United Service for New Americans

The Dorothy Filene collection documents the personal life and professional activities of Dorothy Filene, née Finkelstein and to a lesser extent personal lives of a number of members of the Finkelstein family. This collection consists of a variety of materials such as correspondence, clippings, annual reports, brochures, job applications, notes and other school materials, minutes, and various manuals, used by Dorothy Filene in her work as a social worker.

The papers consist of correspondence and reports of Cecelia Razovsky (married name: Davidson), noted social worker specializing in immigration and resettlement of refugees. The collection includes information about her work with the National Council of Jewish Women in the 1920s, and with the National Refugee Service (and predecessor organizations) in the 1930s. Information is included about her work as a Resettlement Supervisor in the post-World War II Displaced Persons camps in Europe, and as a field worker in the southwestern U.S. for the United Service for New Americans in 1950. The collection contains reports and correspondence from her trips to South America, primarily Brazil, to explore possibilities of refugee settlement in 1937 and 1946; as a representative for United HIAS Service to aid in settling Egyptian and Hungarian refugees in 1957-1958; and as a pleasure trip and evaluation of the changes in the Jewish community of the country in 1963. Also included in the collection are many of Razovsky's articles, plays, and pamphlets.

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.

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 records of the National Refugee Service (NRS), a refugee aid organization founded in New York City in 1939 to assist refugees fleeing Nazi persecution. A successor agency to the National Coordinating Committee for Aid to Refugees and Emigrants Coming from Germany, which had operated as an umbrella organization of refugee aid agencies since 1934, the NRS remained in existence until 1946, when it was merged into the new organization United Service for New Americans. The NRS program encompassed a migration service that assisted with affidavits, visas and other legal aspects of the immigration process; temporary relief and casework services; job placement, retraining, and small business loans; help in resettling to localities throughout the country; and social and cultural adjustment to American life. The records include minutes, correspondence, memoranda, and reports related to the board of directors; the executive director; lay advisory committees; the various departments within the NRS; special committees assisting professional groups, including physicians, musicians, rabbis, social workers, and scholars; and cooperating refugee-assistance committees and organizations across the United States.

This collection contains correspondence, records, and publications of the United Service for New Americans (USNA), the major immigration and resettlement organization in the United States for Jewish displaced persons immigrating in the late 1940s and early 1950s. These records document USNA’s interaction and coordination with the United States government’s Displaced Persons Commission, associated Jewish agencies, particularly the American Joint Distribution Committee (JDC), and representatives of Jewish settlement groups in cities and towns across the country. The organization helped obtain housing and job assurances for Jewish refugees without family in the United States and provided assurances that they would not become public charges. The correspondence and records in this collection document the entire process of immigration and resettlement, including obtaining the necessary assurances required for displaced persons to immigrate to the United States, relief services provided immediately upon the refugees’ arrival, their designation to and arrival in communities across the country, and the services provided to the new immigrants by their local Jewish communities thereafter.