Ira Eugene Sanders; Rabbi Sanders

Portrait, head and shoulders. On verso: 12-51. LL.D. 1951. Rabbi Ira Sanders. Baccalaureate: Jan. 52.Rabbi Ira Eugene Sanders (1894–1985) came to Little Rock in 1926 as leader of the state’s largest Reform Jewish congregation, B’nai Israel. Known for his work to promote social work and civil rights, Sanders in February 1927 founded and served as the first Dean of the Little Rock School of Social Work, which became a unit of the University of Arkansas General Extension Service. He was founder and president of the Arkansas Human Betterment League, the Urban League of Greater Little Rock, and the Arkansas Lighthouse for the Blind. He was one of the founders and first president of the Greater Little Rock Library Association and served on its board for forty-one years. He received an honorary Doctor of Humanities degree in 1951 from UA and in 1954, he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Hebrew Union College’s Jewish Institute of Religion