Guide to the Papers of George W. Rabinoff (1893-1970), undated, 1912-1971
 
*P-58

Processed by Marvin Rusinek

American Jewish Historical Society

Center for Jewish History

15 West 16^th Street

New York, N.Y. 10011

Phone: (212) 294-6160

Fax: (212) 294-6161

Email: reference@ajhs.org

URL: http://www.ajhs.org

© 2018, American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY. All Rights Reserved.

Machine-readable finding aid created by Marvin Rusinek as MS Word document, July 2009. Finding aid was encoded by Marvin Rusinek on July 27, 2009. Description is in English.

Biographical Note¹

George W. Rabinoff (1893-1970)

George W. Rabinoff was an internationally known social work executive and educator as well as the first executive director of the Jewish Family Service of Greater Hartford. Rabinoff graduated from the City College of New York and entered social work in 1914. After completing his studies at the New York School of Social Work, he worked at the United Jewish Charities in Hartford.

Rabinoff was one of the first professionally trained social workers in the country and played a prominent role in the national development of Jewish federations and welfare funds. During his social work career, Rabinoff founded and served for 15 years as the executive director of the Bureau of Social Research, as well as the associate executive director of its successor agency, the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds (CJFWF), now the national association of Jewish Federations of the United States and Canada.

As associate director of the Bureau for Jewish Social Research, George W. Rabinoff had a major responsibility for the establishment of the Council and served as its Executive Director from 1932 to 1935. When the Bureau for Jewish Social Research merged under the CJFWF, Rabinoff became the Council's Associate Executive Director, a position he served in until 1943.

Rabinoff brought to the Council the insights he gained from his service in the Federations of Cincinnati, Indianapolis and Hartford. After leaving the CJFWF he continued his leadership with distinction as Acting Executive Director of the Chicago Jewish Federation, and with the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA) in Europe. Rabinoff was also the Director of the Training Bureau for Jewish Communal Service (1947-1951), the Associate Executive Director of the National Social Welfare Assembly, a Fulbright scholar, teacher and consultant in Australia and he directed the social services of the New York City Housing Authority (NYCHA). He retired from NYCHA in 1967.

According to a document of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, he was one of the nation's outstanding leaders in Jewish communal service and in social welfare generally. To all of the multiplicity of responsibilities he carried, he brought a most creative imagination and innovation, a ceaseless discontent with the status quo, standards of the highest excellence - and with these professional qualities, a personal warmth and friendship which made him a delightful and inspiring friend and companion.²

GWR died at age 77, incapacitated by arteriosclerosis. He was survived by his wife, Jennie, and by two daughters.

¹ Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, Inc. George W. Rabinoff Collection, P-58, Box 8, Folder 4.

² ibid

Scope and Content Note

Contains correspondence, reports, and other material relating to his work with the Jewish welfare federations of Indianapolis, Cincinnati, and Chicago, and as a field representative of the Jewish Welfare Board in Texas during the First World War. Also includes correspondence, etc., from the professional social work groups which he served in various capacities. Of these the largest volume of materials relates to the National Social Welfare Assembly of which he was the Assistant Director, and the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service of which he was the director of the New York Training Bureau. Includes extensive material on the Australian Jewish Community, where he served as a Fulbright Lecturer in the Dept. of Social Studies of the University of Queensland in 1962, and as a consultant to the Australian National Red Cross. Contains also diaries, speeches, published material, reports, and general correspondence.

The papers are valuable to researchers studying the following aspects of Jewish history: Jewish charities, Jewish communal service, Jewish federations, Jewish social welfare, Jewish soldiers, and World War I.

Types of material include: addresses, announcements, annual reports, articles, brochures, bulletins, correspondence, diaries, drafts, handwritten notes, itineraries, lecture notes, meeting minutes, memorandums, newsletters, newspaper clippings, notes, notebooks, obituaries, outlines, pamphlets, photographs, programs, publications, reports, resolutions, scrapbooks, sermon outlines, speeches, and tributes.

The collection is in English.

Arrangement

The collection is divided into six series as follows:

• Series I: Social Work Career, undated, 1913-1921, 1922, 1924-1930, 1932, 1936-1938, 1940-1942, 1944-1945, 1948-1949, 1951-1969
• Series II: Correspondence, undated, 1912-1928, 1943-1953, 1956-1970
• Series III: National Social Welfare Assembly (NSWA), 1950-1961, 1968
• Series IV: Australian Trip, 1962-1963
• Series V: GWR Biographical information, notebooks and tributes, undated, 1913-1914, 1958, 1961, 1969-1971
• Series VI: Diaries, 1946-1969

Access and Use

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society, except items that are restricted due to their fragility.

Use Restrictions

Information concerning the literary rights may be obtained from the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society. Users must apply in writing for permission to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection. For more information contact:
American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY, 10011
email: reference@ajhs.org

Related Material

National Jewish Welfare Board (I-337)

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); George W. Rabinoff, papers; P-58; box number; folder number; American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY, and Boston, MA.

Acquisition Information

Gift of Mr. George W. Rabinoff, 1968-1970 and Jennie Rabinoff, 1971.

Access Points

• Subject Topics:

  • European War, 1914-1918 -- Jews.
  • Social service.
  • Soldiers, Jews.

• Subject Places:

  • Australia.
  • Chicago (Ill.)
  • Cincinnati (Ohio).
  • Indianapolis (Ind.)
  • Texas.

• Subject Organizations:

  • National Social Welfare Assembly.
  • Bureau of Jewish Social Research.
  • International Conference of Social Work (U.S.). Committee.
  • National Conference of Jewish Communal Service (U.S.)
  • National Jewish Welfare Board.
  • Red Cross. Australia.

• Document types:

  • Addresses
  • Announcements
  • Annual reports
  • Articles
  • Brochures
  • Bulletins
  • Correspondence
  • Diaries
  • Drafts
  • Handwritten notes
  • Itineraries
  • Lecture notes
  • Meeting minutes
  • Memorandums
  • Newsletters
  • Newspaper clippings
  • Notebooks
  • Notes
  • Obituaries
  • Outlines
  • Pamphlets
  • Photographs
  • Programs
  • Publications
  • Reports
  • Resolutions
  • Scrapbooks
  • Sermon outlines
  • Speeches
  • Tributes

Container List

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Click the box in the request column to open the form that allows you to request a box for onsite viewing in the reading room at the Center for Jewish History, New York, NY.

Series I: Social Work Career, undated, 1913-1921, 1922, 1924-1930, 1932, 1936-1938, 1940-1942, 1944-1945, 1948-1949, 1951-1969
English.
Boxes 1-3.
Scope and Content: Series I documents Rabinoff's involvement with various social work organizations and charities. The series consists of addresses, announcements, annual reports, articles, brochures, bulletins, correspondence, drafts, lecture notes, meeting minutes, memorandums, newsletters, newspaper clippings, notes, outlines, pamphlets, photographs, programs, reports, resolutions, scrapbooks, sermon outlines, and speeches. Box 1, Folder 1 entails Rabinoff's involvement with the Jewish Welfare Board. Box 1, Folders 2-4 pertain to Rabinoff's participation in Jewish social welfare associations in Indianapolis such as the Jewish Welfare Federation, Jewish Community Centre, and the Jewish Federation of Indianapolis. Box 1, Folder 5 contains materials relating to the Bureau of Jewish Social Research. Box 1, Folder 6 is composed of documents related to Rabinoff's involvement with the Jewish Welfare Federation in Cincinnati. Box 1, Folder 7 contains material relating to his association with the Jewish Charities of Chicago. Box 2, Folders 1-2 include speeches by Rabinoff. Box 2, Folder 3 contains a scrapbook of newspaper items of interest related to charities. Box 2, Folder 4 and 5 consists of reports and printed material. Box 2, Folders 6 and 7 consists primarily of Rabinoff's correspondence with the National Conference of Jewish Communal Service. Box 2, Folder 8 contains general files on his relevance to Jewish social work. Box 3, Folders 1 and 2 contains material on the Australian Jewish community. Box 3, Folders 3 and 4 include information on Rabinoff's involvement with the Council on Social Work Education. Box 3, Folder 5 deals with his participation with the Committee on the History of Social Welfare. Box 3, Folder 6 consists of information pertaining to his involvement with the National Conference on Social Work.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
1	1	Jewish Welfare Board	1917-1919
1	2	Indianapolis: Jewish Welfare Federation	1922, 1924-1928
1	3	Indianapolis: Jewish Community Centre (contains photographs)	1926-1928, 1932, 1964
1	4	Jewish Federation of Indianapolis: Annual Reports, Miscellaneous	1924-1928
1	5	Bureau of Jewish Social Research	1928-1929
1	6	Cincinnati: Jewish Welfare Federation	1920-1921
1	7	Jewish Charities of Chicago	1942, 1944-1945
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
2	1	Speeches (1 of 2)	1927, 1932, 1936, 1938, 1944-1945, 1951-1956
2	2	Speeches (2 of 2)	1957-1961, 1968
2	3	Scrapbook on Charities: Newspapers Items of Interest	1913
2	4	Reports and Printed Material (1 of 2)	1926, 1930, 1932, 1940-1941, 1945, 1949, 1951-1952, 1954-1956
2	5	Reports and Printed Material (2 of 2)	1957, 1959, 1961-1963, 1967-1968
2	6	National Conference of Jewish Communal Service (1 of 2)	1957-1960, 1963
2	7	National Conference of Jewish Communal Service (2 of 2)	1964-1967
2	8	Jewish Social Work - General	undated, 1912, 1945-1946, 1948-1950, 1957, 1960, 1967
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
3	1	Material on Australian Jewish Community (1 of 2)	1961-1965
3	2	Material on Australian Jewish Community (2 of 2)	1966-1969
3	3	Social Work - General - Council on Social Work Education (1 of 2)	1963, 1965-1966
3	4	Social Work - General - Council on Social Work Education (2 of 2)	1967-1968
3	5	Social Work - General - Committee on the History of Social Welfare	1959
3	6	National Conference on Social Work	undated, 1925, 1937, 1940-1941
3	7	Social Work - General - Miscellaneous	undated, 1914-1917, 1928, 1938, 1941, 1948, 1963

Series II: Correspondence, undated, 1912-1928, 1943-1953, 1956-1970
English.
Boxes 4-6.
Arrangement: Chronological.
Scope and Content: Series II consists mainly of correspondence related to the various organizations that Rabinoff was involved with. The bulk of the correspondence is with the Jewish Welfare Board which is interspersed among the correspondence of other Jewish social welfare organizations and federations.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
4	1	Correspondence	1912-1913
4	2	Correspondence	1914-1917
4	3	Correspondence	1918
4	4	Correspondence	1919-1921
4	5	Correspondence	1922
4	6	Correspondence	1923
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
5	1	Correspondence	1924
5	2	Correspondence	1925
5	3	Correspondence	1926
5	4	Correspondence	1927
5	5	Correspondence	undated, 1928
5	6	Correspondence	1943-1944
5	7	Correspondence	1945-1950
5	8	Correspondence	1951-1953, 1956
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
6	1	Correspondence	1957-1962
6	2	Correspondence	January-June 1963
6	3	Correspondence	July-December 1963
6	4	Correspondence	1964-1965
6	5	Correspondence	1966-1970

Series III: National Social Welfare Assembly (NSWA), 1950-1961, 1968
English.
Box 7.
Scope and Content: Types of material that can be found in this series include: annual reports, correspondence, meeting minutes, memorandums, newsletters, publications, reports, and tributes. Box 7, Folder 1 is composed of reports and publications of the NSWA. Box 7, Folder 2 consists of annual reports of the NSWA. Box 7, Folder 3 contains The Assembly Letter, the NSWA's monthly newsletter. An organizational chart as well as staff meeting minutes can be found in Box 7, Folder 4. Box 7, Folders 5 and 6 are composed of monthly and annual activity reports of the NSWA. Box 7, Folder 7 contains trip reports by GWR. Box 7, Folder 8 consists of interoffice memorandums between Rabinoff and Robert Earl Bondy, a social worker and executive director of the National Social Welfare Assembly. Box 7, Folder 9 contains a memorandum to the United States members of the International Conference of Social Work, as well as meeting minutes of the U.S. Committee of the ICSW. Box 7, Folder 10 consists of correspondence pertaining to Rabinoff's resignation from the National Social Welfare Assembly. It also includes a newsletter and a letter of gratitude from Bondy to Rabinoff.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
7	1	Reports and Publications	1950-1951, 1955, 1961, 1968
7	2	Annual Reports	1951-1961
7	3	The Assembly Letter	1955-1961, 1964-1966
7	4	Organizational chart, staff meetings	1951, 1956-1958, 1960-1961
7	5	GWR, Monthly and Annual Activity Reports (1 of 2)	1955-1957
7	6	GWR, Monthly and Annual Activity Reports (2 of 2)	1958-1961
7	7	GWR, Trip Reports	1954-1961
7	8	Inter-office Memos between GWR and Robert E. Bondy	1955-1961
7	9	International Conference of Social Work - U.S. Committee	1952, 1954, 1961
7	10	Retirement: Tributes and Letters	1960-1961

Series IV: Australian Trip, 1962-1963
English.
Box 8, Folders 1-3.
Scope and Content: This small series documents George and Jennie Rabinoff's trip to Australia from 1962 to 1963. It includes correspondence, handwritten notes, itineraries, lecture notes, outlines, and reports. The series covers his experience in Australia as a Fulbright Lecturer in Social Work Training at the Department of Social Services at the University of Queensland in Brisbane, Australia. While in Australia, Rabinoff delivered various addresses and speeches. Rabinoff was a consultant for the Australian National Red Cross and a consultant for the Australian Jewish Welfare and Relief Society in Melbourne, Australia. Box 8, Folder 1 contains a speech entitled "A Social Program on the U.N." delivered by Rabinoff in May 1962. Box 8, Folder 2 includes "Patterns of Inter-agency Co-operation in a Complex Community" delivered by Rabinoff on May 31, 1962. It also has "Balancing Economic and Social Factors in Community Planning" presented by Rabinoff on June 14, 1962. Rabinoff acted as a consultant at a seminar entitled "Goals in Social Welfare Policy" on various aspects of social administration. "The Jewish Communities in the United States" and "Social Work and Town Planning" are lectures he delivered in July of 1962. Rabinoff delivered an address called "Streamlining Social Welfare Services in the Community" in Melbourne in August 1962. Box 8, Folder 3 contains a seminar that Rabinoff gave entitled "A Charter for the Education of the Physically Handicapped" on September 30, 1962. The folder consists of addresses to the Australian Red Cross Society and the Australian Advisory Council for the Physically Handicapped. Also included is a report by Rabinoff on Australia.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
8	1	Australian Trip (1 of 3)	1962-1963
8	2	Australian Trip (2 of 3)	1962-1963
8	3	Australian Trip (3 of 3)	1962-1963

Series V: GWR Biographical information, notebooks and tributes, undated, 1913-1914, 1958, 1961, 1969-1971
English.
Box 8, Folder 4 -- Box 9, Folder 1.
Scope and Content: Box 8, Folder 4 contains a biographical sketch of George W. Rabinoff. Box 8, Folders 5 and 6 include his school notebooks and lecture notes. Box 8, Folder 7 is a binder presented to Rabinoff by his students and colleagues of the Training Bureau for Jewish Communal Service. Box 9, Folder 1 consists of obituaries, photograph, tribute, and letter of condolences concerning the death of Rabinoff.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
8	4	Biographical Sketch	1958, 1969-1970
8	5	School notebooks and lecture notes (1 of 2)	undated, 1913-1914
8	6	School notebooks and lecture notes (2 of 2)	1913-1914
8	7	“Presented to George W. Rabinoff by his students and colleagues of the Training Bureau for Jewish Communal Service” (binder) May 29, 1961	May-June 1961
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
9	1	In Memoriam	1970-1971

Series VI: Diaries, 1946-1969
English.
Box 9, Folder 2 -- Box 14.
Arrangement: Chronological.
Scope and Content: This series is composed of the daily diaries of George W. Rabinoff, during the years of 1946 to 1969.
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
9	2	List of Missing Notebooks
9	3	Daily Diaries #1-6	November 1946-September 1947
9	4	Daily Diaries #7-12	September 1947-April 1948
9	5	Daily Diaries #13-18	April-October 1948
9	6	Daily Diaries #19-24	October 1948-March 1949
9	7	Daily Diaries #25-30	March-October 1949
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
10	1	Daily Diaries #31-36	October 1949-March 1950
10	2	Daily Diaries #37-44	March-November 1950
10	3	Daily Diaries #45-52	November 1950-September 1951
10	4	Daily Diaries #53-60	September 1951-May 1952
10	5	Daily Diaries #61-68	May 1952-February 1953
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
11	1	Daily Diaries #69-76	February-October 1953
11	2	Daily Diaries #77-84	October 1953-May 1954
11	3	Daily Diaries #85-87, 92-96	May-September 1954, January-May 1955
11	4	Daily Diaries #97-104	May 1955-January 1956
11	5	Daily Diaries #105-112	January-September 1956
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
12	1	Daily Diaries #113-120	September 1956-April 1957
12	2	Daily Diaries #121-128	April-December 1957
12	3	Daily Diaries #129-136	December 1957-July 1958
12	4	Daily Diaries #137-144	July 1958-March 1959
12	5	Daily Diaries #145-152	March-November 1959
12	6	Daily Diaries #153-160	November 1959-July 1960
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
13	1	Daily Diaries #163-170	October 1960-May 1961
13	2	Daily Diaries #171-177	May 1961-January 1962
13	3	Daily Diaries #191A-199	June 1963-May 1964
13	4	Daily Diaries #200-207	May 1964-March 1965
13	5	Daily Diaries #208-215	March 1965-January 1966
13	6	Daily Diaries #216-223	January-December 1966
Box	Folder	Title	Date	Request
14	1	Daily Diaries #224-231	December 1966-January 1968
14	2	Daily Diaries #232-237, 239-241	January-October 1968, October 1968-January 1969