Bureau to Train Jewish Communal Workers Launched by Five National Jewish Agencies

Organization of a project to train persons for leadership in the specialized fields of Jewish community service, with George W. Rabinoff, former deputy director of UNRRA’S Welfare and Repatriation Division in London, as interim director, was announced today by H.L. Lurie, chairman of the committee of five national Jewish agencies which are launching the project. Classes for the first group of students are planned for early in the summer of 1947.

The agencies sponsoring the projects are: Council of Jewish Federation and Welfare Funds; American Joint Distribution Committee; National Jewish Welfare Board; National Community Relations Advisory Council, and American Association for Jewish Education. Associated with them on Interim Committee of School are National Conference of Jewish Social Welfare; Synagogue Council of America and Jewish Occupational Council.

The Training Bureau for Jewish Communal Service will prepare mature persons for leadership in community organization, community relations, overseas work and related programs. It will work on a post-graduate level with persons already trained and experienced in the field and will not duplicate the courses now available in the general professional social work schools.

The organization of the Training Bureau was begun on the initiative of the late Solomon Lowenstein, former executive vice-president of the New York Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. Following the closing of the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work in 1941, a special committee was crcated under the chairmanship of Kurt Peiser, executive director of the Philadelphia Federation of Jewish Charities, to determine the training needs in the field of Jewish communal work. A study made by Philip Bernstein, field director of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, revealed the major training needs and served as the basis for the program being developed.