Israel-Arab War, 1948-1949

This record group contains meeting minutes, correspondence and reports of the Hadassah Council in Israel (originally the Hadassah Emergency Services and the Hadassah Council in Palestine), the Hadassah Youth Services (originally the Palestine Council of Hadassah) and the Hadassah Youth Services (HYS) successor organizations, Hadassah Vocational Education Services (HVES) and Hadassah Israel Education Services (HIES). The records represent the activities of Hadassah's representatives in Palestine/Israel, from 1927 to the 1990s. The Hadassah Youth Services focused on providing services to underserved youth in Palestine/Israel, most notably with their school luncheon and Guggenheimer playground programs. After HYS changed its working name to HVES in 1952, it began to focus on vocational education projects in Israel. Legally, however, the name of the organization in Israel remained Hadassah Youth Services. The Hadassah Council in Israel acted as an advisor and liaison between Hadassah's American offices and Hadassah's Israel projects, including the Hadassah Medical Organization, Youth Aliyah, and Hadassah Youth Services.

Papers consist of copies of family photographs, a detailed genealogy research report, and two articles. The Halpern Research Report relates to the Halpern, Rothenberg, Klein, Cantor, and Lasker families. The articles, published in the Bronx County Historical Society Journal, are based on Carl Halpern's reminiciences of family members, growing up in the Bronx, and working as an office boy for the Hauserman Metal Manufacturing Company. The papers also include two oral histories, comprising a total of eight audiotapes that were conducted by Joel Halpern, Carl's son. The first, also recorded by Barbara Kirshenblat Gimblet, interviews Dr. Brusilov, from Long Beach, NY, who describes his life in eastern Poland prior to World War II. The second records Sam Alexander, also of Long Beach, NY, who participated in the Israeli War of Independence.

The Hans and Eleonore Jonas Collection provides documentation of the personal lives of Hans and Eleonore Jonas, better known as Lore Jonas, along with papers relating to the professional work and achievements of the philosopher and scholar Hans Jonas. In addition, the collection contains papers of members of the Jonas and Weiner families. The collection includes correspondence; photographs; articles and unpublished writings, including personal reminiscences and poetry; official documents; notes; sketches; speeches; and family trees.

This collection consists of correspondence, newsletters, and meeting minutes of various Zionist groups in which Agriss was active. The correspondence deals with the Jewish National Fund in Harrisburg, PA; relations between Masada, Avukah, and Hashomer Hatzair; as well as Agriss' involvement with Kibbutz Aliyah and Plugat Aliyah, a group dedicated to settlement in Palestine.

The MACHAL, the acronym for “mitnadvei hutz laAretz” ("Volunteers from Abroad"), consisted of about 3500 men and women from over 40 countries from a variety of social and religious backgrounds who volunteered to fight for the establishment of Israel. This collection is unique in that it deals specifically with the experience of MACHAL and Aliyah Bet volunteers from Canada and the United States and others living in the United States. The collections consists of files on 500 volunteers, over 2000 original and reproduction photographs, numerous audio-visual material, books, manuscripts, and memoirs.

The collection contains 181 letters and 29 photographs. It consists mainly of family correspondence, primarily of letters from Robert Weltsch to his sister Lise [Elisabeth] Weltsch mostly from the years 1909 to 1919.

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.

The collection contains materials pertaining to the Rosenberg-Aronheim family and Nora Kronstein-Rosen.

The collection contains various material pertaining to the Rosin family and comprises 12 folders.

The material in this record group was culled from Hadassah's Central Files in Israel in the early 1980s to document Hadassah's role in Zionist history. Originally formed from a Zionist women's study group, the first Hadassah chapter in New York had a strong relationship with the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA; then known as the Federation of American Zionists). The material in this record group documents Hadassah's relationship to the ZOA and to other Zionist organizations in the United States, Europe, and Palestine/Israel, particularly in the years leading up to Israeli statehood in 1948. Other subjects addressed in this record group include the founding of Hadassah; World War II, particularly relating to Jewish emigration and refugees; the founding of the United Nations and the debate over recognition of a Jewish state; the partition of Palestine; and Arab-Jewish relations. Included are articles, clippings, convention resolutions, correspondence, diary extracts, memorandums, minutes, press releases, printed ephemera, publications, reports, and speeches.