BECKELMAN, MOSES W.

BECKELMAN, MOSES W. (1906–1955), U.S. social worker. Beckelman was born in New York City. He was a lecturer in social work at the City College of New York (1927–30), and managing editor of the Jewish Social Service Quarterly (1936–39). At the outbreak of World War II Beckelman was sent by the american jewish joint distribution committee to lithuania , where he helped large numbers of refugees to emigrate, until he was forced to leave in 1941. In 1942 Beckelman joined the U.S. Office of Strategic Services, and in 1943 directed a refugee camp in Morocco for UNRRA. After serving as an assistant director of the Intergovernmental Committee on Refugees, from February 1945, he rejoined the "Joint" in 1946 and became its director general in Europe in 1951. Until his death Beckelman supervised the liquidation of the displaced persons camps, the establishment of malben in Israel for the social care of immigrants, and extensive social work programs for Jews, especially in Morocco and Iran. (Yehuda Bauer)