A gift of $1 million, the proceeds of a major fund-raising drive, to endow at Brandeis University a chair in national health policy, was announced here by Sol Chaikin, president of the International Ladies Garment Workers Union (ILGWU). He said the gift resulted from a combined effort of the ILGWU and its affiliated industries.
Chaikin, a member of the Brandeis Board of Trustees, for whom the new chair has been named, said health care issues are of major concern to American workers, declaring that “even with the nation’s health care investment of more than $300 billion a year, millions of unemployed or underemployed workers face financial ruin or ruined health because they cannot afford health insurance.”
The first recipient of the Chaikin Chair is Stuar Altman, dean of the Brandeis Heller Graduate School for Advanced Studies in Social Welfare. Altman was a deputy in the former federal Department of Health, Education and Welfare during the 1970’s.
Chaikin will attend a formal installation program for Altman at the university September 14. A symposium will discuss the health problems of an estimated 21 to 27 million Americans lacking private or publicly financed health coverage, including jobless workers and their families who represent about a quarter of the Americans lacking health coverage.
A growing number of Jewish Federations and affiliated social welfare agencies are seeking to help jobless Jewish families cope with loss of health coverage but such help is limited by the funds available to such Jewish service agencies.
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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.