Isaac Max Rubinow Selected Files on Microfilm

Isaac Max Rubinow (18751936) was a leading theorist on social insurance and one of the most influential writers on the subject. Rubinow was an MD, and held a Ph.D. in economics from Columbia University.

His work impacted a generation of social reformers, including President Theodore Roosevelt, who used Rubinow's work in drafting the Progressive Party platform in 1912. The Progressive Party was the first of its kind to call for social insurance.

Rubinow was a Russian Jew who immigrated to the United States in 1893, at the age of 18. He trained as a medical doctor at Columbia University and New York University Medical School. When he grew frustrated with not being able to help his patients lessen their economic woes, he decided to change professions.

He became employed as an economic expert in the U.S. Dept. of Agriculture's Bureau of Statistics, Division of Foreign Markets, he wrote extensively about the development of the Russian wheat market and the impact of growing Russian wheat exports on U.S. and world markets.

Later employed as an actuary, Rubinow was very important in the formation of the Casualty Actuarial and Statistical Society of America in 1914, which is known as Casualty Actuarial Society today.