Alfred J. Kahn

Alfred Joseph Kahn (February 8, 1919 – February 13, 2009) was an American expert on social policy, particularly as it related to child welfare. He was critical of problems at the local and federal governmental level in providing services related to child development and family support, arguing that a comprehensive system of social welfare provision should be made available to all Americans comparable to similar systems offered in Western Europe.

Born in Williamsburg, Brooklyn Kahn was raised in Bensonhurst, Brooklyn. After moving with his family to the Bronx, he attended DeWitt Clinton High School. He attended City College of New York, graduating in 1939, and then attended the Seminary College of Jewish Studies at the Jewish Theological Seminary where he earned a degree in Hebrew letters.

Serving in the United States Army Air Forces (now the USAF) during World War II, Kahn served at Drew Field near Tampa, Florida where he participated in that branch's first mental-hygiene unit, studying the connections between childhood experiences of soldiers and their propensity to experience battlefield stress or go AWOL.

After leaving military service, his experiences in the Air Force led him to pursue a master's degree in social work and Kahn was hired by Columbia University School of Social Work as an instructor in 1947. In 1952, he was awarded the school's first doctorate granted in the field of social welfare, writing a dissertation on New York's Children's Court; He was appointed as Associate Professor of Social Work and Social Research at the school.

Kahn's report on the Children's Court in New York, was based on a three-year study he performed under the auspices of the Citizens' Committee on Children and with the cooperation of Presiding Justice John Warren Hill. An editorial in The New York Times about the report cited the work as an unprecedented look behind the scenes of Children's Court, which is normally closed to the public and the press. Kahn was able to examine records, interview staff and to observe cases as they were being decided. While complementary of some aspects of the court's operation, Kahn called the system "a dream still unrealized" that needed to focus more on rehabilitation than punishment.

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