Sidonie gruenberg biography of martin

Born 10 June 1881, Vienna, Austria; died 11 March 1974, New York, New York

Daughter of Idore and Augusta Bassechés Matzner; married Benjamin C.

Gruenberg, 1903

The oldest of four girls and two boys, Sidonie Matzner Gruenberg was raised in a large family villa outside Vienna. In 1895, her father brought the family to New York, where they began a lifelong association with Felix Adler's Ethical Culture Society, a "religious society, imbued with the spirit of religion but without the dogmas."

After studying at the Ethical Culture schools, Gruenberg took graduate courses at Teachers College, Columbia University.

In 1907 she began her association with the Federation of Child Study, a group of Ethical Culture women encouraged by Felix Adler to study new ideas in child development. In 1924, the federation expanded and became the Child Study Association of America; Gruenberg was named director, a post she held until her retirement in 1950.

She taught p