Harold Silver papers

Harold Silver (b. 1900)



Harold Silver was born on May 18, 1900 to Anchel and Rebecca (Raginsky) Silver in Kliusi, Russia. At the age of 11, Silver was forced to leave school to help support his family. In 1913, the family immigrated to the United States. The experience of having to work as a young boy had a profound impact on Silver. Harold was not only amazed that education in America was not only free, but compulsory. He soon dedicated himself to a life of social work, looking out for the public welfare of poor children, the elderly, and immigrants.

Silver received his Ph.D. from the University of Chicago in 1922, and his Masters in Social Service in 1934 from the newly founded Graduate School for Jewish Social Workers. Before receiving his Masters, Silver was very active in social service. He began his career as a staff member of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research in New York in 1926, and by 1927, he had become department head of the Jewish Welfare Society of Philadelphia, and associate editor of the Jewish Social Service Quarterly. In 1930, he began work for the United Jewish Society Agencies in Cincinnati, OH.

After earning his masters degree, Silver became executive director of the Jewish Society Service Bureau (JSSB), a post which he held until he made aliyah in 1963.

Over his 30 years of service in the Detroit area, Silver transformed the JSSB into Jewish Family & Children Services (JFCS), was chairman of the American Association of Social Worker's Detroit chapter (1934-1935), taught at Wayne University in Detroit, helped found the National Association of Social Workers in 1955, and gained an amiable reputation as the "dean of social work." Beginning his work at a time when there was no social security for the elderly or welfare for the poor, he was a pioneer in developing services for children, the aged, and newcomers to the United States.

In 1963, when most people his age were retiring, Silver resigned from the JFCS, settled in Jerusalem, and took up a two-year position as consultant for the Israeli Ministry of Social Welfare, touring the country, advising how the newly founded state could cope with the great influx of Jewish refugees. In 1966, Silver became a faculty member of Hebrew University in Israel.