United Jewish Appeal

The records of the American Jewish Historical Society, the oldest national ethnic historical organization in the United States, include correspondence of officers and staff as well as inter-office memos, multiple versions of the constitution and by-laws of the society, meeting minutes of administrative branches and committees, membership and financial records, reports, exhibit materials, records relating to the society’s library and archival holdings, press releases and newspaper clippings, and publications and newsletters created by the society. There are also materials from various programs, such as meetings and conferences, tours, lectures, awards and dinners, films, and educational programs.

This collection contains materials pertaining to the life and career of Boris Smolar, a journalist and editor-in-chief of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency and an author of children's books.

The Dr. I. Edwin Goldwasser Papers document the professional achievements and personal life of Dr. Goldwasser and his extended family. The bulk of the materials are related to his work as the first Executive Director of Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York, and his subsequent philanthropic activities. The collection also contains a series with genealogical materials related to the larger Goldwasser family, assembled by his descendants. There are drafts and notes on his various writings, both published and unpublished; essays on “Jewish Women of the Bible” and “Jewish Women at the Bar of History” are included in the collection, as is a copy of his published book Method and Methods in the Teaching of English.

Papers of Elaine Pittell cover the period from mid-1970’s to early 1990’s and document her and her husband’s Robert Pittell’s activities as the Chair of the Jewish Federation of South Broward’s Soviet Jewry Committee. The documents include correspondence, memos, minutes, publications, news clippings, audiocassettes, videocassette, disc negatives and pins.

This collection contains the papers of Ernest W. Michel, Holocaust Survivor Journalist and public speaker,including clippings of newspaper articles written by and about Michel, correspondence between Michel and many important Jewish and political figures and autograph files, which Michel collected. Many of these files concern Michel’s Holocaust experiences, speaking engagements, the World Gathering of Jewish Holocaust Survivors, and Michel’s work with the United Jewish Appeal.

Sephardic House was established in 1978 as a correction to the often-overlooked contributions of the Sephardic community to American-Jewish culture. The Records of Sephardic House documents the administrative, programming, and publishing activities of Sephardic House since its founding. Such documents include financial records, meeting minutes, correspondence, artist portfolios, press releases, photographs, slides, and much more.

The Hadassah subject file record group is a collection of files of organizations, events, and genre subjects originally arranged alphabetically by Hadassah’s central filing department. These files served and serve as a ready reference source that represents both the direct and indirect involvement of Hadassah in both national and international affairs. This collection includes correspondence, clippings, newsletters, photographs, and other ephemeral documents.

Collection sontains the minutes of the Board of Directors (Trustees) meetings, 1972-1975; staff meetings, 1972-1973; background materials and reports pertaining to projects proposed and acted upon; annual reports; financial reports; and miscellaneous publications.

The Jack D. Weiler and Family Papers are divided into two sub-groups: one containing most of JDW's personal records, including materials related to the Lenru Men's Club; JDW's philanthrophy in regards to the many organizations he worked with; items related to his work as part of the real estate firm, Swig, Weiler, and Arnow; and also includes a large number of photographs related to his meetings, dedications, campaigns, and building funds for Israel Bonds, UJA, and Federation. Last in this sub-group are books dedicated to JDW or Robert Arnow, and several small, pocket-sized booklets on subjects varying from toasts to Jewish law to care of the back.

The second sub-group is dedicated to the family of Jack D. Weiler and his wife, milliner designer Doris (née Person) Weiler, and their children, Joan and Alan. While the sub-group does contain many images and outings with Joan's husband and Jack's business partner, Robert Arnow and the children of Alan and Helene Weiler, this is primarily due to marriage into the Weiler family, and therefore the series relates more to the Weilers, with major evidence of Jack and Doris's grand- and in some cases, their great-grandchildren.

The sub-group also documents the family circles of Weiler and Person families, including the brothers and sisters of Jack and Doris, but primarily documents the family of Faivel and Chana Weiler. This sub-group contains correspondence, primarily between Jack and Doris and their children; general personal papers relating to the lives of Jack and Doris; and a large cache of family photos dating from the mid-1920s to the early 2000s.

A seperate series of Audio-Visual Materials rounds out the collection.

Contains the Bulletin of the Jewish Center of Williamsbridge from the 1940s to the 1970s and gift books bound with yearbooks of the Center bound inside. Also includes material regarding Doctor Rabbi Akiba Predmesky (d. 1998), who served the Jewish community and the Jewish Center of Williamsbridge for over fifty years.

The Jewish Chronicle is a weekly newspaper covering local, national and global news for the Jewish community of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and its vicinity. The collection contains information and photographs used by The Jewish Chronicle for coverage of the situation of Jews in the Soviet Union during the decades of 1960s and 1970s. The bulk of the materials originated from the Soviet Jewry movement organizations and other Jewish institutions in the United States and includes publications, press releases, correspondence and photographs related to Soviet Jews.

Contains material collected by the Jewish Media Service (JMS) on Jewish films, film company catalogs, resources and information from and about various media centers. The majority of the Jewish Media Service records date from when the JMS operated independently from 1975 to 1987. Types of material found in the collection include articles, brochures, catalogs, correspondence, examination study guides, filmographies, film stills, newsletters, pamphlets, photographs, posters, publications, scripts, and slides.

This collection tells the story of Liselotte (Lilo) Thekla Lamm, her parents Leo Lamm and Margarete (Gretel) Lamm née Falk, husbands Norbert Goldenberg, Hans Gerhard Ollendorff, and William (Bill) Thurnauer, their children and grandchildren, and members of their extended families. The families’ lives in Germany, immigration to the United States, and professional, political and philanthropic activities are documented through vital documents, photographs, correspondence, writings, articles, and clippings.

This collection contains writings, minutes, financial records, correspondence, printed materials, newspaper clippings, and photographs relating to Broido's employment, investments, and Jewish and non-Jewish communal activities. It includes material regarding the department store, Gimbel Bros. (1934-1966), where he was associated with Bernard Gimbel, and where he served as Executive Vice President and as Chairman of the Advisory Committee (1953-1961); Temple Emanu-El (1957-1970), where he served as trustee and opposed secession from the Union of American Hebrew Congregations; the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee (1944-1976), serving as President from 1965-1975, and where he was involved in the investigation of the Charles Jordan murder in Prague (1967); the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (1953-1972) where he served as trustee and played an active role in financial matters and relations with the Hebrew Union College; the United Jewish Appeal (1941-1972) where he served as President (1951-1952), trustee and member of the Board of Directors; the New York City Community College (1956-1972) where he served as trustee; and the Department of Commerce and Industrial Development of the City of New York (1961-1971) where he served as Commissioner (1961-1966).

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.

The Meyer Greenberg Papers document the activities of the B'nai B'rith Hillel at the University of Maryland-College Park during Meyer Greenberg's time as Director, 1945-1977. This collection contains correspondence with officials of B'nai Brith Hillel, other Jewish organizations and individuals, the administration of the University of Maryland; minutes of the Student Executive Council, Building Corporation and Community Board of the Hillel Chapter at the University of Maryland; program and financial reports; publications; tape recordings of symposia and photographs and newspaper clippings relating to the activities at Hillel. This collection also contains papers related to Meyer Greenberg's directorships of the Hillels at Yale University and Queens College from 1944-1945.

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.

The collection documents the National Jewish Welfare Board's (JWB) evolution from an organization founded in 1917 to provide support for soldiers in times of war to an agency involved in all aspects of Jewish life both in the United States and abroad. In 1990 JWB recreated itself as the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America.

Collection consists of typewritten oral history transcripts of executives in the United Jewish Appeal and the Jewish Welfare Federation in Detroit. The interviewees are Herbert A. Friedman (1918- ), fomer Executive Chairman of the UJA; Lawrence H. Rubinstein (1940- ), former Executive Director of the UJA's National Young Leadership Cabinet; and Leonard N. Simons (1904- ), former Campaign Director for the Jewish Welfare Federation of Detroit and Detroit Civic Leader. Also includes inventories for oral histories available at the Federation of Jewish Agencies of Greater Philadelphia, and the Jewish Federation of Nashville and Middle Tennessee.

Arthur Lamport was a banker and philanthropist, who helped support economic development among the Jewish refugees in the Dominican Republic. These materials relate to his efforts in the Dominican Republic, and include letters, telegrams, reports, meeting minutes, and a diary.

Founded in 1969, the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ) was instrumental in the international effort to promote recognition of the Beta Israel (known among non-Jewish Ethiopians as "Falashas") by Israeli authorities, and to assist Jewish emigration from Ethiopia to Israel. The extensive files of the AAEJ include case work files, research materials and Jewish artifacts collected in Ethiopia by AAEJ workers. In the wake of the successful evacuation of Ethiopian Jewry to Israel in 1993, the AAEJ decided to disband and voted to deposit its records at the American Jewish Historical Society. Included are correspondence, office files, photographs, slides, videotapes, audiocassettes and other materials which pertain to AAEJ's efforts to raise the consciousness of the American Jewish community about this unique Jewish subculture. The organization's papers supplement those of its founder, Graenum Berger, which are also held at the American Jewish Historical Society.

This collection contains the records of the American Jewish Public Relations Society (AJPRS), the professional association of publicists in the Jewish communal field. It contains correspondence, meeting minutes, memoranda, society publications, memoirs about the society’s founding, photographs, publicity materials, and newspaper clippings.

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.

The Robison Family Fapers reflect various activities of Adolf C. and Ann Green Robison in civic organizations, Jewish communal life, Jewish national and international affairs, and individually in the arts. The collection contains information on the origins of the United Nations; and on aid to Israel before, during, and after the War of Independence. The materials include correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, financial documents, newspaper clippings, photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, musical scores, and play scripts.

Collection of correspondence from Persia/Iran; family correspondence; letters to and from friends; newspaper articles, clippings, brochures; genealogical material; photos; passports; articles; miscellaneous documents; video tapes

This collection forms a memoir of the lives of Lilo Goldenberg and her family members through essays and documentation. The documentation includes papers such as official and educational papers, family correspondence, and newspaper and magazine clippings, and works with the extensive essays to document the experiences of Lilo Goldenberg and her family.

This collection consists of posters (c. 1930s), solicitation pamphlets, and the following publications: Appeal (May 29, 1967), My Brother’s Keeper (1939-1958): A Picture Story of the United Jewish Appeal, and United Jewish Campaign News (October 11, 1926, February 1929).

United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York is the organization that resulted from the mergers of various New York federations with the New York office of UJA. UJA-Federation and its predecessor organizations have been a central force for communal planning and philanthropy in the New York Jewish community since 1917, and in overseas Jewish communities since 1939. The largest section of this collection covers the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and its predecessor organizations in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn. Important subject areas include Federation’s work with their affiliated agencies including detailed budget files through most of the 20th century; UJA’s programs in Israel and campaigns in New York during the 1960s and 1970s; an overview of the UJA-Federation Joint Campaign 1974-1986; and the day to day work of the successfully merged organizations 1986-2000.