RABINOFF, GEORGE W.

RABINOFF, GEORGE W. (1893–1970), pioneer of U.S. professional Jewish communal service. Rabinoff, born in New York City, graduated from the New York School of Social Work (1914), one of the first trained Jewish social workers. After serving various Jewish communities and the Jewish Welfare Board, he became associate executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research (1928–32), where he was instrumental in founding the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, serving as its first executive (1932–35) and, after the merger of the Council and the Bureau, as its associate director. He was associate director of Chicago's Jewish Charities and Jewish Welfare Fund during World War II and served UNRRA as deputy director of the Division of Welfare and Displaced Persons in Europe. From 1947 to 1951 he directed the training bureau for Jewish Communal Service, reflecting his concern for Jewish communal professionalism. He then became associate director of the National Social Welfare Assembly (1951–61), afterward spending a year aiding the development of social work in Australia. Throughout his career Rabinoff was a leader of the National Conference on Jewish Communal Service, serving as secretary (1929–33) and president (1949). His influence on Jewish communal service and its professional practitioners was extensive. -BIBLIOGRAPHY: Bernstein, in: Journal of Jewish Communal Service, 46 (1970), 351–3. (Robert S. Goldman)