Louis Caplan, president of the American Jewish Committee in 1961-62, died yesterday at the age of 92 in Pittsburgh where he resided. A lawyer and leader of the Pittsburgh Jewish community, Caplan was a member of the AJCommittee since 1939 and served on its board of directors after having been president.
He was an honorary life member of the board of trustees of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion since 1969 having served on the board for the 20 years previous to that. He was president of the Pittsburgh United Jewish Federation in 1956-58.
Awards established in his honor included the Louis Caplan Human Relations Award given annually to a high school student for contributions toward human understanding, the Louis Caplan Distinguished Lectures in Jewish Law series at the University of Pittsburgh and the AJCommittee’s Louis Caplan Center of Group Identity and Mental Health.
Born in Oil City, Pa., he was left an orphan at the age of six when his parents were killed in a flood. He was placed in a Hebrew orphanage in Pittsburgh for 10 years. After two years of high school, he entered the University of Pittsburgh Law School in 1909 and received his degree in 1912. The university gave him an honorary doctor of laws degree in 1966.
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The Archive of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency includes articles published from 1923 to 2008. Archive stories reflect the journalistic standards and practices of the time they were published.
