A Modern Social Service Agency 1940-1970

Upon the death of Violet Kittner, Rae Carp is appointed Executive Director.

A graduate of the University of Toronto, she served with the Jewish Social Service Bureau of Detroit from 1928 to 1933. She is most recently associated with the  Jewish Board of Guardians in New York and joined the Jewish Social Service Bureau in Cleveland as a case consultant, before succeeding Kittner.

caption: (left) Violet Kittner (right) Rae Carp Weil

The Cleveland Coordinating Committee for Immigrants becomes a formal part of the family casework service of the agency and is renamed Refugee Services. It works with the newly formed JVS to find employment for new immigrants.

According to Maurice Bernon, JVS president, the principal need is for the Jewish community to provide openings for the middle-aged men good business and industrial backgrounds.

“These men, without political ties to a cruel fatherland, are anxious to become good Americans and a part of our American economic life. They bring with them energy, loyalty and a capacity for effective work.”

With the entrance into World War II, draft and defense preparations are bringing new and intensified problems to the agency.

Of the many tasks directed to the JSSB as a result of the war, the agency is responsible for assisting aliens of enemy nationalities (Germany, Japan and Italy) to complete applications for certification of identity.

Throughout the duration and following the war, the agency  also serves as the local central resource for  displaced persons seeking relatives in the Cleveland area.

The war, through increased opportunities for employment, has, for the time being solved or eased financial problems in many marginal and sub-marginal cases but it has also had serious disruptive effects in the life of many families.” according to Edward Rosenfeld, JSSB Board Chair

(caption: Edward Rosenfeld, JSSB Board Chair)

JSSB is renamed Jewish Family Service Association to better indicate the nature of services offered.

The Heights Referral Office on the corner of Lee and Cedar Road opens on October 1, in response to the marked need in the community for confidential consultation service to people of all income groups and provides an expansion of services to the community.

It is the first suburban family social work office. It offers help on domestic problems through schools and directly to homes. When social workers determined that people don’t need to be poor to have home problems, they provided service to people who could and did and pay for it. Clients pay $1-$3 per hour depending on capacity.

“Middle-class people are always left to deal with health and welfare problems without society’s help,” says Rae Carp, executive director. “They find it harder to accept help. But now we are coming to see that emotional sickness can be cured, often more easily with a trained person’s help.”

JFSA appeals to the Cleveland Jewish community to help resettle displaced persons who have no family or friends in the US, for which it maintains a quota of accepting 22 families each month. As part of this appeal, JFSA seeks help in finding housing for families with one or two children.

“It is the privilege and obligation of every Jewish citizen to aid in meeting this number one housing problem.”
-JFSA statement 1945

Mrs. Hedgwig Peiser Levine is elected the first woman chair of the board of directors.

A member of the board since 1929, she is most active with the Refugee Service Committee. She represents JFSA on the Jewish Welfare Board, Jewish Vocational Services, and a member of the national board of National Council of Jewish Women, and a co-chair of the Cleveland Roundtable.

“I am much in favor of volunteer work for women who can give service without neglecting their families. They have proved they have a flair for organization and a gift for social service. They can do much to help make their community a spot in which they want their children to grow up,” she states.

JFSA leadership Mrs. Alex Miller, Committee for Newcomer Services Chair, Mrs. Rae Weil, JFSA Board Chair, and Mrs. Joseph Bloomfield, attend the United Service for New Americans (USNA) conference where the discussion of the national “quota ” system is keeping many Jewish refugees from the US.

Family Life Education is formally introduced as agency service under the direction of Herbert L. Rock. The program provides experienced family counselors to lead groups in the discussion of everyday problems with which members of all families are confronted and the ways in which these problems can be handled.

The Friendly Visitors program is established to help service the aged by the National Council of Jewish Women Cleveland Section (NCJW) and JFSA.  The program matches NCJW volunteers with JFSA older adult clients and visit them in their homes, take them to doctor appointments, libraries, cultural events and shopping.

In many cases, the friendly visitor is the only ‘family’ the person has, the only person who phones regularly, who remembers to send a birthday card, and does other small important kindnesses.

The Creed of the Friendly Visitors

I am deeply grateful for the trust placed in me, and aware that my job of alleviating loneliness for the aged and homebound is an important contribution in the field of social service.

I shall approach my work of Friendly Visiting with humility and dignity, careful always to ascribe to the same code of ethics as a professional social worker.

JFSA moves to 2060 So. Taylor Road, Cleveland Heights, a central location for the convenience of most of its clientele. The agency shares space with the Jewish Children’s Bureau.

Caseworker Helen Glassman conducts a comprehensive study of 100 Jewish families who came to Cleveland from displaced person camps of Austria, Germany and Italy between 1949 and 1952. Entitled “Adjustment in Freedom” the study was published by JFSA and United HIAS Service.

Among her major findings:

Displaced person wage earners learned new skills and became proficient in old ones.

Earnings among newcomers were similar to the prevailing hourly wage for skilled labor.

Standards of living greatly improved. After being settled in apartments, a large number had been able to buy their own homes.

Children were well cared for and could not be differentiated from children of other second generation immigrant families.

Many of the displaced persons could speak three languages when they arrived in Cleveland and grasped English easily.

caption: Helen Glassman

JFSA expands its field training placement with Smith College School for Social Work.

Adding to its list of pioneering efforts in the field of social work, JFSA develops Parent Guidance Service, a three year demonstration project in child health-parent guidance.

The service is open to the entire community on a non-sectarian basis and represent a cross-section of Greater Cleveland. It helps parents understand the psychological, emotional and social development of their children, and to aid them with their questions and problems.

“Even if a parent is disturbed by his child’s behavior, when he understands the basis for it, he can handle it more effectively,” says Mrs. Phyllis Brody, JFSA counselor.

In a 1965 Smith College School for Social Work symposium, JFSA’s program was recognized by Dr. Edward Daniels, Harvard Medical School Psychoanalytic Institute faculty member saying it is “an important contribution to the field of prevention and community mental health.”

JFSA is one of five family service agencies nationally participating in a research project to determine the value of the approach in service to older persons.

At Cleveland Metropolitan Housing Authority’s Woodhill Homes, a caseworker spends one day a week counseling with older Jewish men and women. Since some may feel reluctant or find it difficult to come to the agency, the latter takes its services to them.

The same program is conducted the Jewish Community Center.

The Volunteer Aide Program is created to enhance special services to older persons chronically ill and resettlement families.

A significant difference between JFSA’s program and other hospital, recreation, children homes and mental institutions, is that JFSA’s volunteers work alone to bring their services to the homes of the lonely, sick, handicapped and aged. They assist and supplement the work of the JFSA professional staff.

“I find my work personally rewarding for it helps me understand and care for people who are living in a world different from my own because of their handicaps,” says Mrs. Louis Orkin, a volunteer aide.

Volunteer Aides include suburban housewives, working women who can only give time on the weekends, women who have their own families, and former refugees who were helped by JFSA when they themselves came to Cleveland.

Continue the journey…