Herman D. Stein

Herman David Stein (born 1917 in New York City , † October 2, 2009 in Shaker Heights , Cleveland Ohio ) was an American social scientist .

biography

Herman Stein came from a Jewish family in New York City and often spent his school holidays in the famous Borscht Belts in the Catskill Mountains , where he staged plays with Danny Kaye . Since his fiancée did not want to marry an actor, however, he decided to study social sciences like his brother Joseph Stein . However, Joseph Stein later discovered his fondness for the theater and was, among other things, the author of the musical " Anatevka " and other musicals.

Herman Stein began studying at the Jewish Theological Seminary in 1935, graduating in 1939 with a Bachelor of Science (B.Sc.) in social sciences. He then completed postgraduate studies at the Faculty of Social Work at Columbia University , where he received a Master of Science (M.Sc.) degree in 1941 . He then worked for the Jewish Family Service in New York.

He then worked at Columbia University and for three years at the American-Jewish Exchange Committee ( Joint Distribution Committee ) in Paris , where he organized social programs for survivors of the Holocaust and other war refugees in Europe as welfare director at the end of the 1940s . During this time he was also involved in founding the Paul Baerwald School for Social Work in Versailles .

After receiving a doctorate in social work in 1958 , he became director of the Social Work Research Center at Columbia University in 1959. During this time he was also an employee of the planning commission of Tanganyika , which had obtained its independence in December 1961. In addition, he was temporarily advisor to the Executive Director of UNICEF , Maurice Pate .

In 1964 he moved to Case Western Reserve University (CWRU) in Cleveland , where he was appointed Dean of the School of Applied Social Sciences. In 1969 he first became provost of the CWRU and as such played a key role in ensuring that peace and order was maintained on the university campus during the student protests against the Vietnam War . At the same time he was also appointed by Carl Stokes , the mayor of Cleveland, to chair a commission dealing with urban poverty and the welfare crisis .

Stein was named President of the CWRU in 1970. In 1972 he was finally appointed university professor there, the highest office that university faculties can confer. This appointment enabled him to teach and research without restrictions. At the beginning of the 1970s he was again active as an advisor to UNICEF and led social welfare missions in more than 25 countries in the third world .

In 1990 he retired as a university lecturer.

He was also temporarily President of the International Association of Schools of Social Work and the Council for the Teaching of Social Work in the United States and Canada .

For his services in social work, he was the second American to be honored with the "René Sand Prize", the highest award of the International Council for Social Welfare. In 1998 he was inducted into the Hall of Honor of the Columbia University Faculty of Social Work.

Web links

• CLEVELAND.COM: "Herman D. Stein, Case Western provost, social work leader"