Jewish legislators

Collection consists of: a collection of bills and resolutions (1912-1937); issues of the "Congressional Record" (1908, 1917, 1933, 1937, 1944-1948, 1950-1952); material relating to the independence of the Philippine Islands (1923, 1930-1931); war refugees; immigration laws; worker's compensation; fair employment practices; college discrimination; rent control; price controls; communism; labor and industry laws; liquor laws; and tributes to Samuel Gompers, Franklin D. Roosevelt, Adolph J. Sabath, and Israel's second anniversary.

The collection contains items collected by Julius Bisno from various Jewish leaders from the early 1800s through the 1980s. These materials include correspondence and autographed photographs from Jewish members of the United Nations, U.S. President's Cabinet, U.S. Governors, U.S. Senators, U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Supreme Court, diplomats, philanthropists, and miscellaneous Jewish leaders and organizations.

Collection consists primarily of New York State Congressman Isaac Siegal's (1915-1923) correspondence with the United States War Department (1917-1919); the Jewish Welfare Board (later The National Jewish Welfare Board) regarding personnel, especially Jewish personnel in the Armed Forces; with John J. Pershing and Secretary of the Navy Franklin D. Roosevelt; relating to immigration, among which are letters from Louis Marshall; and regarding the observance of Flag Day and Lincoln's Birthday.

Collection also includes a paper on "The Jews in China" in manuscript form, and copies of published articles and a radio address.

Judah P. Benjamin, called the "brains of the Confederacy", was a statesman and jurist in the United States, the Confederate States, and Great Britain. Benjamin achieved high-ranking titles wherever he served, and left an indelible mark in the South where he held more official positions than any other man during the Civil War. After the fall of the Confederacy, Benjamin fled to England, where he was admitted to the English bar, and later assumed a judgeship. In 1872, he was appointed the highest ranking of Queen's counselor.

This collection contains correspondence; letters; newspaper clippings; Confederate bank notes and bonds; Civil War memorabilia; pamphlets; and a bound copy of Benjamin's diary, kept from 1862-1864. These materials are of particular interest to researchers studying the activities and experiences of Jews in the antebellum South and under the brief reign of the Confederate States of America. Additionally, through the material relating to memorials and preservation endeavors for Benjamin, the collection also provides a look at the continued glorification of Confederate heroes in the South long into the twentieth century. The collection also contains pre-Civil War correspondence between Benjamin and Peter A. Hargous regarding the creation of a railroad line on the Isthmus of Tehuantepec in Mexico and the Tehuantepec Railroad Company of New Orleans.

Collection is composed of addresses, speeches, testimony, correspondence, press releases, and Congressional Record excerpts.

The papers of Seymour Halpern reflect a wide range of issues including problems posed by Palestininan refugees, defeating Arab boycotts, cutting off foreign aid to the United Arab Republic and President Abdel Nasser of Egypt, denouncing U.S. arm shipments to Arab states, protesting Egyptian intervention in Yemen, responding to France's withdraw from NATO, celebrating Israel's anniversaries, supporting Hadassah, eulogizing J.F. Kennedy, assisting Jews in the Soviet Union, ratifying the Genocide Convention, working towards domestic immigration reform, urging the dispatch of an international peace-keeping force in South Vietnam, and establishing a U.S. Committee on Human Rights. Of particular interest is 1963 correspondence between Halpern and Richard M. Nixon regarding Nixon's visit to the United Arab Republic.