Jacob Billikopf was an American social worker, welfare leader, and labor arbitrator. He was a co-founder of Kansas City Board of Public Welfare.
Background
Jacob Billikopf was born on June 1, 1883, in Vilna, Russia (now Vilnius, Lithuania), the youngest of three sons and fifth of six children of Louis Bielikov and Glika (Katzenelenbogen) Bielikov. When he was thirteen his family immigrated to Richmond, Virginia, where his older sister had settled.
Education
Jacob knew no English and thus was placed in the first grade. But he learned the language rapidly and three years later was awarded a high school diploma. He supported himself while attending Richmond College by working in grocery stores and selling wares from door to door. His article in the college Messenger won him a fellowship from the National Council of Jews to the University of Chicago, where he received the degree of bachelor of philanthropy in 1903. He undertook graduate study at the University of Chicago and then at the New York School of Philanthropy (1905).
Career
In 1904 Jacob had taken his first position in social and welfare work, beginning a career remarkable for its geographical reach as well as for its many facets. After serving as superintendent of a Jewish settlement in Cincinnati (1904 - 1905), he moved to Milwaukee as superintendent of United Jewish Charities (1905 - 1907) before transferring to Kansas City, Missouri, where he became a recognized community figure as superintendent of United Jewish Charities. He applied his energies in Kansas City to public night schools, municipal baths, a legal aid bureau and a remedial loan agency. Seeing the need for a systematic approach to these undertakings, he took the lead in the establishment of the pioneering Kansas City Board of Public Welfare, on which he served as a member. He was also vice-president of the Kansas City Board of Pardons and Paroles, president of the Missouri State Conference on Charities, and secretary of the Municipal Recreation Commission. During this period he also lectured on sociology at the University of Missouri and was director of the Jewish Educational Institute in Kansas City and president of the National Conference of Jewish Social Workers.
In 1918 Billikopf moved to New York City, where he was placed in charge of a national campaign to collect $25 million for Jewish victims of World War I. Billikopf moved to Philadelphia as the executive director of the Federation of Jewish Charities. In addition to fund-raising on a broad scale, he was an impartial mediator of labor disputes, serving such major clients as the men's clothing industry of New York and the women's garment industry in Philadelphia. His notable success in reconciling employees and management led to his appointment in the New Deal era as chairman of the Regional Labor Relations Board of Philadelphia (1933 - 1936). Earlier in the depression he had served as chairman of the Committee of One Hundred for Unemployment Relief and as a member of the Pennsylvania State Welfare Commission.
In 1933 Billikopf sounded one of the first warnings in the United States against Hitler's potential threat to world peace. He gave eager support to the "University in Exile" for German refugee scholars at the New School for Social Research, helping to raise large sums of money, and became executive director of the national committee to coordinate relief efforts for refugees from Germany and Italy. He was also chairman of the executive committee of the board of trustees of Howard University, a member of the New School's advisory committee, and a trustee of The Nation and Survey magazines. He displayed an early concern for the welfare of the elderly and was an officer of the American Association for Old Age Security. Another interest was reflected in his civilian chairmanship of a Special Military Clemency Board during World War II. He died in University Hospital, Philadelphia, in his sixty-eighth year from stomach cancer.
Achievements
Membership
Billikopf was president of the National Association of Jewish Workers.
Connections
On February 23, 1920, Billikopf married Ruth Marshall, a junior at Barnard College and the daughter of a campaign official, Louis Marshall. They had two children, Florence and David Marshall. After his first wife's death in 1936, he married Esther Freeman, a teacher, on January 8, 1942.
Awarded citation for “service to community, nation and the world” by University of Chicago Alumni Association, 1942. Virginia Honor Roll of 1942, Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch. Civilian chairman Special Military Clemency Board Honorary member Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Alpha, Alpha Pi Zeta.
Awarded citation for “service to community, nation and the world” by University of Chicago Alumni Association, 1942. Virginia Honor Roll of 1942, Richmond (Virginia) Times-Dispatch. Civilian chairman Special Military Clemency Board Honorary member Phi Beta Kappa, Phi Alpha, Alpha Pi Zeta.