Morris D. Waldman, a pioneer in American Jewish welfare organization work and former executive vice-president of the American Jewish Committee, died here yesterday at the age of 84. A veteran of more than 40 years in Jewish social work and community organization, he was the first proponent of putting the human rights provisions in the United Nations Charter. Funeral services will be held here today.
Born in Hungary, Dr. Waldman was brought to the United States in 1883 and studied at New York University and Columbia. After attending the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, he served briefly in the rabbinate in New Brunswick, N.J. He was managing director of the United Hebrew Charities here from 1908 to 1917, and was among the organizers of the Federation of Jewish Charities in Boston and the Jewish federations in Brooklyn and Detroit.
Mr. Waldman was European director of the medico-sanitary and war orphans department of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee in 1921 and 1922, when training programs for nurses and X-ray diagnosis were introduced under his direction into hospitals in Eastern Europe.
While serving as executive vice-president of the American Jewish Committee, from 1928 to 1945, Mr. Waldman proposed the adoption of an international bill of rights “for the protection of all human beings as such,” rather than as members of national majorities or minorities. His proposal was submitted by the Committee to the organizing conference of the United Nations in San Francisco in 1945, and it was instrumental in putting the human rights provisions into the UN Charter.
Mr. Waldman was a lay member of the executive committee of the American Jewish Committee until his death. He was the author of “Nor By Power,” a review of his years in Jewish welfare work, and “Sieg Heil,” an account of Hitler’s treatment of the Jews.
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.
