Korean War, 1950-1953

The Marta Fraenkel Collection holds papers and correspondence of Marta Fraenkel and her family members. Prominent topics include postwar Germany and Korea and the lives of family members who resided there. Some focus on the family genealogy is also existent. The collection comprises correspondence, personal and official papers, biographical articles, family trees, postcards and some notes.

The Mühlfelder and Roeckert Families Collection contains both primary sources and research materials that, together, combine to record the history of these families. Charles C. Milford (born Klaus Mühlfelder) compiled the research materials; the greatest quantity of correspondence, documents, and photographs in the collection also pertains to his life. Documents include vital documents, educational records, military service records, and materials relating to Charles C. Milford’s career as a librarian. In addition to Milford, his father Simon Mühlfelder and wife Patricia E. Milford feature most prominently in the first three series of the collection. Family history research focuses on Simon Mühlfelder’s first wife Martha Kassel and people within her milieu. This research is compiled from Milford’s correspondence with scholars and archives, relevant archival finding aids and photocopies of documents held by various archives, articles, photocopies from books, catalog records for pertinent books, and Wikipedia pages and other printouts of biographical information from the Internet. These same types of material also make up Milford’s research on topics of interest, including the history of Jews in Germany broadly and of the Mühlfelder family specifically.

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.

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.