Abraham Epstein

Born in Lyuban in the Russian Empire on April 20, 1892, and later emigrating to the United States, Abraham Epstein became an economist, lecturer, writer, and activist best known for pushing social insurance into the national conversation. He is widely remembered as a major early advocate for old-age pensions and for helping popularize the very phrase "social security."

Epstein combined scholarship with reform work. Early in his career, he studied social conditions in industrial America, including The Negro Migrant in Pittsburgh (1918). He later founded the American Association for Old Age Security in 1927, which became the American Association for Social Security, and spent years campaigning for broader protections for workers, older adults, and families facing hardship.

Although he was an important public voice during the era that led to the Social Security Act of 1935, he also criticized parts of the final law for not going far enough. That mix of idealism and impatience runs through his legacy: he was not only interested in describing social problems, but in building lasting public systems to address them. Epstein died on May 2, 1942.