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 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papers from his involvement with the American Jewish Congress and Jewish Information Bureau, published and unpublished writings, publications collected by Richards, articles about Richards and his activities, correspondence and articles from testimonial dinners in honor of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 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.

Collection contains research notes and writings relating to London's works on early American Jewish portraits, miniatures, and silhouettes; this includes family histories of the subjects of the artwork, biographical information on the artists, and information about the works themselves. Also includes items relating to London's personal life, such as her genealogy and a notebook of letters written by her son Robert who was killed in action in World War II during his service in the army; notes, manuscripts, and published and unpublished articles and poetry; art catalogs; legal documents; lantern slides; photographs; correspondence; newspaper clippings; genealogical charts; handwritten sheet music; military medals; sound recordings; a theater program; and a scrapbook.

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.

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.

Jacques Judah Lyons, hazzan, rabbi and community leader, was born in Surinam and emigrated to Philadelphia in the early 1800s. Minister of the New York Congregation Shearith Israel for 38 years, he gathered extensive materials on early Jewish history in the United States, Canada and the West Indies. His papers include manuscripts, newspaper clippings, scrapbooks, notebooks, photographs, and a Sansom ship's log book. Contains material relating to Jews in North and South America generally and more specifically to Congregation Shearith Israel and the Jews in New York, the Touro Synagogue and cemetery and the Jews in Newport, Rhode Island, Philadelphia and the West Indies. Also contains material relating to Jews in the wars of the United States, correspondence of the Jews with George Washington and items relating to Haym Salomon. Collection consists of manuscript material and five notebooks and three scrapbooks of Lyons. Contains material not listed in calendar consisting of sermons by Lyons, a manuscript prayer book used in Surinam and a guide for religious ceremonies at Congregation Shearith Israel, as well as letters written during the Civil War period and correspondence relating to the personal life and career of Lyons.

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.

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.

This collection contains correspondence, documents, and newspaper clippings relating to the life and activities of Frankel in the Metropolitan Life Insurance Company, as well as in other social welfare Jewish organizations. Includes biographic and bibliographic data; manuscript and printed copies of his writings; speeches on the subjects of health, insurance and Jewish affairs; and miscellaneous personal correspondence, particularly especially with Milton Rosenau.

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.

Papers of Morey Schapira reflect the work of the prominent activist of the American Soviet Jewry movement in the years 1965-1993. The collection includes details on Mr. Schapira’s leadership role with organizations Action for Soviet Jewry, the Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry, the New England Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. The collection contains files on many other groups, individuals and topics.

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.

The collection documents the National Jewish Welfare Board's (JWB) evolution from an organization founded in 1917 to provide support for soldiers in times of war to an agency involved in all aspects of Jewish life both in the United States and abroad. In 1990 JWB recreated itself as the Jewish Community Centers Association of North America.

Founded in 1969, the American Association for Ethiopian Jews (AAEJ) was instrumental in the international effort to promote recognition of the Beta Israel (known among non-Jewish Ethiopians as "Falashas") by Israeli authorities, and to assist Jewish emigration from Ethiopia to Israel. The extensive files of the AAEJ include case work files, research materials and Jewish artifacts collected in Ethiopia by AAEJ workers. In the wake of the successful evacuation of Ethiopian Jewry to Israel in 1993, the AAEJ decided to disband and voted to deposit its records at the American Jewish Historical Society. Included are correspondence, office files, photographs, slides, videotapes, audiocassettes and other materials which pertain to AAEJ's efforts to raise the consciousness of the American Jewish community about this unique Jewish subculture. The organization's papers supplement those of its founder, Graenum Berger, which are also held at the American Jewish Historical Society.

The records chronicle the ideology behind the Reconstructionist movement, the founding and activities of the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, and its growth and transformation from an ideology and movement into an established American Jewish denomination, Reconstructionist Judaism. The records also document two seminal figures in Reconstructionist Judaism, Mordecai Menahem Kaplan and Ira Eisenstein. Included in the collection are the administrative records of the Foundation (minutes, financial records, bylaws), publications produced by the Foundation including manuscript submissions for the influential publication The Reconstructionist, correspondence, sermons, prayer books produced by the Foundation, syllabi, sheet music, photographs, and speeches, among other material. In the correspondence are letters from Martin Buber, J. Edgar Hoover, and Albert Schweitzer.

The records of the National Council of Jewish Women, New York Section document the organization's community service, advocacy, and supportive administrative, fundraising, membership, and public relations activities from the Section's early years to the present. Included is a large amount of material from the National Organization in relation to the New York Section. This material is dated from 1896 to 1999 and consists of administrative, events, and advocacy matters. The New York Section's community services files include its work on aging, child care, consumer telephone referrals, counseling support, crime prevention, the disabled, domestic violence, early child education, feminism, homelessness, hunger, immigrants, Israel, Jewish education and promotion, literacy, probation, the sick, summer recreation for children and the elderly, and war relief. The Section's advocacy files consist of lobbying efforts for the rights of children, the disabled, the elderly, families, the homeless, immigrants, Israel, and women. The collection is primarily in English, with some Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Greek, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian. Among the types of material are audio tapes, blueprints, correspondence, minutes, photographs, publications, scrapbooks, and scripts.

The National Jewish Welfare Board Military Chaplaincy Records document the evolution and activities of NJWB’s military chaplaincy agency, which was known as the Commission on Army and Navy Religious Activities (CANRA) from 1942 to 1947, as the Division of Religious Activities (DRA) from 1947 to 1953, and then as the Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy (CJC) after 1953, during the Executive Directorship of Aryeh Lev (1946-1975) and Philip Bernstein (1942-1946). The collection also consists of Aryeh Lev’s records during his service as assistant to the Office of the Chief of Chaplains of the Army (1940-1945), as well as Lev’s personal papers. Most broadly, the collection chronicles the role of Jewish chaplaincy and Jewish participation in the U.S. military effort from WWII to the Vietnam War. Subjects addressed include the establishment of Judaism as one of the major faiths in the U.S. military, patterns of observance among service members, and post-WWII relief work by Jewish chaplains on behalf of displaced persons. Materials include minutes, reports, correspondence, speeches, sermons, autobiographical writings, photographs, questionnaires and printed materials.

The Robison Family Fapers reflect various activities of Adolf C. and Ann Green Robison in civic organizations, Jewish communal life, Jewish national and international affairs, and individually in the arts. The collection contains information on the origins of the United Nations; and on aid to Israel before, during, and after the War of Independence. The materials include correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, financial documents, newspaper clippings, photographs, diaries, scrapbooks, musical scores, and play scripts.

This collection is comprised of materials related to the Brooklyn-born, gay, Jewish bullfighter, Sidney Franklin (1903-1976), who is also known for his close friendship with Ernest Hemingway. The bulk of the collection are photographs of Franklin performing in the bullring, or posing with Spanish and Latin American matadors or famous Americans such as Franklin Roosevelt, Jr., Douglas Fairbanks, Sr., Paulette Goddard, Jack Dempsey and Eddie Cantor. There are also audio recordings of Franklin, a film proposal, clippings and a copy of Franklin’s autobiography.