Susan Feingold Dies at 95; Helped Give New York Children a Head Start
Her Bloomingdale Family Program provided preschoolers with a haven where there hadn’t been one before. It became a model for similar efforts under Lyndon Johnson’s War on Poverty.
Susan Feingold in 1989. Her Bloomingdale Family Program for underprivileged children became a model for the national Head Start program, a signature effort in President Lyndon B. Johnson’s War on Poverty.Credit.Jack Manning/The New York Times
Feb. 25, 2021
In the 1960s, New York City presented a harsh landscape for its underprivileged children. Parks were dangerous, the courtyards of crumbling housing projects could be hostile zones, and preschools were expensive. But a band of parents in Manhattan resolved to take matters into their own hands, led by a strong-willed woman named Susan Feingold, who had narrowly escaped the Holocaust as a girl.