LURIE, HARRY LAWRENCE

LURIE, HARRY LAWRENCE (1892–1973), U.S. social worker. Lurie, who was born in Goldingen, Latvia, was taken to the U.S. in 1898. During 1913–14, Lurie was employed as a staff member by the Federation of Jewish Charities in Buffalo, New York. After service with the Detroit Department of Public Welfare (1915–22), he was subsequently employed as faculty member at the University of Michigan (1922–24); superintendent of the Chicago Jewish Social Service Bureau (1925–30); lecturer at the University of Chicago (1926–30) and the New York School of Social Work (1931); executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research (1930–35); and executive director of the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds (1935–57). In the latter capacities, he was a leader in orienting Jewish social work toward the main currents of the American profession. He became editor of the Encyclopedia of Social Work in 1962 and wrote A Heritage Affirmed (1961), a history of the federation movement in American Jewish philanthropy.