Biography:

Edwin J. Lukas was a lawyer, author, criminologist, college lecturer, and civil rights activist.  He engaged in private law practice in New York City from 1924 to 1941.  In 1942 he joined the New York Society for the Prevention of Crime, where he served as executive director and general counsel.  He left the Society in 1950 to join the American Jewish Committee (AJC), serving as general counsel and heading the civil rights and social action department.  Lukas retired from the AJC in 1968.  While with the American Jewish Committee, Lukas was an early advocate of the involvement of Jews in the civil rights movement.  Throughout his career, and after his retirement from the AJC, Lukas served as a lecturer at various colleges and universities on the subjects of criminology, law, and social legislation.  He also wrote extensively on the subjects of crime and civil rights.