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T H H S -° u T H E RN ISRAELITE 9 A Humanizer Of Statistics A Great Sociologist Passes GRACE JAFFE Lee K. Frankel, the scientist, the soi legist, was a dreamer at heart. Few pie knew it, but then only a handful of per >ns can lay rightful claim to having been on intimate terms with the late vice- pre ident of the Metropolitan Life Insur ance Company. To the world at large Lee K. Frankel was a universally recognized authority on problems of social statistics and health promotion, a man whose views in insurance circles were looked upon as the last word in practical sociology. When he addressed a meeting of business direc tors or when he was the guest speaker at some Chamber of Commerce session, he impressed the audience as an utterly sober, austere, aloof, well-versed man of figures who had an uncanny gift of illuminating statistics and of giving them significance and color. Rut the Lee K. Frankel of busi ness men’s meetings and directors’ board conferences was actually only a minor and secondary part of the real Lee K. Frankel. The man within was the man known to but a few—and he was a lyric dreamer and a man who cherished his own illusions. Lr. Frankel was born in Philadelphia sixty-four years ago, a son of Louis and Aurelia Frankel. He attended the public schools and graduated from the Univer sity of Pennsylvania with the degree of AS. as a young man of 20. Four years later he received his Ph.D. from his Alma Mater, and for five years he was an in- 'ruetor in chemistry at the University. 1 here is nothing exceptionally brilliant about young Frankel’s career thus far. a matter of fact when, at the age of •’-» he came to New York as manager of he United Hebrew Charities, he seemed » he doomed to remain a paid social work- all his life, despite his undeniable abili- ics, his brilliant mind and his obvious or- anizing gifts. But there was in Frankel 1 certain quiet dignity, a reserve that held irn back in this world of self-appraisal, lankel belonged to those who speak I’ough their work. Yet so revolutionary *' re the new standards of raising and ending Jewish charity funds which he roduced at the United Hebrew Charities , at the non-Jewish public institution cir- ; e ? t°°k a great deal of notice of this ’ dadelphia chemist. Before Frankel took hold of the United Parities, the organization was run in the sual German-Jewish way of the ’90s. A •ard of directors assembled every now n /l then, carefully read the budget sub- ‘ted by the secretary and made arrange- ien ts to meet the budget for the next orm ; Nobody was sufficiently curious to Quire how the scientific phase of dispens er charity progressed. The primary idea as to handle as many cases of need w’ith s little money as possible. Frankel was ‘‘ man who introduced an entirely new A stem of case investigation and case han- 1 n 8f, a system that was later copied by "n-Jewish organizations. He introduced The sudden death of Dr. Lee K. Fratikcl, ! ice-I resident of the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, and pioneer in health promotion work, has affected the Jewish and non-Jewish world. The author of this article sketches not merely the biography °f ^e man but attempts to give a picture of the inner man in the aloof, austere per sonality whom few knew. DR. LEE K. FRANKEL scientific charity, i. e., charity based on statistics, but not statistics worked out in some far-off study, but figures assembled by personal investigation. People who observed his far-reaching work called him the great humanizer of statistics. So far did his fame spread that the Russel Sage Foundation captured him in 1908 as a special investigator. He was in his new position hardly a year, when he startled the insurance world by preparing to institute group insurance among fra ternal organizations. He found himself with the Metropolitan Life Insurance Com pany. This organization realized that it was wiser for its future if Lee K. Frankel would work for it than for somebody else. That is the skeleton of Lee K. Kranel’s steady climb, a continuous upward curve that speaks volumes for his tenacity and resourcefulness. During the last two dec ades, when his position as head of the health promotion department of the Met ropolitan Life Insurance Company gave him an opportunity to carry out his many ideas for improving the mortality rate, he revealed himself a sociologist with a keen grasp of fundamental problems. He soon tired of dry figures. He visualized with his sensitive spirit the individual tragedies that statistics conceal. He could never sup press his ready sympathy for those in need. It was his pleasure later in life to devote himself to the improvement of health through research in sanitation problems. Child health questions attracted him above all, and when President Hoover recently appointed a planning committee for the White House Conference on Child Health and Protection, he named Dr. Frankel as one of its first members. But with all this work which undoubt edly gave him a great deal of satisfaction, he nevertheless found his real life work in Jewish* activities. As expert on sanitation in Jewish relief work in Eastern Europe and Palestine, he showed an admirable capacity for understanding the human an gle in the Jewish problems in those coun tries. While other experts came back with voluminous reports and statistics on vital ity and mortality, Lee K. Frankel brought back his own impressions and his sugges tions as to how to help individual cases. A characteristic incident describing Dr. Frankel occurred when, asked for his re action to Palestine, after he had returned from that country, he said to a journalist: “I will tell you one story. In a Jewish school, a teacher asked one of the little girls in her class, in which she taught He brew, English and other languages, which of the languages she liked to study best. The child immediately answered: ‘Hebrew.’ When asked why, she replied: ‘because it is the language God talks.’ That is the spirit of Palestine.” The jour nalist is reported to have grumbled: ‘‘That guy isn't a scientist; he’s a poet.” When Louis Marshall was using all his energies to bring about a united front be tween the Zionists and non-Zionists on a common platform of rebuilding Palestine, Dr. Frankel proved his ablest adjutant, revealing himself a suave diplomat. His lyric enthusiasm for the Holy Land was contagious. It was always felt whenever he spoke about Palestine, that the Jewish work there appealed to him more than anything else in the world. And only a few weeks ago he was elevated to Co- Chairmanship of the Council of the Jew ish Agency! A further indication of his grasp of communal problems and his vision was provided when he was chairman of the executive committee of the Jewish Com munal Survey of Greater New York, which labored for three years. As a result of its work, the present New York Jewish Fed eration of Charities with its annual budget of $10,000,000 was organized. That alone would be sufficient achievement for any one man. But with all this, it will be hard to un derstand Lee K. Frankel, unless it was your privilege to know him well. He was that rare combination of clear, logical scientist and all-understanding humanita rian. There was in him a native aristoc racy that few (Please turn to page 14) -