The General Jewish Council was an umbrella organization founded by the American Jewish Committee, American Jewish Congress, B’nai B’rith, and Jewish Labor Committee in order to coordinate their rights defense activities.

The bulk of the records in this collection date between from 1938-1944, the active years of the Council. Materials consist primarily of correspondence, minutes, memoranda, and reports.

Contains correspondence, judicial opinions, addresses and speeches, newspaper clippings, and published material relating to Perlman's career as a judge in various municipal courts of the city of New York (1935-1952), his political career as a New York State Assemblyman (1915-1917), member of the United States House of Representatives (1920-1927), and as an unsuccessful candidate for New York State office.

It also contains published material relating to Perlman's activities on behalf of the Jewish community, especially the American Jewish Congress (1942-1946), where he served as chairman of its National Executive Committee.

Approximately half of this collection consists of the official minutes; memoranda; administrative and investigatory reports; and correspondence of the Mayor's Committee on Unity established by Mayor Fiorello H. La Guardia in 1944, of which Perlman served as a member on the subcommittees on Housing, City Services, and the Timone Investigation.

This collection contains documents relating to Isaac A. Hourwich’s role as an economist, publicist, statistician, lawyer, author, and authority on immigration, as well as his involvement with the labor movement and the formation of the American Jewish Congress. There are reports, minutes of meetings, memoranda, clippings and correspondence, and manuscripts and articles about Jewish labor, Socialism, Russia, Marxism, immigration, and other subjects. These materials demonstrate Hourwich’s important role in American labor, immigration theory, and political and economic theory.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of William Edlin, editor of The Day and a prominent Socialist. It includes correspondence with individuals and with organizations, newspaper clippings, manuscripts of works by Edlin and by others as well as translations done by Edlin, and some of Edlin’s personal documents. These materials relate to Edlin’s involvement with The Day, with the Socialist Party, the Workmen’s Circle, various labor and Zionist organizations, literary clubs and activities, and with music, art and drama.

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Shad Polier, including legal files from cases with which Polier was involved, particularly those concerning adoptions and civil liberties, articles and speeches by Polier, correspondence, and materials from several of the organizations with which Polier was affiliated, including the American Jewish Congress, the World Jewish Congress and the NAACP. These materials reflect his widespread participation with the civil liberties movement, equal rights and anti-discrimination law.