community relations work. “Nothing is more important than human services,” Zucker said in a 1991 interview. “People have to realize that they cannot live by themselves, doing what they please, and not contribute to the health of their communities. If they don’t, we are going to suffer.” For more than 60 years, Zucker persuaded individuals to support social service institutions — as volunteers and contributors. His efforts led to the establishment of endowment funds in federations nationwide. “Federation is the American Jewish community’s answer to the age-old Jewish search for the right organization to form to meet the problems of its economic and socially needy, and to promote and enhance Jewish group values,” Zucker said in speech marking his retirement. “The Jewish component in the federation idea is the ethical concept of help to the needy, the recognition of the need for each Jew to help every other Jew and the stubborn insistence on transmitting a distinctive way of life and a value system to future generations.”