Paul Baerwald School

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The Paul Baerwald School , named after Paul Baerwald , the co-founder and long-time chairman of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ( JDC ), was founded in 1949 as the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work in Versailles to train Jewish social workers who were post-war Jews in Europe , North Africa and Palestine. After a temporary closure in 1954, the school was re-established in 1958 as the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem .

Founding and founder

The background for the establishment of the Paul Baerwald School was the large number of Holocaust survivors and other displaced persons in Europe for whom there was no or only inadequate support through adequate social assistance programs. In addition, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee ( JDC ) wanted professional support in rebuilding Jewish communities by appropriately trained social workers.

The driving forces behind the establishment of a suitable training center in Europe included Herman D. Stein , the JDC's first director of social assistance , and Philip Klein , professor at the New York School of Social Work (now the Columbia University School of Social Work ) and advisor to JDC . The joint training by and their activities for the New York School of Social Work shaped their understanding of social work, and according to Laura Hobson Faure “the Paul Baerwald School could almost be seen as the European satellite of this institution”.

The training center was officially opened in October 1949. Léon Blum and Guy de Rothschild spoke at the opening ceremony . Henry Selver, who was appointed director, was assisted by a team of six American teachers. The facility “was designed to train a cadre of Jewish social workers for service in the Jewish communities of Europe and North Africa, as well as in the newly established State of Israel. The school, described as "the first American-type social work school in Europe", taught a largely female student body in methods of individual care and in modern psychological theories about human growth and development. All students were required to take a course in 'Psychological Concepts Underlying Social Welfare'. The choice of a focus in childcare and institution management led to further courses in child psychology. "

As research director of the Paul Baerwald School, Philip Klein “pointed out the importance of American methods of social work overseas. In contrast to European systems of social security, pensions and occupational welfare, Klein explained that American social work focuses on individual adjustment and on 'techniques to make the services offered to individuals and families effective and efficient'. Paul Baerwald School graduates who would be trained in American social work would be able to provide the Jewish communities in Europe and elsewhere with the individual help they need. "

Also for the recruitment of staff of the Paul Baerwald School who played New York School of Social Work an important role. Philip Klein and Herman Stein looked for people with experience in American social work and used their contacts at the New York School of Social Work to recruit teachers from there. The first employees they recruited were:

  • Henry Selver , who was appointed principal of the school.
  • Fred (Friedrich) brick foliage. He came from a Jewish family in Worms and studied medicine from 1927 to 1933 first in Heidelberg and then in Frankfurt at the Institute for Social Research Psychoanalysis. In 1933, after a collision with National Socialist students, he was in hospital, after which he went underground. He emigrated illegally to France in May 1933, where he married Dora Schpiro (born in 1908 in Igstadt / Hessen) in 1934. With her he emigrated to the USA in 1935.
    After a difficult start, he became a welfare officer and probation officer in 1939 and then quickly rose to managerial positions. At the Paul Baerwald School he was deputy director, later director of the Joint Distribution Committee in Frankfurt am Main. “As a representative of this organization, Fred Ziegellaub spoke on September 27, 1959 in Worms at the laying of the foundation stone for the subsequently rebuilt synagogue in Worms. [..] Fred Ziegellaub died on September 8, 1973 in New York. ".
  • Freda Goldschmied, a Detroit social worker who taught at Tulane University . In later years she taught at l'École de service social in Lille .
  • Edith Schulhofer (1900–2001), of German-Jewish descent and came to the USA as a refugee, had also taught at Tulane University. “Shulhofer, born in Nuremberg in 1900, studied law at the University of Munich and was admitted as the first female lawyer in Nuremberg on October 28, 1928. She recognized as early as 1933 that her and her family's existence in Nazi Germany was threatened. After losing her right to practice, she fled the Nazis and emigrated to Lyon, France, where she worked as a teacher. After saving her mother from the Holocaust in 1939, she managed to emigrate to the United States, where she received her MSW [Master in Social Work] from Columbia University and graduated in 1943. After the war ended, she returned to France to work with Holocaust survivors until 1950. ”After her time at the Paul Baerwald School , Schulhofer returned to Tulane University, where she taught until shortly before her death.
  • Shirley Hellenbrand ended her career as a professor emeritus at Columbia University . She is the author of numerous books on social work. Laura Hobson Faure reports in detail on Hellenbrand's activities after the Paul Bearwald School ( EPB ) was closed: “Shirley Hellenbrand, on the other hand, remains in France in order to maintain close collaboration with the Jewish social services in Paris. During the 1953-1954 school year she worked with Cojasor and the SSJ. In addition, she leads a seminar for the department heads of the most important social services and is in contact with the Charity Committee, the OSA, the Œuvre de protection des enfants juifs (OPEJ) and the Union des étudiants juifs de France. During the school year 1954–1955 she trained the Charity Committee, which consisted of 8 participants. Despite this already busy schedule, she organizes another training course on child placement with 11 employees from OSA, OPEJ, Colonie scolaire and FSJU and continues to work with 9 department heads, many of whom attended her seminar last year. [..] Shirley Hellenbrand worked with Jewish institutions in Paris until she returned to the United States in 1956. Although the joint tried to replace her, it appears that her departure has finally ended the interaction between the EPB and the French Jewish welfare authorities. “The organizations mentioned are Jewish aid organizations in France.
  • Janet Siebold, a Minnesota social worker who worked for the Central British Fund for Jewish Relief . In the 1950s she worked for a Jewish aid organization in Morocco ("Janet Siebold, the head of social services of OSE Casablanca").
  • Libby Meyer, a social worker from Ohio and already an employee of the JDC office in France, was entrusted with the supervision of internships.

“With the exception of one teacher, the first full-time teachers were all Jewish; half were born in the United States, half in Germany, and all but one were women. [..] In addition to these full-time teachers, a few French (of all faiths) and several American employees of the Joint are hired to teach certain subjects. "

Laura Hobson Faure reports on four doctorates that took place during the Versailles years and of around 120 graduates in total, including around a dozen French. She points out that the school was also important for France as a training center because it also offered training courses for Jewish social workers and teachers. “And when the Paul Baerwald School closed its doors in 1953, contacts between its former teachers and Jewish social institutions increased [..] In fact, Henry Selver, director of the Paul Baerwald School , estimated in 1955 that there were about forty social workers in Jewish institutions in Paris twenty-three of whom had no formal social work training. Above all, the training courses try to harmonize skills and further promote the development of a new professional identity among the employees of French-Jewish social institutions. "

Closure and re-establishment in Jerusalem

Fieldston writes that in 1951 the school expanded its scope to include crash courses in American welfare techniques in Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, Tunisia and Morocco. According to Laura Hobson Faure, this seems to have been an anticipation of the time after the school closed in 1953, because after the temporary shutdown, the teachers continued to offer training in the Jewish communities of Europe and North Africa until the end of the 1950s ". "This last chapter of European school life was particularly important for the reform of social practices in France."

The end of the school came as no surprise after Faure: “The school has always been considered provisional. Israel, which had sent students to the school and offered its graduates work opportunities, represented a possible future for the school and negotiations were opened in 1950 to get them there. ”Busemann does not speak of the school's temporary nature, but of that it was designed as an experiment from the start and the JDC wanted to evaluate its performance with its closure. However, neither Faure nor Busemann provide any information about the reasons for the provisional nature or the experimental nature of the school.

Sara Fieldston points out that different understandings of social work could possibly have been decisive for the closure and evaluation of the school. The individualized character of American social work was in contradiction to the European tradition of universal, state-supported social programs, and not infrequently to the local conditions. “Even the Europeans who opted for casework training found that the large number of cases, the lack of resources of the local authorities and the dismissive attitudes of their colleagues made it difficult to put their training into practice. In letters to their former teachers, graduates of the Paul Baewald School who had gone to work in Israel stated that the overwhelming social needs in the still young state often made case processing impossible. Alumnus Peter Melvyn described a skeptical Israeli colleague who had tried to get another graduate of the Paul Baerwald School to admit that 'all of this case work we've learned is actually pretty useless for the work here'. But even with too many clients for individual case treatment, Melvyn reported, his colleagues would have found that the 'basic attitude' they had acquired through casework training was useful for them in their work. "

In another context, Laura Hobson Faure reports that the absence of Eastern European students due to the Iron Curtain could have been a reason for closure and quotes a representative from JDC who thought that the school was two or three years too late for Europe was founded. As a result, Israel, which had sent trainees to the Paul Baerwald School and gave the school's graduates the opportunity to work in Israel, became a possible future option for the school.

The fact that the Israel option has been considered since late 1951 / early 1952 at the latest can be seen from a memorandum by Selvers dated June 29, 1952. It states: “In August 1951, the Israeli Ministry of Social Welfare officially demanded that the American Joint Distribution Committee Considering transfer of Paul Baerwald School of Social Work in Versailles, France to Israel. [..] The relevant Israeli authorities have proposed setting up the school in Haifa as a special institute that could train some of the social services staff that is urgently needed in the country. ”On January 28, 1952, however, Selver had“ Mr. Charles Passman, AJDC, TEL-AVIV "informed that the transfer was not yet due for the time being:

“I was recently invited to New York to talk about the future of the Paul Bearwald School. There was a very extensive discussion about the proposal to move the school to Israel. Although no positive decision has been taken at this point, the subject is far from closed and I expect to be in touch with you again in the near future to see how best to review and transform this proposal into one the most intelligent result possible.
In the meantime, however, it was definitely decided that the school would continue for a fourth year, from October 1952 to September 1953. "

In the following period there was an extensive exchange of correspondence regarding the relocation of the school to Israel. However, this only became a reality in 1958, albeit in the form of a new establishment, and not, as originally thought, in Haifa, but in Jerusalem. The school was re-established as The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare with the support of JDC , the Israeli Ministry of Social Affairs and the City of Tel Aviv. The school's website states: “The establishment of the school and its activities reflect the joint efforts of the Hebrew University and JDC to promote education and research in social work in Israel. JDC provided initial funding for the school and the construction of the school's original building on the Edmond J. Safra Campus (Givat Ram) of the Hebrew University, where the school was working before moving to its current location on Mount Scopus . Over the years, the JDC has continued to support the school's activities. ”The school's website does not tell you anything about the history of the school in Versailles.

From 1957 to 1962 Eileen A. Blakey (1902–1979) was the first dean of the new Baerwald School : “Eileen A. Blackey was a social worker, educator and international consultant. She designed a groundbreaking emergency responders workforce development program in the 1930s, worked with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration during World War II , and then directed workforce development for the US Veterans Administration's Social Services division . As an educator, she organized and was the first dean of the Baerwald School of Social Work at the Hebrew University in Israel, advised internationally on the development of social work education and was dean of the School of Social Welfare at the University of California in Los Angeles from 1963 to 1968. “ Israel Katz , who served until 1968, followed her as the first Israeli dean .

swell

literature

  • Sara Fieldston: Raising the World. Child Welfare in the American Century , 2015, ISBN 978-0-674-36809-5 . The passages relating to the Paul Baerwald School can be viewed online: Sara Fieldston & Paul Baerwald School on Google Books .
  • Hertha Luise Busemann: The headmaster - Heinrich Selver , in: Hertha Luise Busemann, Michael Daxner, Werner Fölling: Island of security. The private forest school Kaliski 1932 to 1939 , Verlag JB Metzler, Stuttgart / Weimar 1992, ISBN 3-476-00845-2 , pp. 127-199.

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Philip Klein on jewishvirtuallibrary.org
  2. ↑ Laura Hobson Faure: Un "plan Marshal juif"
  3. ↑ NEW SCHOOL FOR EUROPE; Joint Distribution Committee to Teach Social Workers , THE NEW YORK TIMES, OCT. 7, 1949
  4. ↑ Irmi Selver: My Memoirs , p. 33
  5. ^ Sara Fieldston: Raising the World , no pagination. "Staffed by a team of six American instructors, the school was designed to train a cadre of Jewish social workers for service in the Jewish communities of Europe and North Africa and in the newly established state of Israel. Described as “the first American-type social work school in Europe,” the school instructed a largely female student body in casework methods and in modern psychological theories of human growth and development. All students were required to complete a course in "psychological concepts underlying social service," and students choosing a focus in child care and institutional management completed further courses in child psychology. "
  6. ^ Sara Fieldston: Raising the World , no pagination. "Philip Klein, a professor at the Columbia University School of Social Work who served as the Paul Baerwald School's director of research, argued for the relevance of American-style social work methods overseas. In contrast to European systems of social insurance, pensions, and industrial welfare services, Klein explained, American social work centered on individual adjustment and on "techniques for making the services offered to individuals and families effective and efficient." Trained in American-style social work, graduates of the Paul Baerwald School would be equipped to offer the Jewish communities in Europe and elsewhere the personalized services of which they were in need. "
  7. ↑ The following persons come from the two publications by Laura Hobson Faure
  8. ↑ Irmi Selver: My Memoirs , New York, 1989, p. 33 (accessible online in the Center for Jewish History Digital Collections )
  9. ^ Worms Jews: The Ziegellaub family . Extensive material on Fred Ziegellaub is in the Archives of the Joint Distribution Committee .
  10. ↑ Laura Hobson Faure: Le travail social dans les organizations juives françaises après la Shoah , p. 56
  11. ^ The National Association of Social Workers Foundation is pleased to present the NASW Social Work Pioneers to our members and others on the Web: Edith Schulhofer
  12. ↑ Books by Shirley Hellenbrand in WorldCat
  13. ↑ Laura Hobson Faure: Le travail social dans les organizations juives françaises après la Shoah , p. 52. “Shirley Hellenbrand, quant à elle, reste en France pour maintenir une collaboration étroite avec les services sociaux juifs à Paris. Pendant l'année scolaire 1953–1954, elle travaille avec le Cojasor et le SSJ. De plus, dirigeant un séminaire pour les chefs de service des œuvres sociales les plus importantes, elle est en contact avec le Comité de bienfaisance, l'OSE, l'Œuvre de protection des enfants juifs (OPEJ) et l'Union des étudiants juifs de France. Lors de l'année scolaire 1954–1955, elle dispense une formation au Comité de bienfaisance, laquelle attire 8 participants. Malgré cet emploi du temps déjà chargé, elle organise une autre formation sur le placement des enfants à laquelle participent 11 membres du personnel de l'OSE, de l'OPEJ, de la Colonie scolaire et du FSJU et continue de travailler avec 9 chefs de service, dont beaucoup avaient suivi son séminaire l'année précédente. [..] Shirley Hellenbrand collabore avec les institutions juives parisiennes jusqu'à son retour aux États-Unis en 1956. Bien que le Joint ait cherché à la remplacer, il semble que son départ ait mis définitivement fin à l'interaction entre l ' EPB et les agences d'aide sociale juives françaises. "
  14. ↑ Anat Mooreville: Oculists in the Orient: A History of Trachoma, Zionism, and Global Health, 1882–1973 , UCLA Electronic Theses and Dissertations, 2015. For the meaning of the OSE, see: Guide to the OSE Photograph Collection 1937–1962
  15. ↑ Laura Hobson Faure: Le travail social dans les organizations juives françaises après la Shoah , p. 21. “À l'exception d'un professeur, les premiers enseignants à plein temps sont tous juifs; ils sont pour moitié nés aux États-Unis, l'autre moitié venant d'Allemagne, et tous, sauf un, sont des femmes. [..] Outre ces enseignants à plein temps, on engage quelques Français (de toutes confessions) et plusieurs employés américains du Joint pour enseigner des sujets spécifiques. "
  16. ↑ Laura Hobson Faure: Le travail social dans les organizations juives françaises après la Shoah , p. 22
  17. ↑ Laura Hobson Faure: Le travail social dans les organizations juives françaises après la Shoah , p. 25. “Et lorsque l'EPB ferme ses portes en 1953, les contacts entre ses anciens enseignants et les institutions d'aide sociale juive, loin de disparaître, s'intensifient. En effet, en 1955, Henry Selver, directeur de l'EPB, estime qu'il ya une quarantaine d'assistantes sociales dans les agences juives parisiennes, dont vingt-trois sans aucune formation officielle dans le travail social. Les formations tentent surtout d'harmoniser les compétences, favoritant davantage encore l'émergence d'une nouvelle identité professionnelle parmi les employés des organizations d'aide sociale juives françaises. "
  18. ^ Sara Fieldston: Raising the World , no pagination.
  19. ↑ Laura Hobson Faure: Le travail social dans les organizations juives françaises après la Shoah , p. 44
  20. ↑ Laura Hobson Faure: Un "plan Marshal juif" . "Ce dernier chapitre de la vie européenne de l'École fut particulièrement important pour la réforrne des pratiques sociales en France."
  21. ↑ Laura Hobson Faure: Le travail social dans les organizations juives françaises après la Shoah , p. 51
  22. ↑ Hertha Luise Busemann: The headmaster - Heinrich Selver , p. 199
  23. ^ Sara Fieldston: Raising the World , no pagination. "Even those Europeans who embraced casework training found that large caseloads, local agencies' lack of resources, and the dismissive attitudes of colleagues made it difficult to put their training into practice. In letters written to their former professors, Paul Baerwald School graduates who went to work in Israel noted that the overwhelming social needs in the fledgling state often made the practice of casework impossible. Alumnus Peter Melvyn described a skeptical Israeli colleague who tried to get a fellow Paul Baerwald School graduate to admit that 'all this' casework 'we learned was really pretty useless for the work here.' But even with too many clients to deliver individualized casework treatment, Melvyn reported, his peers found that the 'basic attitude' they acquired through casework training was useful to them in their work. "
  24. ↑ Laura Hobson Faure: Un "plan Marshal juif"
  25. ^ Archives of the Joint Distribution Committee : Tentative Program of a JDC Sponsored institute for advanced training in social work in Israel, Item ID: 2669960. "The Israeli Ministry of Social Welfare, in August 1951, reqzuested officially that the American Joint Distribution Committee consider the transfer to Israel of the Paul Baerwald School of Social Work in Versailles, France. [..] The competent Israeli Authorities have suggested that the school be established in Haifa as a special institute which could train some of the social services personnel that is must urgently needed in the country. "
  26. ^ Archives of the Joint Distribution Committee : Letter from Henry Selver to Mr. Charles Passman, Item ID: 2669852. I was recently called to New York for a consultation about the future of the Paul Bearwald School. There was very full discussion of the proposal that the School be transferred to Israel. Though no affirmative decision was reached at this stage, the subject is far from closed and I expect in fact that in the very near future we shall be in touch with you again to consider the best way of making a thorough examination of this proposal and reaching the most intelligent conclusion about it.
    In the meantime, however, it was definitely decided that the School should continue for a fourth year - that is, from October 1952 to September 1953. Charles Passman headed the Joint Distribution Committee - Malben, which was founded during World War II, to set up homes and hospitals for the elderly and the infirm (     JEWISH TELEGRAPHIC ACENCY: Charles Passman Dies at 83 ; for Malben organization see: Jewish Virtual Library: Malben )
  27. ↑ Henry Selver gave a first, very detailed overview of the aspects connected with the transfer of the school in a report on July 1, 1952: Archives of the Joint Distribution Committee : Project of Moving the Paul Baerwald School of social work to Israel, Item ID 2669938.
  28. ^ History of the Paul Baerwald School (Jerusalem) . "The establishment of the school and its activities reflect the joint efforts of the Hebrew University and the JDC to further social work education and research in Israel. The JDC provided the initial funding for the school and for the construction of the school's original building on the Edmond J. Safra (Givat Ram) campus of the Hebrew University, where the school operated prior to moving to its current location on Mt Scopus. Over the years, the JDC has continued to support the school's activities. "
  29. ^ NASW Foundation (2004): Eileen A. Blackey (1902–1979) - Social worker, educator and administrator. Social Welfare History Project. "Eileen A. Blackey was a social work practitioner, educator, and international consultant. She designed a pioneering in-service staff development program for emergency relief workers during the 1930s, worked with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration during World War II, and then directed staff development for the US Veterans Administration's Social Service Division. As an educator she organized and was the first dean at the Baerwald School of Social Work at Hebrew University in Israel, consulted internationally in the development of social work education, and served as dean at the School of Social Welfare at the University of California at Los Angeles from 1963 to 1968. "
  30. ^ The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare: Former school Deans .