American Jewish Congress

Constitution. Minutes of committee meetings, 1940s-1950s. Financial and relief records, 1945-1947. Records of the Women's Division, 1942-1943. Organizational reports, 1940s. Material pertaining to membership. Correspondence, 1942-1963. Materials pertaining to conferences, mass protest meetings, commemorations, 1945-1954. Materials pertaining to the fourth World Conference of Polish Jews, 1945. Testimonies given in Palestine regarding Nazi brutality and accounts of escape from Nazi persecution. Reports pertaining to Jewish life in Poland. Publications. Yearbook, 1938. Bulletins, newsletters. Typescripts of chapters of The Black Book of Polish Jewry. Publicity materials. Photographs.

Internal records of the Tercentenary Committee. Materials of the Board of Directors. Budget Committee records. By-laws. Minutes of the Steering Committee. Minutes of Planning Conferences. Correspondence with organizations and individuals: American Jewish Congress; American Jewish Committee; B'nai Brith; Jewish Publication Society; Jewish Theological Seminary. Individuals include: David Bernstein, Albert Greenfeld, Bernice Koor, Milton Krents, Benjamin Lazarus, Henry Moses, William Rosenwald, Harold Shapiro. Materials relating to celebration activities.

This is an artificial collection that contains digitized photographs and slides selected from various collections in the Archives of the American Soviet Jewry Movement, and other related collections at the American Jewish Historical Society. The physical part of the collection consists of one manuscript box containing 415 photographs that were separated from their parent collections.

The collection contains Bernard G. Richards personal and official correspondence, papers from his involvement with the American Jewish Congress and Jewish Information Bureau, published and unpublished writings, publications collected by Richards, articles about Richards and his activities, correspondence and articles from testimonial dinners in honor of Richards, and photographs. Significant correspondents include Joseph Barondess, Louis D. Brandeis, Vladimir Jabotinsky, J.L. Magnes, Louis Marshall, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jacob H. Schiff, Philip Slomovitz, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Morris Winchovsky, and Stephen S. Wise.

Collection includes newspaper clippings, articles, an excerpt from an oral history interview, and a short biographical summary of Elizabeth Blume and her husband, Max Silverstein. Of interest is Ms. Blume's oral history excerpt, where she describes an opinion she helped prepare for the American Jewish Congress concerning the Balfour Declaration.

This collection of mainly anti-Semitic material was compiled by a Jewish librarian of German descent who infiltrated the pro-Nazi community developing in New York City in the years leading up to World War II. The bulk of the collection consists of publications and printed matter, with the notable exception of narrative reports that describe first-hand experiences and observations of Nazi-affiliated events. Document types include advertisements, event announcements, books, clippings, correspondence, magazines and newspapers, travel guides, political memorabilia, and other print ephemera.

The General Jewish Council was an umbrella organization founded by the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith, and Jewish Labor Committee in order to coordinate their rights defense activities.

The bulk of the records in this collection date between from 1938-1944, the active years of the Council. Materials consist primarily of correspondence, minutes, memoranda, and reports.

Contains manuscript and published material from Zionist, rabbinic, and other national Jewish organizations; and from various local Jewish community organizations relating to fund-raising drives, protest demonstrations, and other activities on behalf of Israel. Also contains copies of letters and telegrams sent by various individuals to American government officials and to Arab leaders; published statements of President Lyndon B. Johnson and various U.S. Congressmen; reactions of private American citizens, both Jewish and non-Jewish; personal letters written from Israel during the crisis; several scholarly studies and clippings from various Yiddish, Anglo-Jewish, and Israeli newspapers pertaining to the conflict; and an extensive collection of material from Dr. Nelson Glueck regarding his experiences during and after the war.

The Holocaust Collection consists of various donated materials pertaining to the Holocaust assembled into a single research file. Only a couple items date from the historical time period, most items were created decades after the Holocaust.

The collection consists of the following: material pertaining to the organization of the Youth Division of the American Jewish Congress (1940) including signed letters from Stephen S. Wise and Edward S. Silver and minutes of a meeting on reorganization of the division; a letter and flyer pertaining to a speaking engagement for the Works Projects Administration for the City of New York (1940); a letter of invitation to a meeting of the Junior Federation-Brooklyn Federation of Jewish Charities (1940); a biographical sketch; Spier's Bar Mitzvah speech; as well as an American Jewish Congress family membership card (1937).

The Institute of Jewish Affairs was a scientific and research organization attached to the World Jewish Congress. The collection consists of brochures, reports, surveys and other research publications. The materials address the plans, goals and activities of the organization as well as containing studies of Jews in Nazi-occupied Europe, Jewish life in the postwar era in various countries and political events influencing Jewry and anti-Semitism. The collection also includes analyses of international legislation on questions which were influencing the Jewish situation within the spheres of human rights, minorities and migration at the time.

Consists of correspondence, articles, speeches, travel notes, ephemera and other documents pertaining to the career of a civil-engineer Jacob Xenab Cohen, who retired from that profession in 1924 to become a practicing rabbi. Includes materials from Cohen's campaigns against employment discrimination and Nazi persecution of Jews in Europe from 1932 to 1945.

This collection contains correspondence, brochures, memorandum, pamphlets, fliers, invitations, reports, programs and press releases. The documents in this collection describe issues concerning the Holocaust, Jewish resistance, European labor concerns, the Jewish Labor Movement in America and anti-communism and Soviet Jewry. Included are invitations, programs and general information concerning miscellaneous concerts, conventions, symposia, and summer fellowships. A brochure regarding the Jewish Labor Committee's Child Adoption Program and materials relating to the Women's Division and Workmen's Circle also are found in the collection. In addition the collection contains publications issued by other organizations, including: American Federation of Labor, American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Friends of Democracy, National Community Relations Advisory Council, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and the United States Displaced Persons Commission.

Contains the memoirs and scrapbooks of Bluestone, concerning his numerous communal activities, especially those in the Zionist movement. A description of the collection was published by Hyman B. Grinstein in Publications of the American Jewish Historical Society, no. 35 (1939), and a detailed inventory was prepared by Harry Bluestone (n.d.).

The collection contains correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs relating to the activities of Louis E. Shecter, a Baltimore advertising executive, art collector, and former president of the local branch of the American Jewish Congress. It includes several articles written by him, as well as the replies of 10 U.S. Senators, 1 Representative, and 2 Maryland government officials to Shecter's request that they describe their impression of John Fitzgerald Kennedy in a one-sentence statement.

Louis Lipsky (1876-1963) was a noted Zionist leader, journalist, and writer. The collection contains personal correspondence, memoranda, speeches, magazine and newspaper articles, manuscripts, drafts of books, and organizational materials concerning the Zionist movement, and various Jewish organizations.

Lucien Wolf (1857-1930) was a diplomat, foreign affairs expert, journalist, and historian. As the secretary of the Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association (earlier the Conjoint Foreign Committee), Lucien Wolf took a leading role in the efforts of Western Jewry to aid persecuted Jews in Eastern Europe. He was also a delegate to the Paris Peace Conference (1919), where he helped to draft the minorities treaties guaranteeing the rights of Jews and other ethnic and religious minority groups. David Mowshowitch (1887-1957) was Lucien Wolf's secretary and aide at the Joint Foreign Committee for many years and continued to work for the Joint Foreign Committee until the 1950s. The collection consists of the papers of Lucien Wolf and David Mowshowitch, as well as fragmentary records of the Joint Foreign Committee. The material includes personal papers, correspondence, reports, memoranda, minutes of meetings, copies of articles, and press clippings. The documents pertain to the situation of persecuted Jews throughout the world, most notably the efforts of the Joint Foreign Committee of the Board of Deputies of British Jews and the Anglo-Jewish Association to aid the Jews of Eastern Europe, and to the Peace Conference at Paris in 1919 and the minorities treaties. There is also material on Lucien Wolf's and David Mowshowitch's other activities, most importantly Lucien Wolf's career as a journalist and as a historian of the Jewish community in Britain.

This collection contains Marvin Lowenthal's correspondence, journals, diaries, documents, photographs, memorabilia, and printed materials relating to his life, writings, Zionist activities, and relief work on behalf of German Jewry. Includes material on his youth, school work, and college years, as well as autobiographical writings and family correspondence containing information on Horace Kallen and early 20th century Zionist activities. Of particular note is his later correspondence with Jacob Billikopf, Jerome Frank, Horace M. Kallen, Elmer Rice, Eugene C. Taylor, and Stephen S. Wise.

Papers of Morey Schapira reflect the work of the prominent activist of the American Soviet Jewry movement in the years 1965-1993. The collection includes details on Mr. Schapira’s leadership role with organizations Action for Soviet Jewry, the Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry, the New England Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. The collection contains files on many other groups, individuals and topics.

Contains correspondence, judicial opinions, addresses and speeches, newspaper clippings, and published material relating to Perlman's career as a judge in various municipal courts of the city of New York (1935-1952), his political career as a New York State Assemblyman (1915-1917), member of the United States House of Representatives (1920-1927), and as an unsuccessful candidate for New York State office.

It also contains published material relating to Perlman's activities on behalf of the Jewish community, especially the American Jewish Congress (1942-1946), where he served as chairman of its National Executive Committee.

Approximately half of this collection consists of the official minutes; memoranda; administrative and investigatory reports; and correspondence of the Mayor's Committee on Unity established by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia in 1944, of which Perlman served as a member on the subcommittees on Housing, City Services, and the Timone Investigation.

This collection includes articles, bibliographies, promotional material, brochures, minutes, newsletters, and publication lists relating to the furtherance of Jewish Art in the United States and Israel.

This collection documents the activities, administration, planning, proceedings, and correspondence of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, 1944-1994. The collection includes correspondence, programs, minutes, proposals, reports, clippings, press releases, and publications.

The collection relates to Osofsky's field work for the JFMB and consists of approximately 100 cassettes of interviews and recorded songs, as well as slides, photographs, songsheets, scholarly papers, and administrative records.

This collection contains correspondence between Horace M. Kallen and many important individuals and organizations, as well as manuscripts, notes and other materials for speeches, financial documents, research materials, academic records, and various other assorted items. These materials serve to illustrate Kallen’s important role in philosophy, education, religion, and politics and his deep involvement with consumer rights, environmental controls, Jewish issues, and civil liberties.

This collection contains documents relating to Isaac A. Hourwich’s role as an economist, publicist, statistician, lawyer, author, and authority on immigration, as well as his involvement with the labor movement and the formation of the American Jewish Congress. There are reports, minutes of meetings, memoranda, clippings and correspondence, and manuscripts and articles about Jewish labor, Socialism, Russia, Marxism, immigration, and other subjects. These materials demonstrate Hourwich’s important role in American labor, immigration theory, and political and economic theory.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of rabbi, Hebrew scholar, author, and editor Israel Elfenbein. These materials include correspondence with and relating to congregations, Hebrew periodicals, organizations, Elfenbein’s writings, personal correspondence, sermons, clippings, and manuscripts by Elfenbein and by other writers.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of William Edlin, editor of The Day and a prominent Socialist. It includes correspondence with individuals and with organizations, newspaper clippings, manuscripts of works by Edlin and by others as well as translations done by Edlin, and some of Edlin’s personal documents. These materials relate to Edlin’s involvement with The Day, with the Socialist Party, the Workmen’s Circle, various labor and Zionist organizations, literary clubs and activities, and with music, art and drama.

The records of the American Jewish Congress, a national Jewish agency, concerned primarily with Jewish and other minority civil rights, include the constitution, by-laws, and minutes of the Administrative and Executive Committees and Governing Council of the Congress. The collection has materials generated by the National Biennial Conventions, Executive Directors, including Phil Baum and Henry Siegman, and the General Counsel files of Will Maslow, Commissions and the Jerusalem Conferences of Mayors, Regional Chapters, National Women's Division, Business and Professional Chapters, Public Relations, and miscellaneous activities conducted by American Jewish Congress.

This collection contains annual reports, board minutes, case studies, correspondence, newsletters, survey reports, and other items.

The collection represents the papers of Morris David Waldman (1879-1963), a rabbi, social worker and communal leader, who was appointed executive secretary of one of the main Jewish defense organizations, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), in 1928. The executive secretary had top executive function at the organization and was in charge of working out and implementing the organization’s projects and policies regarding monitoring the civil and human rights of the Jews, and intervening on behalf of the Jews both in the U.S. and abroad. In 1942, Waldman was promoted to executive vice-president, a position he held until his retirement in 1945. The Morris Waldman Files relate to all of Waldman's activities as acting executive secretary and vice-president of the AJC.