Title: ABRAHAM LEFKOWITZ COLLECTION Genre: Papers Date: 1934-1966 (Predominantly, 1934-1955) Size: 4 Folders ID#: 402 OCLC: ©Walter P. Reuther Library of Labor and Urban Affairs HEFA.01c.update |
Scope & Contents
The papers of Abraham Lefkowitz were placed in the Archives of Labor and Urban Affairs in July of 1970 and June of 1971 by Mrs. Lefkowitz and were opened for research in April of 1985.
Abraham Lefkowitz was born in Revisch, Hungary in 1884 and his family immigrated to America in 1885. He received his B.A. degree from City College, New York City in 1904 and earned his masters and doctoral degrees from New York University in 1911 and 1914. Upon his graduation from City College, he began teaching in an elementary public school and from 1938 until his retirement in 1955, at the age of seventy he was principal of Samuel J. Tilden High School in Brooklyn the largest high school in the United States. He died in 1956.
Dr. Lefkowitz was active in teachers unions, civic and social reform movements, and was a champion of minority causes and civil liberties. He was one of the founders of the American Federation of Teachers, served as its legislative representative, and was a Vice-President from 1920 to 1934. He served as a member of the Executive Board of the National Urban League for some thirty years and was the long-time Legislative Representative of the New York State Federation of Teachers.
The papers of Dr. Lefkowitz consist primarily of clippings, correspondence, and speeches that reflect his professional and social contributions during his period of fifty-one years in the New York City public school system, particularly his fight against communists in the AFT.
4 Folders
1. Biographical material
2. Clippings, 1942-1966
3. Correspondence, 1940-1961
4. Speeches, 1934-1955