Wurz Prof Chosen Social Worker of the Year by Molloy College

Dr. Susan Bendor, a long time Wurzweiler faculty member, has been chosen as the recipient of the Pauline Zischka Social Worker of the Year Award by Molloy College's department of social work. This year celebrates Molloy's 50th anniversary and the festivities will include honoring Dr. Bendor as the founder of that school's social work program, as well as for her "substantive contributions to our profession."

Dr. Bendor received her BSC from Bishop’s University, Canada. She was a World University Fellow at Heidelberg University in Germany. She earned her MSW at Adelphi University, and her DSW from the City University of New York. Her fields of interest include gerontology, mental health and welfare reform, runaway and homeless adolescents, pediatric oncology, and advocacy.

Dr. Uri Aviram Joins Wurzweiler Faculty as Visiting Prof

Dr. Uri Aviram, Zena Harmon Professor of Social Work (Emeritus) at Hebrew University of Jerusalem, will be a visiting professor at Wurzweiler this spring. Dr. Aviram has concentrated, throughout his career, on mental health services research and policy studies. His special interests include community care for the severely mentally ill, social planning and policy development, and the interface between psychiatry and the law.

In addition to many articles, Dr. Aviram is the author of Community Mental Health in Isreal, and the award-winning, Psychiatric Treatment and Civil Liberties: The Involuntary Hospitalization of the Mentally-Ill in Isreal. He co-authored, with S. Sigal, The Mentally Ill in Community-Based Sheltered Care; a Study of Community Care and Social Integration, published by Wiley in 1978. More recently he edited two books, Social Work in Mental Health, and Social Work Education in Isreal: Past, Present and Future.

Faculty, administration and students extend a warm welcome to Dr. Aviram.

Wurzweiler Professors Back From Cuba

Profs David Strug, Susan Mason, Jay Sweifach, Joan Beder and Heidi Heft-LaPorte, and Associate Dean Carmen Ortiz-Hendricks, have returned from a productive trip to Cuba. More news of collaborative projects with the social work faculty of the University of Havana will be forthcoming, but click here for a few pictures from the trip.

Wurzweiler Recruits in Israel

Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work has started a recruitment drive in Israel to inform people about its Master of Social Work (MSW) degree and the Summer Block Plan for international students.

YU in Israel ran a campaign of advertisements in local media, including the newspapers published by the Hebrew University in Jerusalem and by Tel Aviv’s various universities, to promote the Wurzweiler MSW degree course. Dr. Joyce Rosman Brenner, associate professor and director of the block program in Israel, has organized two open evening events for anyone interested in finding out more.

“The first event, in Jerusalem, was well attended and we have had many inquiries,” Dr. Joyce said. “The response to information about the MSW degree has been very positive and it clear that many social work students in Israel are excited about the prospect of further study in New York, either full time or on the Summer Block Plan.”

The block plan allows international students to combine two months of overseas study with field work in their local community during the rest of the year.

MSW interns can be found working in a wide variety of settings in Israel, including mental health organizations, trauma centers and hospitals, with young Olim for Nefesh B’Nefesh and at the Feuerstein Institute. There are already 400 Wurzweiler graduates working in Israel, with an active alumni association.

For more information about Wurzweiler students in Israel, contact Dr. Joyce Rosman Brenner, by telephone at 972 4 982 1107, or email: joymen@netvision.net.il.