Graduate School for Jewish Social Work (New York, N.Y.)

Chartered in 1925 as Training School for Jewish Social Work, it became Graduate School for Jewish Social Work in 1932.

The National Conference of Jewish Charities in the United States was organized in 1899. It became the National Conference of Jewish Social Service in 1919/1920 and the National Conference of Jewish Social Welfare in 1937.

The Training School for Jewish Social Work (New York, NY) was founded in 1925. In 1932 the school changed its name to the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work. The school stopped accepting students in 1939, and was open only a few more years until the graduate students were able to finish their work. The GSJSW administered a master's degree in Social Work and a master's degree in Social Service. The goal of the institution was to train new social workers, give additional training to workers already in the field, and to build a library on Jewish social work and Jewish communities. The master's theses produced at this school addressed a range of issues facing Jews in America.

The GSJSW maintained committees to oversee different functions of the school. The Committee on Research was made up of members of the faculty. The Committee's role was to oversee the research projects the graduate students undertook as a requirement for their degree. The research projects were the basis for the students' master's theses. This Committee also designed rules and procedures for producing graduate level work and functioned as a board to edit the theses.

In 1932, GSJSW began a research project called the East Side Project. This project set out to document Jewish life on the Lower East Side of New York. Between 1932 and 1934, over 300 photographs were taken of the Lower East Side. The inspiration for this project came from J.B. Lightman who had been a student at the school, and later the research librarian. Lightman, a relative newcomer to New York City in 1932, was enthralled by the sights and sounds of Jews in New York. Lightman, "saw the passing of a picture of Jewish communal life, activities and endeavor," 1 and identified the historical importance of recording a community that he perceived to be changing.

References

"National Jewish Organizations." American Jewish Yearbook 40 (1939): 429-430.

Goldman, Robert S. "Acquisition Note." American Jewish Historical Quarterly 59 n.3 (1970): 371-378.

Lightman, J.B. Here, There, 'Most Everywhere: Memoirs of an International Social Worker and Educator. Montreal: J.B Lightman, 1997.

Wenger, Beth S. "Memory as Identity: The Invention of the Lower East Side." American Jewish History 85 n.1 (1997): 3-27.