Boy Scouts of America

The Ernest Kahn Family Collection documents the lives of Ernest Kahn, his father Morris Kahn, his mother Ida Kahn née Levy, his sister Ruth Kahn, and his maternal grandmother Amalie Levy née Blumenthal. The bulk of the collection contains correspondence and financial statements pertaining to restitution claims filed against the German government.

The collection consists of memorabilia and research materials Hyman Bogen collected regarding the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York and its alumni association, the Seligman Solomon Society. A wide range of documents exist, such as orphanage and alumni publications, personal and academic histories, souvenir programs, articles and newslcippings, reports, files on certain individual alumni, correspondence, completed alumni questionnaires, photographs, veteran and census documents, a scrapbook, and banners and towels. The collection includes many HOA publications, the HOA annual reports, commemorative booklets, a centenial souvenir book, a farewell dinner program, camp Wehaha and Wakitan songbook, and evaluation reports. The collection contains several personal and academic histories as well as informal recollections of HOA written by alumni and graduate students of the Graduate School for Jewish Social Work. Burial lists of children interred at Beth El (1930s) and Salem Fields (1988) Cemeteries can be accessed as well. Of unusual interest are research files Hyman Bogen gathered for his book The Luckiest Orphans: A History of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of New York and a possible book on the Franco and Goldman families. These include Samson Simpson (1780-1857) as well as the musical prodigies Franco and Goldman families who had ties to HOA. Another appealing item is the visitor book to Moses Ezekiel's Rome Studio (1896). HOA photographs are numerous and consist of the Broadway and Amsterdam building, individual groups, camps, boys scout troop, the band, HOA staff, confirmation classes, the 1941 farewell dinner, a 1945 seder, and a memorial to HOA plaque dedication. A scrapbook compiled by HOA librarian Mildred Stember offers a detailed view of HOA life in the 1920's. Seligman Solomon Society material includes the oldest existing SSS document, a musical program from 1889. Further material encompasses bulletins, dinner programs, anniversary books, and meeting minutes proposing the merger of SSS and Academy Alumni Association.

The Jonah J. Goldstein Papers chronicle Goldstein’s roles as a New York City judge (1931-1956) as he pushed for court reform in the 1930s; as he lead and founded local organizations, especially those devoted to the prevention of juvenile delinquency in the Jewish community; as the New York City mayoral candidate on the Liberal-Republican-City Fusion ticket in 1945; and as a voice for drug law reform in the 1950s and 1960s.

Materials include correspondence, speeches, scrapbooks, photographs, awards, campaign posters, audiotapes and clippings.

This collection contains correspondence, documents, and newspaper clippings relating to the life and activities of Frankel in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, as well as in other social welfare Jewish organizations. Includes biographic and bibliographic data; manuscript and printed copies of his writings; speeches on the subjects of health, insurance and Jewish affairs; and miscellaneous personal correspondence, particularly especially with Milton Rosenau.

The collection contains correspondence, documents, and newspaper clippings relating to the life and activities of Obermayer in local and national Jewish organizations. Includes: correspondence and other materials concerning the Board of Public Education of Philadelphia on which he served as member and then president 1955-1961 (of special interest are the papers pertaining to communism in the schools, educational television, and the problems of minority students); the American Jewish Historical Society of which he served as a member, president and chairman of the Exec. Council (of special interest is the material pertaining to the litigation over the Society's move to Waltham); the Symphony Club (1959-1966); the Penn. Advisory Committee, U.S. Commission on Civil Rights (1958-1960); the Penn. Alcoholic Beverage Study (1961-1967); the Heart Association of Southeastern Penn. (1964-1965); the National Committee on Employment of Youth (1965-1968); the American Bar Association Special Committee on Investigation, Solicitation and Handling of Personal Injury Claims (1957-1959); the Committee on Legal Ethics and Grievances (1961-1969); the Penn. Prison Society (1964-1969); the Phila. YM & YWHA (1925-1940, 1967-1968); the Hebrew Sunday School Society (1919-1970); the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, with special reference to Edmond Cahn's opposition to the establishment of Reform Jewish day schools (1964-1965); the Hebrew Union College (1964-1968); B'nai B'rith (1957-1967) and the Philadelphia Bar Assoc. (1937-1977).

This collection contains material relating to Norman Salit's activities with various organizations, including the Synagogue Council of America, the Rabbinical Assembly of America, the Wartime Emergency Commission for Conservative Judaism, the Boy Scouts of America, the Jewish Education Committee, the American Child Guidance Foundation, Religion in American Life, the Valley Forge Foundation, the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, and the National Community Relations Advisory Council. There are also speeches, writings, sermons, items related to Sharit's legal work and Zionist activities, as well as some letters from Mordecai Kaplan.

The Papers of Rabbi Samuel Geffen document his professional career as the rabbi of the Jewish Center of Forest Hills West in Queens. The collection is the result of Rabbi Geffen's work as a religious leader and educator at the Jewish Center and depicts the center's and Rabbi Geffen's role in the Jewish community there.

Spanning from its inception and incorporation in 1925 to its culmination in 2002, the Queens Jewish Center collection highlights this congregation's wide-range of religiously oriented and secular educational activities, ceremonies, developments, events, and programs. Predominant in this collection are the reports, bulletins, financial, legal and property records, and meeting minutes. In addition, books, clippings, correspondence, pamphlets, programs, publications, negatives photographs are also contained with in this collections.

This Collection documents the lifespan (1926-1982, 1990-1992, 1994) and activities of the joint Reform, Conservative, and Orthodox Jewish communities' efforts in coordinating Jewish life and activities in America. The collection contains correspondence, photographs, and ephemera including photographs of Martin Luther King, Jr., Edward Kennedy, and Presidents Eisenhower, Truman, and Johnson, along with Eleanor Roosevelt. Of particular interest is correspondence and photographs documenting the removal, reconsecration, or burial of ritual Synagogue items for repatriation from Europe to the U.S. and South America after WWII; also contains information on damaged synagogues in France.