Arthur Eisenberg thanked the military–and his poor eyesight–for giving him the opportunity to turn his compassion into a successful career of helping the less fortunate.
Mr. Eisenberg was born in New York City and drafted into the Army during World War II after receiving a master’s degree in educational psychology from New York University. He was kept stateside by the military because of his vision.
He was assigned to the Army’s psychological services to help rehabilitate soldiers with battle fatigue.
From that experience he crafted a career working to make life easier for tuberculosis patients, the blind and eventually, the clients of the Jewish Vocational Services in Chicago.
Mr. Eisenberg, 88, a retired counselor with Jewish Vocational Services, died Wednesday, Aug. 25, of heart disease and pneumonia in his Chicago home.
After his discharge in 1946, he became a rehabilitation executive at Montefiore Hospital in New York City, where he worked with tuberculosis patients.
“Back then, treatment meant extremely long bed rest. He would work with people to get their lives back together, so they would be able to function again in a competitive work environment, and then helped them find jobs,” said his life partner of 19 years, Jack Neiditch.
From the hospital, he moved to the Burke Foundation for Rehabilitation in White Plains, N.Y., as director of vocational services from 1955 to 1957, before joining the National Tuberculosis Association as a rehabilitation consultant.
In 1960, he became a Midwest consultant for the American Foundation for the Blind.
He left there in 1965 and a year later became a counselor with Jewish Vocational Services in Chicago.
He was instrumental in helping the group receive a five-year federal grant in 1968 to address issues faced by the hearing impaired. He then served as a counselor in the program, referring clients to the appropriate workshop at the agency to develop skills to find work.
“Art was very exact in his work and empathetic with the clients,” said Donna Searles, the project’s administrative assistant.
After retiring from Jewish Vocational Services in 1981, Mr. Eisenberg came out as being gay and joined the Congregation Or Chadash, a Chicago synagogue serving lesbian, gay, bisexual and transgender/transsexual Jews. He worked with others to have the synagogue recognized by the mainstream Union for Reform Judaism. He was married and divorced from the late Ruth Berman.
Neiditch met him after joining the congregation in 1985.
“He was a wonderfully warm and supportive person,” Neiditch said. “He was always interested in finding out what people did for a living . . . He saw that as a key to their character. He loved hearing the stories of the way people had developed.”
His fellow congregation members revered Mr. Eisenberg, said Suzanne Grissel, its rabbi from 1997 to 2003.
“He really was kind of an elder statesman,” Grissel said.
In the mid-1980s, he helped establish a group for lesbians and gay men over 65 to investigate and address their unique social service needs.
He also is survived by his two sons, Jay and Stephen; four grandchildren; and two nieces.
A memorial will be held at 2 p.m. Sunday in the Henning Chapel, Rosehill Cemetery, 5800 N. Ravenswood Ave., Chicago.
