May 2, 2007 -- U. S. Representative Charles Rangel, an 18-term member of the U.S. House of Representatives from Harlem, was honored for his decades of support for seniors, underprivileged youth, and other under-represented communities when Yeshiva University’s Wurzweiler School of Social Work celebrated its 50th Anniversary with a three-day conference May 6-8 in New York City. “Celebrating a Tradition of Caring: Social Work Practice, Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” was the theme of the conference at the New York Sheraton Hotel, 811 7th Avenue at 53rd Street. The program included hundreds of workshops, individual papers and panel presentations involving leading intellectuals, practitioners and experts in social work and health care. The conference was open to social workers, clinicians, community organizer, administrators, Jewish professional leaders, educators, and field instructors and supervisors, as well as Wurzweiler alumni and friends. Dr. Fernando Torres-Gil, a leading expert in health and long-term care, the politics of aging, social policy, ethnicity and disability, delivered the keynote address at 9 a.m. on Sunday, May 6th. Dr. Torres-Gil currently serves as the Associate Dean of Academic Affairs and Professor of Social Welfare and Public Policy and the Director of the Center for Policy Research on Aging at the School of Public Affairs at the University of California, Los Angles. Rep. Rangel received Wurzweiler’s Lifetime Humanitarian Award at the Evening Gala Celebration beginning at 6 PM on Sunday, May 6th. Distinguished members of the School’s Board of Governors, Herbert Barbanel, Joel Daner, Elaine Schott and her husband, Rudy Schott, were also honored. Dominic Carter, political reporter for NY 1 News and anchor of that station’s “Inside City Hall,” spoke about his life growing up with a violent schizophrenic mother in the New York City projects – as chronicled in his soon-to-be-released autobiography “No Momma’s Boy” – at a special luncheon on Monday, May 7. Workshops scheduled for the conference took a closer look at topics ranging from “Group Therapy for 9/11 Latina Widows,” “African-American Therapists’ Views on Strategies for Strengthening Families,” and “Domestic Violence in the Orthodox Jewish Community” to “Poverty, Women, and HIV,” “The Gray Areas of Caregiver Neglect,” “The Impact of the U.S. Travel Policy on Cuban-American Families,” and “Reflections on Hurricane Katrina by Older Adults.” Among the notable speakers were Michael Reisch of the University of Michigan; Edwin Mendez-Santiago, Commissioner of the NYC City Office of Aging; Rev. Jerry Streets, chaplain of Yale University; Michael Miller of the Jewish Community Relations Council of New York; Gary Bailey, past president of the National Association of Social Workers; Barry Shrage of Combined Jewish Philanthropies of Greater Boston, Jeffrey Solomon of the Andrea and Charles Bronfman Foundation; Mimi Abramowitz of Hunter College; and Mark Terrill of the Associated of Baltimore. Wurzweiler School of Social Work was born of the belief that there was a need for a school of social work dedicated to excellence in the learning and performance of Jewish communal service and the wider world of social services. Since 1957, the school’s dual mission has adhered to a distinct set of values. Wurzweiler serves all sector of society. It attracts students of diverse backgrounds and cultures so that each student will bring his or her heritage to bear on the learning process. Today, Wurzweiler is recognized around the country and the world, in both secular and public forums, as a leading producer of scholarship and of graduates who are skilled practitioners, well trained in ethical precepts. The faculty are not only committed to teaching and practice, but also to productivity in scholarship and collaboration in cutting-edge inquiries. Their influence is evident in the dedication of Wurzweiler graduates to achieving a more just world.