Aaron Lopez (1731-1782) was a member of the Converso (converted) community of Portugal. In order to freely practice Judaism, he and his family left Portugal and relocated to British North America, settling in Newport, Rhode Island and later, Massachusetts. He began a successful mercantile business and eventually became a key supplier of the American revolutionary forces.

The collection contains numerous shipping records along with correspondence and accounts with merchants, mercantile families, and firms including Henry Lloyd of Boston, Henry Cruger of Bristol, George Hayley of London, William Stead of Sheffield and New Bedford whaler Joseph Rotch. The collection contains manifests, mercantile accounts, notations, correspondence and inventories of estates for several of the children of Aaron Lopez.

This collection contains newspapers designated as Pre-1851 (I-531), Post-1850 (I-531A) and Miscellaneous (I-531B) Newspaper Collections. The newspapers are primarily from cities within the United States with some from world locales such as London, Grenada, Barbados, Curacao, Mexico, Montreal and Toronto. A few newspapers are from the Jewish press, though the greater majority of newspapers are not Jewish in origin but contain articles, references, advertisements, or other printed matter regarding Jews. The collection has a downloadable article index that can be used to pinpoint material in the first portion of the collection (Pre-1851) designated as I-531.

The records of the American Jewish Historical Society, the oldest national ethnic historical organization in the United States, include correspondence of officers and staff as well as inter-office memos, multiple versions of the constitution and by-laws of the society, meeting minutes of administrative branches and committees, membership and financial records, reports, exhibit materials, records relating to the society’s library and archival holdings, press releases and newspaper clippings, and publications and newsletters created by the society. There are also materials from various programs, such as meetings and conferences, tours, lectures, awards and dinners, films, and educational programs.

The Anti-Semitic Literature Collection documents journalistic source materials (newspapers, newsletters, and illustrations) regarding views of anti-Semitism in the United States during the 20th-century. A few items from the 19th-century are included, particularly illustrations from Puck, Vanity Fair, and The Judge. Items are from various periodicals (i.e., The Dearborn Independent, Common Sense, The Crusader, The White American), organizations (i.e., American Nazi Party, the Christian Educational Association, and the White Party of America), and by many different authors (i.e., Father C.E. Coughlin, Benjamin Freedman, Otto H.F. Vollbehr). Additionally, this collection contains responses by American organizations to American and European anti-Semitism as well as documentation on the reaction of anti-Semitism in Canada.

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 Records of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites (1859-1878) documents the life cycle of the Board of Delegates, a Jewish civil rights organization located in New York City. The Board served in a two-fold function: acting as a central organization for American Jews and working on behalf of Jews abroad. To the latter end, the Delegates collaborated with the Committee of Deputies of British Jews and the French Alliance Israélite Universelle to provide for the relief and aid, civil, and religious rights of Jews throughout the Americas, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, particularly Romania, Ottoman Palestine including Jerusalem, and Morocco.

In the U.S., the Delegates were partially responsible for the appointment of the first Jewish Military Chaplain and surveyed member synagogues concerning the history and size of their congregation, the first organization to systematically record this type of information in the States. The Delegates merged with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) in 1878 and dissolved in 1925. Correspondents include Adolph Crémieux, Sir Moses Montefiore, Benjamin Franklin Peixotto, Isaacs S. Myer, the Rev. Dr. Arnold Fischel, and Maj. General Benjamin Butler. Documents include correspondence, minutes, committee reports, memorials, announcements, surveys, some printed material including clippings, and a 1932 Rabbinical thesis on the Delegates by Allan Tarshish.

The Carola Levy Collection holds the papers of Carola Levy Kaufmann as well as of the Levy and Feldheim families and related families. The collection consists of correspondence, article manuscripts, copies of family members' documents and newspaper clippings, and a friendship book.

Recordings of Esther Drucker, including some documentation accompanying some of the tapes, handwritten by her husband.

The tapes contain songs in Spanish, Italian, Yiddish, French, and other languages. Some were recorded in Mexico. Some include melodies played on the recorded, accompanied by Klara Katz on piano. Some songs are accompanied by Esther Drucker herself on guitar.

Two recordings are from cassettes that were brought to be digitized with the originals kept by the family. They include some oral histories recorded by David Drucker, Esther Drucker's husband, of himself talking about his attempt to travel to the USSR which led him instead to Constantinople and Italy, and of his sister Becky Drucker, talking about her immigration from Russia to New York.

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.

This collection documents the life and accomplishments of the Goldmark family, whose most famous members were the two composers Carl Goldmark (1830-1915), who embraced Viennese musical life with colleagues such as Brahms, Liszt, Wagner and Rubinstein, and his nephew Rubin Goldmark (1872-1936), who has been honored for his services to American music, as a prolific composer, and composition department chair at (amongst others) the newly created Juilliard School of Music. The collection contains a large amount of correspondence, but also includes newspaper clippings, musical journal articles, concert programmes and notes, a libretto, a citizenship certificate, obituaries, eulogies and photographs.

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 People's Relief Committee for Jewish War Sufferers consist of correspondence with Jewish communities and relief organizations in Europe, Palestine, Cuba, South America, the United States, and Canada; as well as scrapbooks containing U.S. and Canadian Yiddish and English newspaper clippings and printed promotional literature pertaining to the fundraising activities of the People's Relief Committee in North America and abroad.

Papers of Hans Kohn (1891-1971), historian and lawyer, who was active in Zionist organizations. He published extensively on questions of nationalism and related topics. The collection consists of documents relating to Hans Kohn's professional experience, materials relating to his political activities, correspondence, diaries, materials relating to his experience in World War I and as a prisoner of war, personal documents, photos, clippings.

See "Related Materials" notes for links to every digitized Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) collection in the YIVO Archives.

This collection contains personal papers of writer Henry Roth. It is comprised of extensive correspondence, journals and notebooks of his writing; and published and unpublished manuscripts of his work. There are also papers concerning Roth's interests in Israel, Judaism, and Leftist politics, publications by and about him, and volumes of his works. In addition, the papers also include a postcard and art print collection, photographs, biographical material, and a list of monographs once housed in Roth’s personal library.

This subseries consists of materials pertaining to Latin America and various Latin American countries generated by HIAS and HICEM's main offices in New York and Europe. Materials are geographically divided and cover the following locations, among others: Argentina, Bolivia, Brazil, British Honduras, Chile, Colombia, Costa Rica, Cuba, Curacao, Dominican Republic, Ecuador, El Salvador, Guatemala, Haiti, Honduras, Jamaica, Mexico, Nicaragua, Panama, Paraguay, Peru, Puerto Rico, Surinam, Trinidad, Uruguay, and Venezuela. Materials primarily are in English, Yiddish, or Spanish, unless noted otherwise.

The records document the Histadruth Ivrit's early history to the present, representing a significant portion of its work in spreading the Hebrew language in the United States in the second half of the twentieth-century. The records include substantial amount of material regarding the organization's history, administration, public events, publications, and reports. Some information of the early history of the Histadruth Ivrit could be found in the records kept by the writer Daniel Persky. Persky collected personal and professional records that include correspondence with friends, readers, and writers; a partial collection of the drafts of his own publications, and a collection of photographs and newspaper clippings. The functions and activities of the Histadruth Ivrit are documented through Board of Trustees and Board meetings agendas and minutes; various programs for events, conventions, conferences, and celebrations; documents related to fundraising; public relations, press releases and brochures; correspondence with different individuals, organizations, and foundations; Histadruth Ivrit's publications among them the newspaper Hadoar and Tov Lichtov; a large collection of photographs, and scrapbooks. The records of the Histadruth Ivrit represent the large majority of the organization's activities dating from the 1980s to the present. Records for the earlier years of activities are fragmented and incomplete. The records related to the life of Daniel Persky are also partial and copies of many of his publications are missing. This collection included brochures, correspondence, financial records, flyers, grant applications, invitations, lists, minutes, news clipping, orders, periodicals, photographs, press releases, reports, and scrapbooks.

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.

Series I, “Correspondence,” is the largest series in the collection. Subseries I contains letters which Ilan Stavans sent to his family between 1984 and 1992. The bulk of these letters are sent from New York City to Mexico City during Stavans’ time as a student at the Jewish Theological Seminary. Subseries II consists of postcards that Stavans sent to his family during the same time period. Many of these were sent during Stavans’ travels. Subseries III contains a collection of telegrams sent to Ilan Stavans’ paternal grandparents, Srulek Stavchansky and Bela Stavchansky (née Altschuler), in 1930, congratulating them on their marriage. Subseries IV contains correspondences, from 1963-1964, connected to Srulek Stavchansky’s illness (Stavchansky was diagnosed with cancer in 1963 and died from it in 1965). Subseries V consists of manuscripts that Stavans sent from New York City to his parents in Mexico City: poems, short stories, journalism, and literary criticism. Subseries VI, entitled “miscellaneous correspondence,” consists of various other letters and correspondences, including a letter in Yiddish from Stavans’ mother, Ofelia Stavchansky née Slomianski, to Stavans, and correspondences between extended family members in Polish and Yiddish, sent in the first half of the 20th century.

Series II contains IDs and government documents, including immigration papers and vital records. It also contains Bela Stavchansky’s handwritten will.

Series III consists of Bela Stavchansky’s writing during the 1980s and 1990s in Mexico. The first subseries is dedicated to the manuscripts of her memoir, Mi Diario. It includes two handwritten manuscripts and one manuscript that Ofelia Stavchansky typed. The second subseries contains drafts of Bela Stavchansky’s writing for newspapers. This subseries includes many drafts of her articles, as well as some clippings of their published form.

Series IV contains photographs of Ilan Stavans’ family. These stretch through multiple generations and countries. Most are labeled or described in English, Spanish, or Yiddish.

Series V, “Miscellaneous Items,” contains various assorted documents, including newspaper clippings and items from Poland in Polish and Yiddish.

Series VI contains audio from Ilan Stavans’ early professional life.

Series VII contains three religious items from Mexico: a tallis, an afikomen cover, and a challah cover.

Contains letters and articles in manuscript to Leeser pertaining to: his work as editor of The Occident, his translation of the Bible and his other literary works; discussions concerning Jewish law, the Reform movement in the United States and in Curaçao; Reform and Orthodox Judaism in Albany, N.Y., Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson's anti-Semitic comments in the United States Congress; the founding of a synagogue in San Francisco; the condition of Jews and Jewish education in America and in England; equal rights for Jews in Massachusetts and North Carolina; the controversy over the Touro Monument; slavery and the Civil War; and converts to Judaism. Also includes information on Israel Joseph Benjamin's trip in the U.S., 1859-1862; Isaac Mayer Wise; Sabato Morais; a manuscript guidebook on Jewish ritual slaughter written by Moses Julian in Barbados in 1820; Moses Montefiore's report on his mission to Rome on behalf of the Edgardo Mortara affair; articles discussing Christian theology; the Jews in Cochin, India and in China; a Latin preface to Leeser's Hebrew Bible; a Portuguese prayer against the evil eye; and poems on topics of Jewish interest.

Isidore Meyer was an editor (1940-1968), librarian (1940-1962) and archivist (1940-1968) at the American Jewish Historical Society and a rabbi at the Jewish Center of Bay Shore, Long Island (1937-1943). Also a historian, Meyer wrote and spoke on the use, study and impact of Hebrew language and texts during the colonial period in the United States. The collection documents his AJHS career, historical writing and research, rabbinical work, teaching experience and general professional activities. Materials include correspondence, manuscripts, notes, photostats, clippings, printed materials, photographs, slides and negatives.

This collection contains materials about Jack Gerber and Miriam Gerber née Sondheimer. In particular, it includes materials about their emigration to and settlement in the colony of Sosúa in the Dominican Republic.

Jacob Shatzky (1893-1956) was an historian, literary and theater critic, editor, bibliographer, lexicographer, lecturer, teacher and librarian. The Papers of Jacob Shatzky cover the period of 1910-1960's and reflect to different degrees all aspects of his activities. Some papers of Jacob Shatzky's wife, Ida, consist for the most part of materials relating to his death. Manuscript and other materials relating to memorial books published posthumously in commemoration of Jacob Shatzky, such as the Shatzky Book, (Buenos Aires, 1957) and Yakov Shatzki in Ondenk, (New York, 1957) constitute another significant part of the collection.

This collection contains correspondence, brochures, memorandum, pamphlets, fliers, invitations, reports, programs and press releases. The documents in this collection describe issues concerning the Holocaust, Jewish resistance, European labor concerns, the Jewish Labor Movement in America and anti-communism and Soviet Jewry. Included are invitations, programs and general information concerning miscellaneous concerts, conventions, symposia, and summer fellowships. A brochure regarding the Jewish Labor Committee's Child Adoption Program and materials relating to the Women's Division and Workmen's Circle also are found in the collection. In addition the collection contains publications issued by other organizations, including: American Federation of Labor, American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, Friends of Democracy, National Community Relations Advisory Council, United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration, and the United States Displaced Persons Commission.

Contains material collected by the Jewish Media Service (JMS) on Jewish films, film company catalogs, resources and information from and about various media centers. The majority of the Jewish Media Service records date from when the JMS operated independently from 1975 to 1987. Types of material found in the collection include articles, brochures, catalogs, correspondence, examination study guides, filmographies, film stills, newsletters, pamphlets, photographs, posters, publications, scripts, and slides.

The collection contains the periodicals of, and relating to, many Jewish student organizations.

Joseph A. Rosen was an agronomist and official of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. In the 1920s and 1930s he organized and coordinated relief activities for impoverished Jews in the Soviet Union. Joseph A. Rosen was a director of the American Jewish Joint Agricultural Corporation (Agro-Joint) that tried to develop Jewish settlements and assisted with organization of Jewish factories, cooperatives, schools, and health care facilities. All these subjects are covered in this collection. These are the papers of Joseph A. Rosen in his official capacity as a Director of the Agro-Joint. The collection contains agreements between Agro-Joint and the Soviet government, reports, and field observations of the agronomists and officials of the relief organizations, particularly of the Agro-Joint, technical reports and documentation necessary for development and financial sustainability of the Jewish settlements. Maps and landscape plans are also part of this collection.

Collection contains materials generated while Label Katz served in leadership positions with B’nai B’rith from the 1950s through the 1960s; best represented is his tenure as president of B’nai B’rith International between 1959 and 1965, during which Katz concentrated on challenges faced by Soviet Jews, and on the improvement of Jewish education. Materials consist of correspondence, speeches, clippings, photographs, minutes and reports.