KARPF, MAURICE JOSEPH

KARPF, MAURICE JOSEPH (1891–1964), U.S. psychologist, social worker, and marriage counselor. Karpf, who was born in Austria, was brought to the U.S. as a boy, and studied sociology and psychology at Columbia University. After being employed as a psychologist in the Chicago school system (1912–14, 1916–18), he was superintendent of the Jewish Social Service Bureau, Chicago (1919–25), director and president of the faculty of the graduate school of Jewish Social Work in New York (1924–42), and executive director of the Federation of Jewish Welfare Organizations in Los Angeles (1942–47). Active in Jewish affairs, he served as president of the National Conference of Jewish Welfare (1930–32), chairman of the International Conference of Jewish Social Work (1932–35), and non-Zionist member of the Executive of the Jewish Agency for Palestine (1930–45). His works include: The Scientific Basis of Social Work (1931) and Jewish Community Organization in the United States (1938). -BIBLIOGRAPHY: M.H. Neumeyer, in: American Sociological Review, 29 (1964), 753.