The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work

The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work

The Paul Baerwald School of Social Work and Social Welfare was founded in 1958 in cooperation with the JDC (American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee) and the Government of Israel.  The School provides rapid response to the changing social needs of Israel's diverse population, and maintains and strengthens ties with the professional community of social services and social workers and with the citizens of Jerusalem through programs in training, research and outreach.  Research at the School aims to expand knowledge and understanding of social policy and social welfare systems and to develop new methods of professional intervention at all levels from the individual to the community. 

Quick Facts
The Baerwald School:

• Trains social workers to fill professional roles in all fields of social welfare
• Provides modern teaching programs
• Has an audio-visual center for multimedia teaching and training aids
• Contains the Moses Leavitt Library, Israel's best research library in the field of social work
• Faculty and graduate students founded the Mental Health and Well Being in Childhood and Adolescence (MHWBCA) research group to attack communal and domestic violence, enhance the lives of youth in foster and residential care, and devise treatment approaches for children with a range of developmental difficulties

What's New?
The Baerwald School opened a unique three-year program that enables those with an undergraduate degree in the social sciences — particularly psychology — to study for a combined BA and MA degree in social work. The Baerwald School accepted 28 out of over 270 applicants to this pilot program and, following its success, a second cohort will begin studying during the 2011/2012 academic year.

Mental health rehabilitation is a major focus of the School’s research and teaching efforts. Appropriately, it is at the core of the MSW program specialization geared towards social workers leading community mental health efforts, now in its fourth year. With the support of the Irving Harris Foundation, the School recently laid the foundations for an innovative specialization in Infant Mental Health. Began in 2011, this specialization offers advanced clinical skills and knowledge to a select group of professionals working with traumatized children.  Read more about The Irving Harris Foundation and the IMH Program (AFHU News, fall 2011).

Continuing the School's long time involvement in social policy formulation and community development, a final addition to the School’s MSW program this academic year will be a revitalized policy and community track which will utilize faculty expertise to offer social workers advanced skills in community organization, advocacy and policy practice.

A major research infrastructure at the School is the Israel Gerontological Data Center (IGDC) led by Prof.
Howard Litwin. The IGDC, which includes Dr. Sharon Shiovitz-Ezra and a number of postdoctoral and
doctoral scholars, recently received major grants from the European Union and the United States to further research aging and its social implications.

On Facebook: Professor John Gal, Dean of the Baerwald School of Social Work, discusses the school's role in promoting fair wages and protecting other rights of Israel's social workers. - March 2011

.