This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Celia Adler and Lazar Freed, including theatrical materials such as scripts, programs and sheet music, correspondence, newspaper clippings, assorted publications, and photographs of many of the members of the Adler family and their friends from the Yiddish theater. These materials reflect the wide scope of the Adler acting family and their immense influence on Yiddish theater, Broadway and motion pictures.

The collection contains Bernard G. Richards personal and official correspondence, papers from his involvement with the American Jewish Congress and Jewish Information Bureau, published and unpublished writings, publications collected by Richards, articles about Richards and his activities, correspondence and articles from testimonial dinners in honor of Richards, and photographs. Significant correspondents include Joseph Barondess, Louis D. Brandeis, Vladimir Jabotinsky, J.L. Magnes, Louis Marshall, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Jacob H. Schiff, Philip Slomovitz, Arthur Hays Sulzberger, Morris Winchovsky, and Stephen S. Wise.

The David Waksberg Papers are comprised of materials generated while Waksberg served in a variety of leadership roles in the American Soviet Jewry Movement in the 1980s and early 1990s: Executive Director of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews (BACSJ); National Vice-President of Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ); member of the UCSJ Board of Directors; Director of the Center for Jewish Renewal; Director of Development and Communication of UCSJ; a founder of the Russian-American Bureau on Human Rights in Moscow. The materials primarily consist of correspondence, reports, grant proposals, notes, clippings, newsletters and photographs.

The Elias Tcherikower Collection documents the professional and personal life of Elias Tcherikower, a scholar, communal activist, and one of the founders of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and to a smaller extent personal life of his wife, Riva Tcherikower, née Teplitski. Collected here are Tcherikower’s writings, professional and personal correspondence, photographs, manuscripts by other scholars, research materials, printed materials, financial documents, conference and exhibit materials, minutes of meetings, bibliographic materials and personal materials of Riva Tcherikower, née Teplitski, and Chaim Tcherikower.

The collection contains play manuscripts, programs, playbills, posters, photographs, correspondence, agreements, scrapbooks, clippings, printed ephemera, and memorabilia relating to Yiddish theater primarily in the early twentieth century, especially the interwar period. Also included are items of printed ephemera related to Yiddish film, Hebrew theater, and a broad range of Jewish performers, including cantors, singers and dancers. Geographically, the materials originate predominantly in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, including parts of the Russian Empire and, later, the Soviet Union; and, to a lesser extent, the United States, especially New York City. Also included are materials from Western Europe, Palestine (Eretz Israel), South America, and other regions around the world. Among the theater personalities represented in the collection with significant amounts of material are Herz Grossbard, David Herman, Joseph Winogradoff, Rudolf Zaslavsky, Zygmunt Turkow, Jonas Turkow, Moyshe Lipman, Ida Kaminska, and Esther Rachel Kaminska. The theater groups best represented include the Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT; Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater), founded by Zygmunt Turkow and Ida Kaminska; the Vilna Troupe; Yung Teater / Nay Teater (Warsaw; Vilna), under the direction of Michael Weichert; the Moscow State Yiddish Theater (known by its Russian acronym "GOSET"); Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre, of New York; and the Hebrew theater "Habimah." A wide variety of other professional as well as amateur theater groups are represented with smaller amounts of material.

This collection contains 147 photographs of the city of L’viv, Ukraine (formerly Lemberg, Austria-Hungary; Lwów, Poland; L’vov, Russia). The photographs were taken by an unknown photographer(s) at various times during the period ca. 1890 through the 1930s. Three photographs are from the post-1945 years. The majority of the photographs were developed from glass negatives between 1987 and 1991. These negatives came to the attention of Evgenii Lendon in the 1980s, and Lendon preserved the images by making large, exhibition-quality prints from the negatives.

This collection of mainly anti-Semitic material was compiled by a Jewish librarian of German descent who infiltrated the pro-Nazi community developing in New York City in the years leading up to World War II. The bulk of the collection consists of publications and printed matter, with the notable exception of narrative reports that describe first-hand experiences and observations of Nazi-affiliated events. Document types include advertisements, event announcements, books, clippings, correspondence, magazines and newspapers, travel guides, political memorabilia, and other print ephemera.

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 Howard Lenhoff Papers were generated and accumulated by Howard Lenhoff starting with his involvement with the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ) in 1974 and running up until his final preparations for his book, Black Jews, Jews and Other Heroes: How Grassroots Activism Led to the Rescue of the Ethiopian Jews (2007). In addition to chronicling Lenhoff’s participation in AAEJ, the collection documents AAEJ’s relationships with other activists and organizations; Israeli government officials’ responses to AAEJ pressure; requests for help and stories of trauma from the Ethiopian Jews; AAEJ’s extensive publicity efforts; and American Jewish press coverage of the struggles of Ethiopian Jewry. The materials include correspondence, clippings, notes, drafts, photographs, audiocassettes and posters.

This collection contains the minutes, correspondence and financial records of the I.L. Peretz Yiddish Writers’ Union from its founding in 1915 until 1973. Among the correspondence is a fair amount concerning the Fund for Jewish Refugee Writers, unions and union grievances, requests for aid from Jewish writers and activists in New York and abroad, and labor disputes and strikes.

The Irving J. Block Papers are a blend of personal papers and organizational records, documenting the evolution of the Brotherhood Synagogue (Congregation Beth Achim) in Manhattan and Block’s role as rabbi and his involvement in efforts outside of the congregation. The collection is primarily comprised of correspondence, sermons, minutes, notes, clippings, photographs, audiocassettes, and drafts of Rabbi Block’s memoir.

This collection documents the academic, professional and private life of Jacob Barosin (1906-2001), a painter and artist of Russian-Jewish descent. Barosin was raised in Berlin, but he fled to France in 1933 and in 1943 survived a stint in the Gurs concentration camp. The collection primarily contains correspondence, ephemera, manuscripts, official documents, personal papers, and photographs.

Collection consists of correspondence, speeches, photographs, clippings, and memorabilia relating to Crestohl's activities as a lawyer and as a member of the House of Commons in the Parliament of Canada representing Montreal-Cartier, 1950-1963. It includes material relating to Canadian immigration policies, German rearmament, humane slaughtering, and citizen reactions to these issues; correspondence with members of the Israeli Parliament, and correspondence and speeches relating to his numerous activities in communal and Jewish affairs in general and Zionist organizations and The ORT in particular; and personal writings and memoirs in typescript and published material by and about Leon Crestohl.

The collection also contains correspondence in English and Yiddish between members of the Crestohl family, primarily his mother Rose (Weitzman) Crestohl, 1926-1941, and published and manuscript material, both original and copies, relating to the career of his father Hyman Meyer Crestohl, 1904-1921.

This collection describes the work and lives of the composer, conductor, and accompanist Warner S. Bass and his wife, the singer Marion Corda Bass. Most prominent among the materials of this collection are the music scores created by Warner Bass; they include works he composed, arranged, orchestrated, transcribed, or performed. Other items include personal documents, correspondence, published sheet music, photographs, essays, notes, concert and recital programs, press releases, and clippings.

The Michaelson family papers include early family correspondence, documents, and ephemera; genealogical research conducted by Ms. Appleby, Anna's granddaughter; copies of New York City marriage certificates kept by Louis/Lewis B. Michaelson, Rabbi, between 1906-1907; and Anna Michaelson's copies of original birth records that she kept as midwife in the Lower East Side in New York City between 1892-1916. The collection is valuable for researchers interested in the Lower East Side between 1890-1920, Russian immigration to the United States, acculturation of immigrant families to America, midwives, the Jewish communities in Portsmouth, New Hampshire and Trenton, New Jersey, the Boys Institute in the Lower East Side, and the National Committee for Relief of Sufferers by Russian Massacres. In addition, this collection is rich in genealogy material, for researchers interested in the Michaelson family, births in the Lower East Side between 1892-1916, and marriages in New York City between 1907-1909. The collection contains correspondence, a family tree, birth certificates, memo pads, marriage certificates, meeting minutes, photographs, and a prescription pad.

Mizrakh Yidisher Historisher Arkhiv Collection consists of diverse materials that pertain to pogroms in the period between 1918 and 1921 that took place mostly in Ukraine but also in Belarus, Poland, and Russia. There is a wide variety of topics that are covered in the collection including Ukrainian-Jewish relations during a short lived Ukrainian Republic, Ukrainian-Jewish political, communal, and governmental organizations, Ukrainian government and the role of politicians and military Commanders in pogroms, most notably Symon Petlyura and Ataman Grigoriev, pogroms and its aftermath, military occupation of Ukraine by the German, Polish, Bolshevik and General Denikin’s armies and its relationship to pogroms, Jewish self-defense and relief work. Also included here are materials pertaining to the trial of Sholom Schwarzbard who was tried in France for assassination of Symon Petlyura. The collection consists of of large amount of lists and eyewitness testimonies, correspondence, complaints and petitions, reports and resolutions, statements and proclamations, memoranda and circular letters, conference materials, statues and by-laws, clippings and bulletins, military orders, and photographs.

Morris U. Schappes, self-taught historian of American Jewish History, author, teacher, and editor of Jewish Currents for 40 years, is also known as a victim of hearings conducted in 1941 by the Rapp-Coudert Committee, a New York legislative committee investigating Communist activities in the state educational system.

This collection is comprised of materials related to the Rapp-Coudert proceedings and Schappes' subsequent imprisonment, and of materials generated in the following decades. Topics represented include academic freedom, Communism in the U.S., the roles of Jews in U.S. history, and Emma Lazarus. The formats primarily present in the collection are research notes, manuscripts, clippings, and correspondence.

The collection consists of the general, personal and professional correspondence of Moses Kligsberg, manuscripts for published and unpublished works, project proposals and outlines, research materials, printed matter and other records relating to Moses Kligsberg's involvement with the Bund and with Jewish refugees from Nazi-occupied Europe, to his functions at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and to his scholarly interests. Included are Moses Kligsberg's manuscripts on the subjects of Jewish sociology, psychology, youth, and political matters. The collection contains a great deal of YIVO administrative and publicity materials, among others editorial records of the Yedies fun yivo (YIVO News) and YIVO radio programs; materials on the Bund; records of the United Jewish Survivors of Nazi Persecution. Besides the personal documents and both personal and organizational correspondence, the collection also includes original musical compositions, acetate recordings, magnetic reels, and photographs.

This collection contains the records of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, the largest and most influential American Jewish organization created to coordinate efforts on behalf of Soviet Jewry; the NCSJ containes its work today, under the name, the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry (NCSEJ).

The bulk of the collection covers the NCSJ's activities from the early 1970s, through late 1980s. It includes meetings minutes, memoranda, correspondence, newsletters and publications of the NCSJ and its precursor organizations (primarily the American Jewish Committee on Soviet Jewry, 1964-1971), and the individual files maintained on Refusenik, prisoners of conscience, and Jewish émigrés.

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The collection also includes a considerable number of reports from the visits to the USSR by Soviet Jewry Movement activists and other. A significant part of the collection is represented by the audio recordings that include 13-minute programs on the WEVD Radio dedicated to Soviet Jewry topics and recordings of phone conversations with Refuseniks. There is also a considerable number of photographs, posters and publications, several film strips and VHS tapes.

This collection consists of photographs and negatives of World ORT conferences and congresses, various individuals connected with ORT, and ORT vocational programs and activities, including in Displaced Person’s camps, in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Cuba, and North and South America.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Abbo Ostrowsky, including correspondence with many important figures from the art world, several of whom had been students of Ostrowsky at the Educational Alliance Art School. There is also information about Ostrowsky’s career as an artist, including some original artwork, exhibition catalogues, and photographs. These materials show Ostrowsky’s significant influence on modern Jewish art and on the success of the Educational Alliance as an institution.

This collection contains correspondence between Abraham Cahan and many important literary and political figures, as well as Yiddish manuscripts sent to Cahan for consideration in the Forward and notes and drafts of Cahan’s own writings. There are also several articles written about Cahan, before and after his death. These materials serve to illustrate both Cahan’s importance in the literary and publishing fields as well as his involvement in the American socialist and labor movements.

Abraham Charasch Collection documents Abraham Charasch’s involvement with various Jewish political parties and Jewish student organizations in the Russian Empire and abroad prior to the October Revolution of 1917. Most materials collected here deal with the Union of Eastern Jewish Student Organizations in Western Europe and Zionist Socialist Worker’s Party. Included here is correspondence, by-laws, reports, resolutions, minutes of meetings, declarations, circular letters, lists of delegates to student conferences, memoranda, manuscripts, bibliographies, and applications sent to the Swiss Central Committee for the Return of Political Immigrants.

This collection contains manuscripts of some of the earliest Yiddish plays, correspondence between playwright, poet, and director Abraham Goldfaden, the father of Yiddish theater, and various actors and writers, as well as some family correspondence, newspaper clippings on Goldfaden and his impact on Yiddish theater, articles by Goldfaden on a variety of topics, and various other theater materials, such as title pages of plays, programs and song sheets. The collection illustrates Goldfaden’s great and ongoing influence on Yiddish theater.

This collection contains manuscripts of novels, short stories, poems, essays, lectures, speeches, translations, and other writings, correspondence, photographs, and personal documents and materials of Yiddish writer Chaim Grade and his wife Inna Hecker Grade. The collection helps to illustrate Grade’s literary development and impact on Yiddish literature over time, from his earliest poetic works written in Vilna and the Soviet Union, to his prolific and accomplished prose work composed mainly in the United States. The collection illuminates Inna Grade's intellectual and academic prowess, as well as the integral role that she played in the editorial and logistical aspects of Grade's literary output.

This collection contains correspondence between Chaim Zhitlowsky and many important political figures and organizations, as well as manuscripts and other writings, some written by Zhitlowsky and some written by others. There are also notes and other materials from speeches and lectures that Zhitlowsky gave, financial documents, articles written about Zhitlowsky, newspaper clippings of articles by Zhitlowsky, materials from celebrations held in Zhitlowsky’s honor, photographs, excerpts from his works, and various other assorted items. These materials serve to illustrate both Zhitlowsky’s importance in the Yiddish and Russian literary field and his deep involvement in the American and Russian-Jewish Socialist, Territorialist and Diaspora Nationalism movements.

This collection contains documents relating to David Pinski’s role as a Yiddish writer, playwright, essayist, translator, editor, literary critic, and author of novels, plays, short stories, essays, and poems. There is personal and professional correspondence, manuscripts of novels, plays, poems, essays, and articles, translations of Pinski’s works into English and Russian, lectures made on various occasions, personal documents and photographs, programs, notes, and newspaper clippings. These materials demonstrate Pinski’s important role in Yiddish drama and literature, Jewish community life and Yiddish cultural institutions.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Isaac Nachman Steinberg, a Russian-Jewish political writer, leader of the Left Socialist Revolutionary Party during the 1917 revolution in Russia, People’s Commissar of Justice in the first Bolshevik government, leader of the Jewish Territorialist Movement and of the Freeland League for Jewish Territorial Colonization, and a founding member of the YIVO Institute in Vilna. These materials include Steinberg’s writings, personal correspondence, clippings, journals, meeting announcements, and some photographs. These materials relate mainly to Steinberg’s work with the Freeland League and plans for the large-scale settlement of Jews in various places around the world.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Joseph Buloff and Luba Kadison, leading actors of the Vilna Troupe and of the Yiddish and English stage, both in the United States and internationally. Most of the information concerns their theatrical careers, including play manuscripts, drawings and photographs of plays and actors, reviews, flyers, and musical scores. There is also some personal biographical information about Buloff, including his memoirs and audio cassettes of interviews. These materials show the importance and influence of Buloff and Kadison for Yiddish and English theater for over sixty years.

This collection contains the papers of Julian Hirszhaut, a Yiddish journalist and author of several works about the Holocaust in Poland. He collected a great number of historical documents on this topic, including hundreds of eyewitness accounts, which make up an important part of this collection. The materials in this collection relate to Hirszhaut’s important work gathering documents and testimonies of the Holocaust, as well as to his other professional activities as a journalist.