Samuel Levine Dead at 78

Samuel Levine, recognized as the dean of Jewish community center and YM-YWHA executives in North America, died here Sunday at age 78 after a brief illness. He retired as general director of the Jewish Community Centers of Chicago in 1966 after 19 years of leadership there. Prior to his last position, he had also served as executive director of Bronx House in New York, the Jewish Community Center in Detroit, the Council Educational Alliance of Cleveland and the Irene Kaufmann Center in Pittsburgh.

His professional career, spanning more than 40 years, is identified with the professionalization of Jewish community center work. He was, himself, among the first students completing study at the graduate school for Jewish Social Work and the School of Social Work at Columbia University in 1927. He received his BA in 1921 from the University of Pennsylvania.

Other professional work was at the Hebrew Orphan Asylum and Emanuel Settlement in New York City and Neighborhood Center in Philadelphia. Levine served on the consulting faculties of the School of Social Service Administration of Western Reserve University and the University of Pittsburgh School of Social Work. In Chicago he taught at the Institute for Psycho-Analysis.

Levine’s professional career was highlighted by experimentation and innovation. In Cleveland he pioneered the development of extension programs, and he attained national recognition in Chicago for the development of joint programs between the Jewish community centers and synagogues of all denominations. Community center services to the elderly, which he developed in Chicago, served as a model for such programs throughout the country.

Levine was active in many professional associations and served on the board of directors of a large number of public and private agencies and was elected to the presidency of the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service and the Association of Jewish Center Workers.