Pam, Hugo

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PAM, HUGO

PAM, HUGO (1870–1930), U.S. jurist and Zionist leader. Pam, who was born in Chicago, practiced law in that city with his brother Max. In 1911 he was elected to the Cook County Superior Court, on which he served for 20 years. As a judge he developed a special interest in the psychology of criminal behavior, which led him to be chosen vice president of the Illinois Society of Mental Hygiene. He also served for three years as president of the American Institute of Criminal Law and Criminology. Pam became active in organized Jewish life in 1912, when he joined the Federation of American Zionists, of which he was later vice president. He took part in the founding of the *American Jewish Congress in 1916. After World War i, he traveled to Russia and Poland on behalf of *hias to survey conditions in the Jewish communities there.

[Aaron Lichtenstein]