BERNSTEIN, LUDWIG BEHR

BERNSTEIN, LUDWIG BEHR (1870–1944), U.S. social worker. Bernstein was born in Jelgava (Mitau), Latvia, and emigrated to the United States in 1892. Bernstein taught languages in the New York City public schools for several years, and in 1903 became managing director of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Orphan Asylum in Pleasantville, New York. His contributions to Jewish child welfare administration included the development of a cottage home plan and the organization of the Home Bureau of the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society – a pioneer experiment in foster home placement. In 1919–20 Bernstein served as executive director of the Bureau of Jewish Social Research, supervising studies in child welfare and delinquency in the Jewish communities of Chicago, Philadelphia, and New York. He moved to Pittsburgh in 1921 as executive director of the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. During the 1930s Bernstein was a pioneer in the movement to establish Jewish community councils in American cities. (Roy Lubove)