Melville Leonard Edelstein (1919— 16 June 1976) was a South African academic and social worker who was killed in the Soweto uprising.
Serving as Deputy Chief Welfare Officer, Edelstein instituted many projects aimed at assisting youth, disabled, poor, and marginalized communities within Soweto.
[3] He served for eighteen years as a social worker for the Welfare Section of the Non-European Affairs Department, which fell under the City of Johannesburg.
[4][5] Edelstein was one of the two white men who died in the Soweto uprising of 16 June 1976, when he was stoned to death by a crowd of enraged students.
[6][7] Edelstein had been hosting the official opening for a branch of his Sheltered Workshop Programme in Orlando East, designed to provide employment for disabled people, when news of the student protests reached the project.