Edwin Silverman led the Illinois Bureau of Refugee and Immigrant Services for 38 years and helped tens of thousands of refugees settle into new lives.
Since 1975, Illinois has resettled more than 123,644 refugees from more than 60 countries, facilitating relocation and economic self-sufficiency for people who are victims of political and religious persecution, according to the bureau’s website.
Under Silverman’s leadership, Illinois led in many ways in providing services to refugees and immigrants. His reach extended to national legislation.
“One of the interesting things about Ed is his total sense of innovation and creativity,” said Deborah Covington of the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, which partners with the state on refugee and immigrant programs.
“He was instrumental in the foundation of the 1980 Refugee Act, which describes how social services were to be provided,” she said.
Silverman, 79, died of natural causes Sept. 13 at Presence St. Joseph Hospital in Chicago, according to his daughter, Maria. He lived in Chicago’s Lincoln Park neighborhood for more than 40 years.
Silverman grew up in the South Shore neighborhood, the son of immigrant parents. He attended Purdue University in West Lafayette, Ind., and earned a bachelor’s degree in engineering, but dissatisfied with that profession, he returned to school for a doctorate in romantic literature from Northwestern University.
He taught literature at Boston University for a time but failed to gain tenure, his daughter said. With family and friends in Chicago, he returned to the city. He drove a cab briefly before going to work for Gov. Dan Walker. There he helped start what Walker and others thought would be a short-lived refugee assistance program in the wake of the fall of Saigon, when many Vietnamese fled their country.
“They thought it would be a couple-of-year program,” Covington said. “But it became his career, his passion.”
Silverman was a strong believer that members of refugee communities could contribute and should help themselves. That led to mutual aid organizations, an idea that started in Illinois and became a national trend.
“He believed you aren’t fully integrated until you’re engaged in the community,” Covington said.
Silverman was one of the founders of State Coordinators of Refugee Resettlement, an annual conference for state officials working with refugees, family members said.
In 2016, Silverman gave the graduation address for DePaul University’s College of Law. It was noted then that he chaired the Advisory Council on Immigrant and Refugee Affairs for the Chicago Commission on Human Relations from 2003 to 2011.
In an online posting with Silverman’s obituary, Kenneth Gunn, first deputy commissioner of the commission, acknowledged Silverman’s substantial contributions. “He opened up our eyes to the plight of immigrants and refugees in our city, and help(ed) us see the face of those in need so we could see them as people and not statistics.”
Covington said Silverman never succumbed to the constraints of bureaucracy, always seeing the possibilities for action beyond the rules and guidelines.
“He made sure we were able to think outside the box,” Covington said. “He made us less bureaucratic.”
Silverman was the least bureaucratic of all, relishing the successes of others and joining in the celebrations of the refugee and immigrant communities he served. “Ed would be the first guy out on the dance floor, doing the appropriate ethnic dance,” Covington said.
She said Silverman exemplified a Jewish teaching, “Yours is not to complete the task, but neither are you free to desist from it.”
Silverman is also survived by his son, Alexei; and a grandson.
His wife Marjorie, to whom he was married for 53 years, died in 2015.
Services were held.
Graydon Megan is a freelance reporter.