Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (1880-1909)

Folder 1 contains the Questionnaire of the Austrian Heritage Collection at the Leo Baeck Institute and additional biographical documents. Vital documents include birth certificates, residency permits, military documents, and other related documents stemming from the war years in Cernauti / Czernowitz. There are also documents relating to his attempts to emigrate from Romania, an honorary diploma, correspondence relating to emigration and exhibitions, his parents' death certificates and other post-World War II Romanian and American identification documents.

The records of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, now known as HIAS, comprise much of the history of HIAS through the second half of the 20th century, primarily through the files created by leadership based in the New York headquarters. Since the 1880s HIAS has worked with immigrants and refugees to help them emigrate legally from their home countries to safe resettlement in the United States and elsewhere, and they continue this work today. The records focus on files of the Executive Directors, including James P. Rice, Gaynor I. Jacobson and Karl D. Zukerman, and other material created by executive staff and by the Board of Directors. Also of importance is the work of the HIAS United States Operations Department in the New York office, handling the everyday details of immigration documentation, migration issues and resettlement activities in connection with communities throughout the United States, and in coordination with HIAS staff in overseas offices and the other departments in New York and Washington, D.C. In addition, more than 1100 files of legacy photographs have been digitized as part of this project and made accessible online.

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.

Case files (containing correspondence, handwritten notes, application forms, documents, and affidavits) in addition to general correspondence, speeches, brochures, and newspaper clippings from the Immigration and Naturalization Office of the National Council of Jewish Women, Worcester Section, regarding assistance provided to Jewish immigrants and permanent residents seeking citizenship from the 1930s to the 1970s. Case files include office correspondence with individuals, Jewish social service agencies, lawyers in the United States and Germany, and the U.S. Immigration and Naturalization Service. Some case files also contain correspondence and personal statements in support of reparations claims filed with the West German government.

This collection contains the minute book, in Yiddish, of the organization for the period Feb. 1948-May 1966, describing its activities, finances, and data about its membership. It includes information about its relations with other groups, such as the Workmen's Circle, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and other Radomer societies in Montreal, Toronto, Melbourne, and Israel, and particularly its numerous Zionist activities. The minutes also contain extensive eulogies for Albert Einstein and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

This colleciton contains constitutions, by-laws, meeting minutes (1908-1917), Budget Committee minutes (1909-1910), the Ellis Island Committee attempt to centralize immigrant relief work in 1909, and the Special Committee "to investigate complaints ... duplication of work and other grievances, preferred by the Clara de Hirsch School for Immigrant Girls and by the Council of Jewish Women against the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society.".

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.

Dr. Salomon P. Ratner , the youngest of ten children, was born to M'Shulum Frivel and Bashe Leah in Pinsk, Russia. His parents served on the estate of another Jew, Zalman Pulman. Salomon attended Yeshiva in Slutzk, later leaving the Yeshiva to obtain a secular education. He immigrated to New York with his parents in 1902 where they were aided by the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society and reunited with several of his syblings. While working as a clerk in a pharmacy, Salomon attended the New York College of Dentistry. He married Leah Altshule in September 1910 and opened a practice on Broome and Eldridge Street.