Educational Alliance (New York, N.Y.)

This collection contains annual reports, membership and financial reports, an Alumni Association 50^th Anniversary Journal, Art exhibit programs, guides and catalogs. The documents in this collection describe citizenship preparation guides, United States maps in English and Yiddish, declaration of Intention forms, a report by Allan David concerning the functions of the alliance and pamphlets on Project Ezra, a volunteer organization for the aged. Also included are souvenir journals for a fair to aid the Education Alliance and the Hebrew Technical Institute. This collection also includes the following publications: Alliance Reporter (1947-1948), Alliance Review (1902), and Newsletter of Education Alliance (1992-1993).

The Educational Alliance functioned as a settlement house on New York’s Lower East Side beginning in 1889, eventually evolving into a community center in the 1920s. The Educational Alliance Records most comprehensively document the aims and activities of the Educational Alliance following WWII and into the 1960s, beginning with Mordecai Kessler’s tenure as Executive Director in 1945. However, meeting minutes and legal documents date back to 1879. Materials include minutes, correspondence, individual records, newsletters, photographs, announcements, deeds, clippings, reports, and financial records.

The Lavanburg-Corner House (LCH) Fund was a philanthropic fund started in 1927 under the Lavanburg Foundation. Its mission was to support/fund agencies that dealt with troubled children and youth. The LCH Fund became fully philanthropic in 1972. The collection contains bills, by-laws, correspondence, financial statements, histories, letters, meeting minutes, memorandums, newspaper clippings, proposals, publications, and reports of the Lavanburg-Corner House Fund.

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.