Gladys Freeman Cahn (1901-1964)

Gladys Cahn visited displaced persons camps in Europe after World War II, and upon returning home, devised a 7-state southern Jewish strategy to educate European Jewish women in U.S. universities, enabling them to return to Europe to help their communities. Working through the local and national NCJW, she pressed for the passage of the Stratton Bill that opened U.S. immigration to 100,000 displaced Europeans. Her passion for the disenfranchised extended to civil rights, and she served as board member of the local and national Urban League. In 1953, the NAACP gave her an award for her “courageous and untiring efforts in the field of human relations.” Active until her untimely death in 1964, she was a founder of Teen Town, a forerunner of the New Orleans Recreation Department (NORD), and Save Our Schools (SOS), which fought for desegregation.