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.

The American Jewish Committee Records, Domestic and Geographic Files consists of materials created by executive offices, departments, local offices and chapters of the committee concerning a variety of matters, primarily Jewish civil and religious rights, integration, Jewish communal organizations and communal issues. However, materials found in this collection encompass other civil, racial, and religious minority groups as well. The records consist of briefs, conference proceedings, correspondence, legal documents, memoranda, minutes of meetings, printed materials, reports, resolutions, statements, studies, and surveys.

From the Guide to the YIVO Archives:


The collection consists mainly of correspondence and includes some memoranda and financial records relating to immigration activities of AJDC offices in Lisbon during the years 1939-1951. The following are included:
1. Correspondence: Including correspondence with the American Friend Service Committee, 1942-47; with AJDC in Paris, 1945-49; with intergovernmental Committee on refugees, 1944-47; with Council for Refugee Settlement in Johanesburg, 1942-47; with National Refugee Service, 1942-45.
2. Miscellaneous: Lists of passengers, lists of refugees, 1940-46; administrative memoranda; bulletins of European AJDC

This collection documents the family of Bernhard Wolff, extending back to his earliest known ancestor in 1646 through his grandchildren born in the 1970s. Born in Esens (Ostfriesland, Germany), Bernhard escaped National Socialist persecution by emigrating to Porto Alegre, Brazil in 1938, followed shortly thereafter by his wife Fanny née Mitau. His six siblings and mother Flora née Oppenheimer also emigrated, eventually settling in Brazil, Argentina, Chile, or the U.S. The collection contains correspondence, family trees, vital records, official documents, and photographs of family and Jewish historical sites. Also included are a three-volume family chronicle and a two-volume collection of materials on the Jewish community of Esens (Ostfriesland) created by Bernhard Wolff. A unique highlight of the collection is the postcard album belonging to Fanny’s mother Ida Mitau née Jacobsohn, who was not able to escape Germany and perished in Theresienstadt.

The Collection contains correspondence of CENTRA, the Council of Jews from Germany, the Irgun Olej Merkaz Europa, the Leo Baeck Institute in Jerusalem, and others. Topics include the Spanish translations of LBI publications and the collaboration of the Council of Jews from Germany with CENTRA. Mentioned is the possibility of establishing a permanent representation of the Leo Baeck Institute in Buenos Aires. A point of concern is the preservation of the German-Jewish heritage in Latin American congregations and organizations of CENTRA. Included are various materials on CENTRA's congresses as well as completed questionnaires about the German-Jewish communities and institutions in South America.

Contains published and manuscript material relating to the activities and administration of the congregation and its subsidiary organizations, including: reports and weekly bulletins; early financial records and lists of those honored at religious services; and copies of resolutions and forms of service and prayers for various occasions in manuscript form. Contains also material relating to the cemetery photographs, the Hebra Hased Va-Amet (the congregational burial society) and to later clergy in the congregation: Henry Pereira Mendes, David de Sola Pool, and Louis Coleman Gerstein--including published copies of their sermons.

This collection contains the records of the Council of Jews from Germany (Council for the Protection of the Rights and Interests of Jews from Germany). It represents the interests of former German Jews in matters of restitution and indemnification, legislation, contacts with successor organizations for heirless Jewish property in West Germany, and social work activities, and was a founding member of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims against Germany (the Claims Conference). The records primarily range from the 1950s to the 1970s, and include correspondence concerning all aspects of restitution, particularly with the Claims Conference, internal minutes and other administrative and financial documents, and a small amount of cultural material.

The collection contains Dutch and Portuguese documents pertaining to the Jewish community and dealing especially with Congregation Mikve Israel and Neve Salom, the David Aboab controversy, and the communal reorganizations of 1750-51. Four rolls of microfilmed documentary and printed materials are present in the collection

The collection contains materials relating to the members of the Wilde family that are addenda to the Denise Wilde Family Collection (AR 25189). The items in this collection consist primarily of restitution correspondence, official documents such as birth and death certificates, as well as a few personal notes by Bertha Wilde and family trees.

The collection documents professional activities of Edouard Roditi as a art historian and critic and consist of manuscripts, notes, research files, and a wealth of art catalogues, press release, photographs, and exhibit invitations.

This collection describes the private and professional lives of Elisabeth Gay and her husband, the businessman Joseph Gay, who came to the United States from Austria in 1939. Topics present in the documents found here include Austria of the 1930s, America during World War II, the economies of several South American countries, and restitution for the Gays' Austrian property. Documents include extensive correspondence, publications, notes and manuscripts, reports, scrapbooks, and photocopies.

This collection primarily contains materials relating to Emery I. Gondor's varied career as an illustrator, creator of puzzles, photographer, and writer. It also includes some personal documents and vital records, as well as materials relating to Emery Gondor's brother, artist Bertalan Gondor. It is closely related to the collection AR 25085 (Papers of Emery and Bertalan Gondor).

This collection contains correspondence, personal papers and documents, and photographs documenting Ernest Hofeller's emigration from Germany to the refugee settlement in Sosúa, Dominican Republic, in the 1940s.

This collection contains documents, diaries and personal correspondence of Ernst Scheuer and Rosi Moses Scheuer. They document their life in Paris and their imprisonment in French detention centers in 1939-40 and in Spanish prisons 1940-41. The documents illustrate the struggle for U.S. Visas and the subsequent emigration to the United States, as well as the efforts to establish themselves in New York. The collection also contains numerous manuscripts written by Ernst and Rosi Scheuer, a large number of them being autobiographical.

The collection contains documents, correspondence, unpublished writings, sketches, photos, and various flyers, postcards, posters, and a substantial amount of family documents.

The focus of this collection lies on the correspondence between Lily Lösser and her daughters Yutta (Judy) and Gaby (Gabrielle) during their time of separation 1943-1946. The rest of the collection is made up of personal albums, official correspondence, documents and other material.

Correspondence, personal documents, and photographs in this collection show the life of George Garrington (Grünbaum) from his youth in Berlin, through the war years spent in England, to his later life in the United States. These materials document his relationships with family and friends, as well as his education, immigration, military service, career in engineering, and organizations with which he was involved.

The Gertrude S. Goldhaber Collection, which forms part of the larger Maurice and Gertrude Goldhaber Collection, consists of mainly professional papers of nuclear physicist Dr. Gertrude Scharff Goldhaber. The collection is comprised of professional correspondence, research files, materials related to conferences and lectures, clippings and article reprints, research notes, transparencies, photographs, glass slides, manuscripts and publications, and materials related to various organizations with which Dr. Goldhaber was involved. There are also some personal documents, including correspondence, calendars and diaries, and educational records.

Isaac Bitton (1926- ) was born in Lisbon, Portugal. He immigrated to Palestine in the early 1940s where he would go on to serve in the Jewish Brigade of the British Army and later the Israeli Defense Force. He and his family moved to the US in 1959, eventually settling in Woodstock, Illinois. He was a successful executive and philanthropist. This collection contains correspondence and addresses related to the efforts of Isaac Bitton in the restoration of the Jewish cemetery in Faro, Portugal and the recognition of Portuguese diplomat Aristides de Sousa Mendes in the aid given to Jewish refugees from Nazi Germany. The collection also contains some material related to his work with the US government, in particular the Small Business Administration.

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.

This collection documents the life of Hannah Busoni (née Apfel) and her husband, the artist Rafaello Busoni, son of the renowned composer, Ferruccio Busoni. The collection consists primarily of personal correspondence and photographs, but also includes Portuguese newspaper clippings. There are also four court cases pertaining to the defense attorney, Dr. Alfred Apfel, Hannah's father.

The collection documents the work of Henry Besso and reflects various aspects of his professional life, personal research and writings in the field of Sephardic culture, Spanish language and linguistics, and Sephardic and Spanish history. Collection also documents Besso's involvement with Sephardic organizations and communities. Collection includes audio materials, brochures, booklets, clippings, conference procedures, correspondence, government publications, minutes, notes, photographs, printed matter, reports, speeches, and writings and translations by Henry Besso and others.

Contains a receipt for a donation made to the synagogue building fund (1853), and a copy of a birth certificate (1866), taken from the records of the Portuguese-Jewish community of Hamburg.

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.

Records of several Jewish communities assembled by Jacob Jacobson.

Consists of correspondence, articles, speeches, travel notes, ephemera and other documents pertaining to the career of a civil-engineer Jacob Xenab Cohen, who retired from that profession in 1924 to become a practicing rabbi. Includes materials from Cohen's campaigns against employment discrimination and Nazi persecution of Jews in Europe from 1932 to 1945.

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.

The collection pertains to the Portuguese Jewish Jessurun family in 19th century Hamburg, including business and private documents.

The collection contains various materials pertaining to the Jewish Agency Mission to the Iberian Peninsula, October 1943 - September 1945.

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