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Publication Date: September 1974
Publisher: Jewish Communal Service Association of North America
Author(s): Jacob Kellner
Research Area: Social conditions
Keywords: Jewish Organizations; Social Services; Values
Type: Report
Abstract:
The author asserts that the solution of social problems can be approached from two angles: the political or the humanitarian. The author compares the political model to the philosophy of Plato and the humanitarian model to the philosophy of Maimonides. In the Platonic State, social services are a planned, bureaucratic function, whereas in the Maimonidean conception help for social problems is bound up in interpersonal relations, a personal response to the need of one's fellow. Social work, argues the author, is a combination of the values of both models.