Playbills

The collection mainly pertains to Abraham Liebmann and his son Wilhelm, as well as on Abraham's grandson Siegfried and his great-grandson Albert, including their wives. It contains various documents, poetry and a large amount of correspondence from the 19th century. Prominent topics are related to the education, professional and military careers, politics, and marital lives of the family members. Also included are two restitution cases.

The collection consists of playbills of "Rookwood" (1864?) and "La Juive" (undated); letters to "Dear Brother Ed" (1862), Henry Francis Keenan (1862) and J.C. Hotten (1868); two photograph Cartes De Visite and a photograph and negative of Menken with Algernon C. Swinburne.

This collection contains materials collected by David Trotsky relating to the Jewish community of Belgium in the inter-war period. Materials include printed documents, posters, reports, meeting minutes, and newspaper clippings, mainly pertaining to the Jews of Brussels and Antwerp.

The bulk of the Emil Carl Grossmann Collection is comprised of albums of photographs taken by Grossmann during his travels in Europe, mostly throughout his native Austria, and the United States from the early 1920s through early 1940s. A significant portion of one album documents trips to various Austrian spa towns, as well as tours through the states of Burgenland and Carinthia during summers and holidays. Another noteworthy portion of the album deals with Grossmann’s extended visits to the United States, particularly New York City, in 1929 and 1937. During these trips, he photographed New York’s landmarks, neighborhoods, parks, and major streets. A second photograph album is dedicated exclusively to photographs Emil Carl Grossmann took at the 1939 New York World’s Fair. In addition to Grossmann’s albums of photography, a third album holds a collection of theater programs for plays, musicals, and operas he attended from 1922 to 1938, mostly at various theaters in Vienna.

The collection contains play manuscripts, programs, playbills, posters, photographs, correspondence, agreements, scrapbooks, clippings, printed ephemera, and memorabilia relating to Yiddish theater primarily in the early twentieth century, especially the interwar period. Also included are items of printed ephemera related to Yiddish film, Hebrew theater, and a broad range of Jewish performers, including cantors, singers and dancers. Geographically, the materials originate predominantly in Poland and other parts of Eastern Europe, including parts of the Russian Empire and, later, the Soviet Union; and, to a lesser extent, the United States, especially New York City. Also included are materials from Western Europe, Palestine (Eretz Israel), South America, and other regions around the world. Among the theater personalities represented in the collection with significant amounts of material are Herz Grossbard, David Herman, Joseph Winogradoff, Rudolf Zaslavsky, Zygmunt Turkow, Jonas Turkow, Moyshe Lipman, Ida Kaminska, and Esther Rachel Kaminska. The theater groups best represented include the Varshever Yidisher Kunst-Teater (VYKT; Warsaw Yiddish Art Theater), founded by Zygmunt Turkow and Ida Kaminska; the Vilna Troupe; Yung Teater / Nay Teater (Warsaw; Vilna), under the direction of Michael Weichert; the Moscow State Yiddish Theater (known by its Russian acronym "GOSET"); Maurice Schwartz's Yiddish Art Theatre, of New York; and the Hebrew theater "Habimah." A wide variety of other professional as well as amateur theater groups are represented with smaller amounts of material.

This collection contains the correspondence of Dr. Irene E. Barbasch written mainly in England during and just after WWII, as well as photographs and other documents pertaining to her relationship with Dr. Lilian P. Singer of Brno (Czech Republic).

Photographs, mementos, and album recordings of the Kadimah Group of Hadassah, Central Chapter, Brooklyn Region, documenting their performances in Yiddish of Gilbert and Sullivan’s musicals, Pirates of Penzance and H.M.S. Pinafore.

The Lipsky Family Papers reflect the professional and personal activities of Eleazar Lipsky (1911-1993), his father, Zionist leader Louis Lipsky (1876-1963), and his mother, Charlotte Lipsky (1879-1959), as well as other family members. Eleazar Lipsky was a lawyer, novelist, Zionist and the head of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in the early 1960s. While working on a multi-part family novel, Eleazar Lipsky gathered and arranged much of the family material in this collection. In addition to family history, the collection contains information on the American Zionist movement, Bernard Richards’s role in the Committee of Jewish Delegations at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, and various legal battles involving such parties as the Jewish Week, the American Examiner, Doubleday, Philip Hochstein and Lillie Shultz. The materials include correspondence, an unfinished manuscript, legal transcripts, clippings, speeches, research materials, financial documents, miscellaneous writings and a few photographs.

This collection documents the time Rabbi Abraham Haselkorn spent stationed overseas during World War II. Photographs include those of comrades and soldiers, as well as refugees. Scenes include daily life as well as religious services.

Century Productions produced the one-woman show, "Hannah Senesh: Portrait of a Woman Warrior," written and directed by David Schechter and starring Lori Wilner as Senesh. The script was based on the diaries and poems of the WWII Hungarian-Jewish paratrooper Hannah Senesh, with songs and music composed and arranged by Steven Lutvak with additional music by Schecter and Elizabeth Swados. “Hannah Senesh” ran at the Cherry Hill Theater in New York City from 1984-1985 and traveled throughout the U.S. and Israel until 1987.

The Friends of Ida Kaminska Foundation, Inc. was formed in 1969, shortly after the world-renowned Yiddish actress, Ida Kaminska, immigrated to the United States. The purpose of the foundation was to establish, fund, and promote the Ida Kaminska Theatre in New York. Though the foundation managed to put together one theatrical production, financial difficulties forced the foundation to stop its activities in 1973.

This collection documents the life and activities of dancer and activist Ronya Schwaab. The collection contains material related to her activities advocating for Soviet Jews, lecturing on various topics, her trips abroad, and writing reviews for numerous books. It also includes correspondence with family, friends, and various officials in both the public and non-profit spheres of politics and business. The collection contains numerous photographs and certificates that further document her activities and accomplishments.