DININ, SAMUEL

DININ, SAMUEL (1902–2005), U.S. educator. Born in Mogilev oblast, Russia, Dinin earned his bachelor's degree at the City College of New York in 1922 and received his master's degree and doctorate at Columbia University in 1923 and 1933, respectively. He was registrar and associate professor of education and history at the Manhattan-based Teachers Institute of the jewish theological seminary of America from 1926 to 1945. In 1945, he was appointed executive director of the Los Angeles Bureau of Jewish Education. Through his efforts in that capacity, the Bureau established the Los Angeles Hebrew High School in 1949. Elected dean of the University of Judaism in Los Angeles in 1957, he was named chairman of the faculty and vice president in 1963. He continued under the UJ's auspices as its chair of faculties and its vice president until 1974, when he retired to become the college's professor emeritus of education and history. Dinin played a key role in developing several institutional pillars of Jewish education in Los Angeles, including the West Coast's Bureau of Jewish Education (BJE) affiliate, the University of Judaism (UJ), and Camp Ramah. He wrote Judaism in a Changing Civilization (1933) and served as editor of Jewish Education. (Leon H. Spotts)