Jewish Colonization Association

Microfilms with copies from the Hirsch Collection at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

The Papers of Graenum Berger (1908-1999) document Berger's involvement with Ethiopian Jewry and his efforts to bring about their rescue from Ethiopia through his organization, the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ). The Papers also contain materials regarding Berger's other interests-his writings, his travels throughout the world, his community affiliations, his career as a Jewish social work executive, his commitment to Jewish causes, and his commitment to Israel. Also included are personal and biographical materials from his many long-term friendships and associations; correspondence, minutes, reports, clippings, manuscripts, research materials, journal articles, photographs, and publications.

This collection contains records of the HIAS-ICA Emigration Association HICEM, an organization that supported the emigration of European Jews. It was created in 1927 by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), the Jewish Colonization Association (ICA), and Emig-Direkt. Materials include minutes, correspondence, administrative records, and reports on the situation of Jews in various parts of Europe.

The Papers of Max J. Kohler (1871-1934) document his life's work as lawyer, historian, writer, researcher, and defender of Jewish and immigrant rights. Correspondents include many of Kohler's contemporaries in the field of history and immigration law including Cyrus Adler; William Taft; John Bassett Moore; Mortimer Schiff; David Hunter Miller; Baron and Baroness de Hirsch; the Straus Family including Oscar Straus; Luigi Luzzatti; Leon Huhner; and Julian Mack. Subjects include U.S. immigration law, American-Jewish history, Col. Alfred Dreyfus, Haym Salomon, Ellis Island, Rabbi Kaufmann Kohler, the publication God in Freedom, international treaties, and the Peace Conference of 1919.

This collection, which is a sub-group of RG 245 HIAS, includes the records of the main HICEM office in Europe prior to and during World War II. There are also some records from the post-war period relating to the dissolution of HICEM, HIAS’s taking over of HICEM’s operations and HIAS’s work with displaced persons.

This collection contains correspondence dealing with requests for aid from relatives of Americans in Russia and German occupied Europe obtained through the Jewish Colonization Association office in Petrograd and the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden. Those aiding in the search for relatives in America include the New England Branch of the A.J.R.C., the Philadelphia Branch of the A.J.R.C. (Cyrus Adler), the Buffalo Relief Committee, the Chicago Jewish courier, Chicago Jewish Relief Committee, Cincinnati United Jewish Charities, Hartford Central Jewish War Relief Committee, and the New York Jewish daily forward. Also contains appeal leaflets, the program of a benefit held in Carnegie Hall, addresses by Jacob Billikopf, Herbert H. Lehman, Solomon Schechter, and Felix Warburg and circulars from the Reichsverband Ostmarkenhilfe.

The Baron de Hirsch Fund Records document the organization's involvement in the planning of agricultural communities across the United States and to some extent in South America; the founding and administrative dealings of agricultural and trade schools; the establishment of the Jewish Agricultural Society; and the business records of the Fund itself. In addition, the collection documents the protection offered to immigrants through port work, relief, temporary aid, promotion of suburban industrial enterprises and removal from urban centers through the Industrial Removal Office, land settlement, agricultural training, and trade and general education. In this respect, the collection is of major interest for Jewish genealogists as it documents a number of individual immigrants. In addition, the collection contains documentation on the administration and organization of the fund, documentation on Jewish farming colonies such as the Jewish Agricultural Society, Woodbine Colony and Agricultural School, and documentation on the Baron de Hirsch Trade School. In addition, the collection contains blueprints and photographs of facilities.

The Industrial Removal Office was created as part of the Jewish Agricultural Society to assimilate immigrants into American society, both economically and culturally. It worked to employ all Jewish immigrants. The collection contains administrative and financial records, immigrants' removal records, and correspondence. A database has been constructed to search for persons removed by the Industrial Removal Office.

This is a partial inventory of the Records of the Jewish Colonization Association. Portion of JCA records described here pertains to JCA activities in Galicia and Russia only. Included here are reports on JCA colonies, cooperative savings and loans societies, agricultural schools, vocational and technical schools, carpentry workshops, mechanized embroidery factories and weaving factories.

This collection contains constitutions, by-laws, membership organizations list, minutes of the 1912 Annual Meeting, Executive Committee Minutes (1911, 1913), Committee on Confidential Exchange Minutes (1912), Committee to Discuss Medical Examinations Minutes (1912), 1912 meeting with the Jewish Immigration Committee of New York, and a special meeting on the problem of illiteracy (1913). Also includes the correspondence of the American Jewish Committee, Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, Jewish Colonization Association offices in Canada and Paris, and the Jewish Emigration Congress in Vienna. Also included is the correspondence of Simon Wolf, counsel to the National Jewish Immigration Council.

This collection contains correspondence regarding the emigration efforts and living expenses of Regina Stein, who had fled from Berlin, Germany to Basel, Switzerland in 1943. She lived in Switzerland in deteriorating health and partially by the support of the Swiss government until she was able to immigrate to the United States in 1947. The collection consists mainly of photocopies.

The May Cohn Russia and Soviet Union Collection (Vilna Archives) includes materials dealing with a wide range of topics mostly pertaining to Jewish life in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union and to a smaller extent to everyday life of ordinary Russian citizens. The collection consists of official government documents such as reports, decrees and regulations, circular letters, lists, vital records, Census records, residency and emigration permits. Also included here are manuscripts, correspondence, printed materials, petitions, announcements, posters, questionnaires, and minutes of meetings. Materials collected here shed light on the way Jewish religious and civil life was administered in the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union.