JUDAICA - Wisdom In Torah

laustein, abraham
he served as executive committee chairman (1944–49) and
president (1949–54). As president, Blaustein worked to protect
the civil and religious rights of Jews and other minorities and
to promote tolerance among races. He served on the boards of
the American Friends of the Hebrew University and the Weizmann
Institute of Science. His philanthropic activities ranged
from local philanthropy in Baltimore, to the American Jewish
Joint Distribution Committee, United Service for New Americans,
and the Conference on Jewish Claims Against Germany.
He was a member of the American delegation to the tenth UN
General Assembly and was a leader in the movement to adopt
the Convention on Genocide and the Declaration of Human
Rights, helping to promote the idea of a UN High Commissioner
for Human Rights, a position that was established more
than two decades after his death.
Several important institutions have been created and/or
funded by the Blaustein family.
The Blaustein Philanthropic Group, located in Baltimore,
Maryland, is a constellation of foundations inspired
by the legacy of Louis and Henrietta Blaustein. Each foundation
represents a different branch of the Blaustein family and
has a unique identity, set of priorities, and geographic focus.
United by their roots in Jewish tradition, the foundations are
dedicated to social justice and equal opportunity. As part
of the Blaustein Philanthropic Group, the Jacob and Hilda
Blaustein Foundation provides grants to help further the cause
of human rights as well as strengthen Jewish life, Israeli democracy,
educational opportunity, health, and mental wellbeing.
The Jacob Blaustein Center for Scientific Cooperation,
located in Israel, supports a variety of activities related to the
promotion of scientific cooperation with scientists and institutions
in Israel and around the world. The Institute for Desert
Research, established in *Sedeh Boker in 1974 under the
auspices of Ben-Gurion University in Beersheba, received a
generous contribution from The Jacob and Hilda Blaustein
Foundation in 1980 and was named The Jacob Blaustein Institute
for Desert Research (BIDR).
Bibliography: LOUIS BLAUSTEIN: New York Times (July
28, 1937), 19. JACOB BLAUSTEIN: H. Frank, in: Jewish Digest (March
1962); Current Biography Yearbook 1949 (1950), 60–61; Forbes (Sept.
15, 1968), 26–28.
[Morton Rosenstock / Ruth Beloff (2nd ed.)]
BLAUSTEIN, ABRAHAM (1836–1914), ḥazzan. Born in
Riga, Blaustein became a cantor in Lomza, later in Vilna,
and then settled in Germany. In 1877 he was appointed
chief cantor of Bromberg (now Bydgoszcz in Poland), a position
he held until his death. He edited a weekly paper for
cantors and founded an association for raising professional
standards.
BLAUSTEIN, DAVID (1866–1912), educator and communal
worker. Born in Lida (province of Vilna), Blaustein fled to
Germany in 1883 to evade conscription. There he worked and
studied, moving to Schwerin to continue his religious stud-
ies, but in 1886 he left for the United States. In Boston he established
a modern German-Hebrew school – the first of its
kind in the United States – and continued his studies. From
1892 to 1896 he served as rabbi of a Providence Reform congregation
and taught at Brown University.
In 1898 Blaustein was appointed superintendent of the
Educational Alliance of New York City, then the most important
social-educational institution for the Americanization of
foreigners. With the untrained social workers of that institution
he worked diligently to raise the standards of social work
and to turn it into a profession. Respected by Jews and non-
Jews alike, he accompanied Robert Watchorn, immigration
commissioner at Ellis Island, to Romania in 1900 to study the
conditions of the Jews there and the causes of the large-scale
emigration from that country.
In 1905 Blaustein became the first president of the Society
of Jewish Social Workers of New York. Active in Zionist
affairs in New York, he was the first nasi (presiding officer)
of Order of the Sons of Zion. In 1908 he became director of
the Chicago Hebrew Institute, and in 1910 took up a lectureship
on Jewish, Italian, and Slavic immigration at the New
York School of Philanthropy, where a chair had been established
for him.
Bibliography: DAB, 2 (1929), 360–1; M. Blaustein (ed.),
Memoirs of David Blaustein (1913).
[Judah Pilch]
BLAU-WEISS (“Blue-White”), first and one of the most influential
Jewish youth movement in Germany, founded in
1912. It initiated a Zionist program, basing its organizational
format on the German nationalist youth movement Wandervogel
(whose increasing antisemitism greatly contributed to
the expansion of Blau-Weiss). Before and immediately after
World War I Blau-Weiss groups engaged almost exclusively
in outings and intimate gatherings, emphasizing nature appreciation
and “manliness” in the manner of the German Jugendbewegung
(youth movement). Instead of the cult of German
peasantry and folk traditions, Blau-Weiss introduced
new forms of celebrating Jewish holidays outdoors and an
interest in the Hebrew language, Hebrew songs, and Yiddish
folklore. The main aim of Blau-Weiss was to combine
being a Jew with love of the German fatherland. The movement
strove to strengthen the body, mind, and spirit of the
young with an introduction to Jewish education. Blau-Weiss
reached its peak in the early 1920s, with about 3,000 members.
At this time a pioneering, Palestine-oriented tendency
developed in its ranks and became, under the leadership of
Walter Moses, its official program at the Blau-Weiss conference
in Prunn (August 1922). The conference decided upon the
establishment of a Blau-Weiss settlement in Palestine based
not only on agriculture but also on precision workmanship
in such fields as tool mechanics. It also decided to streamline
the organizational structure of the movement along “hierarchical”
lines, and to participate actively in Zionist politics.
Subsequent friction with the German Zionist leadership, as
746 ENCYCLOPAEDIA JUDAICA, Second Edition, Volume 3