Joseph Maier collection

Joseph Maier (1911-2002) was born in Leipzig, Germany. After finishing university in Leipzig he immigrated to the United States in September 1933. His parents and brother had already immigrated to America. Joseph received his M.A. (1934) and his Ph.D. (1939) from Columbia University. From 1940 to 1943 he was assistant editor for a New York German-Jewish newspaper, and in 1944, he worked in the American embassy in Britain as a propaganda analyst. In 1946, he volunteered for service in Germany after World War II and participated in the Nuremberg Trials, becoming chief of the analysis section of the Interrogation Division. In 1947 he was appointed professor of sociology at Rutgers University and became chairman of the department until his retirement in 1980. Maier was a specialist in the sociology of religion and became widely known as the author of a weekly column in the New York German-language Jewish newspaper Aufbau dealing with the application of halakhic wisdom to contemporary social problems. With Werner Cahnman, Maier established the organization for the Preservation of Jewish Cultural Monuments in Europe, later called the Rashi Association (1978). From 1980 on, he served as its president, helping to establish such projects as the Institute of Judaic Studies at the University of Munich.