Records of the Jewish Student Press Service
Scope and Content Note
The collection contains materials relating to the activities of the JSPS, including general correspondence; correspondence of the JSPS's Israel Bureau; minutes and reports of Governing Board meetings and editors' conferences; subscriber's mailings; and issues of the JSPS publication Jewish Press Features. Of note in the correspondence is material on the image of the Jewish student press nationally; the relationship of the United States to Israel during the Yom Kippur War; and the life of Americans in Israel during the Yom Kippur War. Anti-Semitic material includes a report from the Committee for Equal Justice by Marvin Kessler. The collection also contains correspondence by Bill Novak. Series I: Records contains the correspondence, clippings, and other records documenting the operation of the organization. Series II: Mailing Packets documents the output of the organization consisting of various articles, clippings, graphics, and cartoons for Jewish student newspapers.
Dates
- 1970-1987, 2001
Creator
- Jewish Student Press Service (Organization)
Access Restrictions
The collection is open to all researchers, except items that may be restricted due to their fragility, or privacy.
Use Restrictions
No permission is required to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection, as long as the usage is scholarly, educational, and non-commercial. For inquiries about other usage, please contact the Director of Collections and Engagement at mmeyers@ajhs.org.
For reference questions, please email: inquiries@cjh.org
Historical Note
Founded in 1970 as a constituent organization of the North American Jewish Students’ Appeal, the Jewish Student Press Service (JSPS) served as a provider of student-written feature articles and news distributor for the Jewish student and young adult publishers in North America and Israel. From its headquarters in New York City, along with bureau offices in Israel and California, the JSPS published the Jewish Press Features which contained items relating to “all aspects of Jewish life in Israel and the Diaspora,” in an effort to improve the quality of Jewish student newspapers. To further their mission of improving the Jewish student press, JSPS held annual National Editor’s Conference in the US, as well as a three-week seminar for journalists held in Israel. In 1975, the JSPS won the Smolar Award for Excellence in Journalism from the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee and was awarded the Partner in Education Award from the City School District of New York in 1977. Many of the journalists and editors of the JSPS would go on to positions within major Jewish news agencies and papers.
By the 1990s, the Jewish student newspaper scene had shifted from smaller individual campus papers to regional and national publications. As a result, the JSPS, in 1991, began publishing New Voices, a national news magazine as a successor to the Jewish Press Features. While this collection documents the early years of the JSPS the organization is still active as of this writing (2017).
Extent
5.75 Linear Feet
Language of Materials
English
Abstract
Founded in 1970 as a constituent organization of the North American Jewish Students’ Appeal, the Jewish Student Press Service (JSPS) served as a provider of student-written feature articles and news distributor for the Jewish student and young adult publishers in North America and Israel. This collection documents the activities of the JSPS from its founding to 1987 and includes correspondence, meeting minutes, flyers, and unpublished articles. The majority of the collection is made up of mailing packets, later known as Jewish Press Features.
Arrangement
Arranged into two series:
- Series I: Records, 1969-1982, 2003
- Series II: Mailing Packets, 1970-1987
Physical Location
Located in AJHS New York, NY
Acquisition Information
Materials in boxes 8-12 were donated in 2001 by Daniel Treiman. The accession number associated with this accretion is 2001.021.
Processing Information
Materials in boxes 1-7 were processed in January 2013. In January 2016, an additional accretion of materials was arranged and described. Approximately 4 linear feet of duplicates were discarded.
- Americans
- Articles
- Correspondence
- Fliers (printed matter)
- Israel
- Jewish Students Press Service
- Jewish college students
- Jews -- United States -- Attitudes toward Israel
- Kessler, Marvin
- Minutes (administrative records)
- North American Jewish Students' Network
- Novak, Bill
- Political cartoons
- Student newspapers and periodicals
- United States -- Foreign relations -- Israel
- United States -- Relations
- Title
- Guide to the Records of the Jewish Student Press Service, 1970-1987, 2001 I-248
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Finding Aid by Michael D. Montalbano. Additional processing by Nicole Greenhouse.
- Date
- © 2017
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Sponsor
- Process as part of the Leon Levy Archival Processing Initiative, made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation
Revision Statements
- January 2017: Finding aid was updated to reflect processing of 2001 accession.
- February 2021: RJohnstone: post-ASpace migration cleanup.
Repository Details
Part of the American Jewish Historical Society Repository
