ZUCKER, HENRY L.

ZUCKER, HENRY L. (1910–1998), U.S. community leader in welfare services. Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Zucker graduated from Western Reserve University. He began his career in social services as supervisor of public relations for the Cuyahoga County [Ohio] Relief Administration. He was a consultant for the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, helping to restore Jewish communal life in Europe after World War ii. From 1936 to 1946, he served the Welfare Federation of Cleveland in several capacities. He was associate director of the Jewish Community Federation of Cleveland (1946–48) and later became its executive vice president, serving in that capacity until 1976. Zucker served as chairman of the advisory committee of the Hebrew Union College's School of Jewish Communal Services in Los Angeles, and was on the Board of Trustees of the United Appeal of Greater Cleveland and on several committees of the Welfare Federation of Cleveland. He held key positions in numerous Jewish and civic institutions. Under Zucker's professional leadership the Jewish Community Federation became one of the most comprehensively organized in the U.S., with the highest per capita donations to its Jewish Welfare Fund. He also established the Cleveland Welfare Endowment Fund, considered one of the largest of such funds in existence.

In 1991 Zucker received the Rosichan Retiree of the Year Award from the Association of Jewish Community Organization Professionals. The award is bestowed on a retired Jewish community organization professional who has had a distinguished career, has served as a role model and who, during retirement, continues to make a contribution to the field.