Elaine Pittell Papers
Scope and Content Note
The collection is arranged in two series.
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.
Sweater with the word “Freedom” woven on the front, back and sleeves, worn by Elaine Pittell on a demonstration in Helsinki during the pre-Summit conference on Behalf of Soviet Jewry can be found in the American Jewish Society museum collection under the accession number 2009.033.
Dates
- Creation: undated, 1974-1991, 1993, 1994
- Creation: Majority of material found within 1975 - 1988
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
The Papers of Elaine Pittell represent one collection housed within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM). These papers reflect the effort, beginning in the 1960s through the late 1980s, of thousands of American Jews of all denominations and political orientations to stop the persecution and discrimination of Jews in the Soviet Union. The American Soviet Jewry Movement (ASJM) is considered to be the most influential Movements of the American Jewish community in the 20th century. The beginnings of the organized American Soviet Jewry Movement became a model for efforts to aid Soviet Jews in other countries, among them Great Britain, Canada, and France. The movement can be traced to the early 1960s, when the first organizations were created to address the specific problem of the persecution and isolation of Soviet Jews by the government of the Soviet Union.
Elaine Pittell became inspired to get involved in the Soviet Jewry Movement in 1969, after reading an open letter from a group of Soviet Jews detailing the oppression and intolerance they were subjected to in the USSR. In 1974 she founded the Soviet Jewry Committee as a part of the Community Relations Committee of the Jewish Federation of South Broward, Forida. As the Chair of the Committee Elain Pittell supervised the implementation of programs such as Adopt-A-Family and Adopt-A-Prisoner, briefing of travelers to the USSR, phone calls and mass mailings of holiday postcards to the Soviet Jews, appeals on their behalf with the Soviet and the American authorities, education of Jewish communities on the Soviet Jewry Movement and many other activities. In 1984 Mrs. and Dr. Pittell traveled to the Soviet Union, visiting many Refusenik families in Moscow and Leningrad. Elaine Pittell was among the 50 representatives from the National Conference on Soviet Jewry who in 1988 flew to Helsinki and met there with the Secretary of State George Shultz, intending to focus the attention of the approaching Soviet-American Summit in Moscow on the plight of Soviet Jews.
Extent
0.75 Linear Feet (1 manuscript box, 1 half manuscript box)
Language of Materials
English
Russian
Finnish
Abstract
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.
Arrangement
The collection is divided into two series as follows:
Acquisition Information
Donated by Elaine Pittell in 2008.
Digitization Note
Pins and pendants were digitized and made fully accessible online in 2014. The audiocassettes and VHS tape in Series II were digitized and made fully accessible online in 2017.
Subject
- Begin, Menachem, 1913-1992 (Person)
- Meir, Golda, 1898-1978 (Person)
- Nudel, Ida (Person)
- Shcharansky, Anatoly (Person)
- Wiesel, Elie, 1928-2016 (Person)
- Jewish Federation of South Broward (Organization)
- National Conference on Soviet Jewry (U.S.) (Organization)
- United Jewish Appeal (Organization)
Genre / Form
- Audiocassettes
- clippings (information artifacts)
- Commemorative jewelry
- Correspondence
- Legal documents
- memorandums
- Minutes (administrative records)
- Negative prints
- Photographs
- publications (documents)
- Videocassettes
Geographic
- Former Soviet republics
- Helsinki (Finland)
- Soviet Union -- Politics and government -- 1953-1985
- United States
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the Elaine Pittell (1934- ) Papers, undated, 1974-1991, 1993, 1994 *P-873
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Andrey Filimonov
- Date
- © 2009
- Description rules
- Describing Archives: A Content Standard
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
- Sponsor
- The Elaine Pittell Papers, a collection of the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement, is dedicated in honor of Elaine Pittell by her family. Digitization of ephemera was made possible through the generous support of the National Historical Publications and Records Commission (NHPRC). Digitization of audio and video was made possible through the generous support of the Blavatnik Foundation.
Revision Statements
- July 2017: dao links for VHS added, filename simplified, and digitization note and sponsor statement updated by Leanora Lange.
- October 2020: RJohnstone: post-ASpace migration cleanup.
Repository Details
Part of the American Jewish Historical Society Repository
