Jonathan Stein performs “27 ONWARD: Dancing in the Revolution” at the Community Legal
Services offi ce as part of Rehearsing Philadelphia
Screenshots of John Thornton’s documentary “Jonathan Stein, Onward in Law and Dance”
between ‘forward’ and ‘onward.’ ‘Forward’ means to move in the
direction you are facing, but ‘onward’ means to move forward in
a continuous motion, never resting, always ready for what is to
be done next.”
Stein and Conrad were partnered with each other for the
project as part of Rehearsing Philadelphia’s solo modules, which
connected an artist with a professional from one of fi ve of
Philadelphia’s “power centers.”
Stein, the “professional” was paired with Conrad, the artist,
who interviewed Stein for fi ve hours to eventually come up with
their eight-page script. It was Conrad’s fi rst time collaborating
with a dancer.

“He is 78 years old, and he dances in ways that I cannot imag-
ine doing at 56,” Conrad said.

To prepare for the performances, Stein completed months of
aerobic and strength training, yoga and Pilates.

But the performance was, of course, more than 50 years in
the making.

A law degree at the University of Pennsylvania brought Stein,
a Jewish Brooklynite, to Philadelphia aft er he completed a bach-
elor’s at Columbia University.

He matriculated in 1964 and, inspired by the civil rights
movement, took Penn’s fi rst poverty law course on law and
income insecurity.

“Law, essentially, has historically been about enforcing power
and wealth, and not about redistribution of income with social
justice,” Stein said.

Federal anti-poverty laws passed in the 1960s helped launch
the legal aid movement that not only provided legal services
to those who could not aff ord it, but also tackled poverty as a
systemic issue, using litigation and class action lawsuits to bring
appeals to the supreme court and work to pass more progressive
legislation. 24
MAY 5, 2022
Following summers working at the legal services department
of Mobilization for Youth in New York and a year at the London
School of Economics aft er receiving his law degree, Stein returned
to Philadelphia as a lawyer at the newly formed CLS in 1968.

At the time, CLS was looking to hire fresh and young lawyers;
to create systemic change, they wanted to disrupt the old boy’s
club of lawyers.

“I just felt this was such an extraordinary place to work and
still is for younger people here in the city,” Stein said. “It allowed
me to do so many things; it was very supportive.”
Th ough Stein gained credibility as a lawyer at a young age
aft er arguing in front of the Supreme Court, he continued to
pursue cases close to his heart throughout his career.

In 2010, he became focused on immigration and welfare,
particularly the lack of availability of Supplemental Security
Income, or SSI, which served a similar role as Social Security.

During the ’90s, many Jewish Russian refugees needed SSI but
could not get it.

“Th e biggest hit was taken by noncitizens, immigrants who
could no longer get SSI, even though they were disabled or
elderly and poor — which are the criteria for SSI benefi ts — and
there was a tiny sliver of eligibility for immigrants who were
asylees or refugees,” Stein said.

Stein, along with a now-95-year-old Holocaust survivor, led
a class-action law suit to address the lack of SSI availability.

Th ough they did not successfully change the Social Security Act
provision, they settled, and the two still keep in touch.

As Stein became a more seasoned lawyer, he developed a curi-
osity for the modern dance movement that emerged in the ’70s
and ’80s. He was always a lover of culture and arts and his wife
Judy Bernstein, whom he married in 1965, was an art historian
and curator at the Pennsylvania Academy of Fine Art.

Stein was particularly enamored with contact improvisation,
THE GOOD LIFE
JEWISHEXPONENT.COM