Military chaplains

This collection contains the personal and professional papers of Abraham Klausner, including articles written by and about him, research materials for his articles and his memoir, correspondence, and Klausner’s personal and military records. These materials reflect his active involvement with Displaced Persons and the DP Camps in Postwar Germany as well as his sometimes complicated relationships with the Joint Distribution Committee and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA). The collection also contains issues of Fun Letstn Hurbn (From the Last Extermination).

The Arnold Tänzer Collection documents the work and life of this German rabbi. Prominent topics of this collection include Moritz Lazarus, Jews in the German military, and the Jewish communities of Göppingen and Württemberg. The papers consist of manuscripts, official documents, diaries, correspondence, clippings, and a few photographs.

The Records of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites (1859-1878) documents the life cycle of the Board of Delegates, a Jewish civil rights organization located in New York City. The Board served in a two-fold function: acting as a central organization for American Jews and working on behalf of Jews abroad. To the latter end, the Delegates collaborated with the Committee of Deputies of British Jews and the French Alliance Israélite Universelle to provide for the relief and aid, civil, and religious rights of Jews throughout the Americas, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, particularly Romania, Ottoman Palestine including Jerusalem, and Morocco.

In the U.S., the Delegates were partially responsible for the appointment of the first Jewish Military Chaplain and surveyed member synagogues concerning the history and size of their congregation, the first organization to systematically record this type of information in the States. The Delegates merged with the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (UAHC) in 1878 and dissolved in 1925. Correspondents include Adolph Crémieux, Sir Moses Montefiore, Benjamin Franklin Peixotto, Isaacs S. Myer, the Rev. Dr. Arnold Fischel, and Maj. General Benjamin Butler. Documents include correspondence, minutes, committee reports, memorials, announcements, surveys, some printed material including clippings, and a 1932 Rabbinical thesis on the Delegates by Allan Tarshish.

The collection documents the time David Cedarbaum spent serving as a Jewish military chaplain in the Marianas during World War II.

This collection reflects the professional activities of Rabbi Hugo Stransky (1905-1983). The bulk of the collection relates to Jewish military chaplaincy and memorials for Jewish veterans. Materials include correspondence, manuscripts, programs of memorial services held at Congregation Beth Hillel in New York City's Washington Heights, and materials related to the Jewish Veterans Association.

The Milton Steinberg (1903-1950) Papers documents the personal and intellectual life of the American author, philosopher, rabbi, teacher, and theologian. The collection contains correspondence, writings, photographs, audio recordings, and memorabilia. In addition to numerous articles, he authored several books including, The Making of the Modern Jew (1934), As A Driven Leaf (1939), A Partisan Guide to the Jewish Problem (1945), Basic Judaism (1947), A Believing Jew (1951), Anatomy of Faith (1960), and A Prophet’s Wife (2010). In a professional career that lasted a little over twenty years, he served as rabbi at three synagogues, primarily at the Park Avenue Synagogue. In addition, he was active in the community at large, and worked with many Jewish community and civic organizations. As a disciple of Mordecai Kaplan, he and others helped to establish the Reconstructionist movement of American Jewry.

This collection documents the life of Rabbi Morris Gordon, particularly the time he spent serving as a chaplain in Burma and China during World War II. Included in the collection are letters, photographs, maps, newspapers and newspaper clippings, and sermons and other short religious writings. Of particular interest are letters written to Gordon’s wife while he was stationed in the Pacific detailing his daily activities, as well as essays written by German refugee children in Shanghai entitled “Home is Where My Heart Is.” Also included is Gordon’s autobiography.

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 collection consists mainly of minutes, surveys, reports, photographs, and correspondence of both JWB personnel and U.S. military chaplains, directed toward or concerned with the Jewish men in the Armed Forces.

The material in this collection covers such topics as: holiday arrangements (primarily the High Holy Days and Passover), food needs, religious services, furloughs, prayerbooks; budgeting and staffing; registration and marking of Jewish graves; anti-Semitism in the military; the general problems of Kashruth; communication between the men and their families; and general recreation and entertainment.

Rabbi Oscar M Lifshutz (1916-1990), served as Army Chaplain during World War II and Korea. This collection contains photocopies documenting his life.

This collection contains the chaplain's kit used by Rabbi Emery Glancz during his service as an army chaplain during World War II. Included in the kit is a flag with the Ten Commandments; one Ten Commandments plaque; two brass candlesticks, one marked "US;" two brass communion plates marked "US;" one brass priest's communion cup with cross; and three silver-plated cups.

Collection documents Rabbi Harry Tarlow's career as Rabbi of Temple Emanu-El in Reno, Nevada. Rabbi Tarlow may have been the first permanent Rabbi in the State of Nevada. Contains copies of Rabbi Tarlow's Rabbinical diploma from Rav Kook, Chief Rabbi of Israel; information concerning Rabbi Tarlow's birthplace in Krosniewice, Poland; and his stay in Israel before coming to the United States in 1930. Includes Pearl and Harry Tarlow's citizenship certificates, and letters of gratitude from various officials in Reno and elsewhere for his work as Rabbi of Emanu-El and as Chaplain of Reno Army Air Base during World War II.

Composed of copies of V-mail Stein and Assistant Chaplain Emanuel M. Honig sent to Stein's parents in 1944. Includes a photograph of Stein in New London, CT.

The Seligsohn Kroner Family Collection consists of material that reflects the life and work of the philosopher Richard J. Kroner (1884-1974), his wife Alice Kroner née Kauffmann (1885-1968), their daughter Gerda M. Seligsohn née Kroner (1909-2002), and their son-in-law Rabbi Rudolf Seligsohn (1909-1943). The collection primarily consists of correspondence relating to the emigration experiences of each of the family members. In addition, the collection contains personal documents, newspaper clippings, off-prints of the philosophical writings of Richard Kroner, photographs, a photo album, and a few paintings.

Rabbi William F. Rosenblum was head rabbi of the reform congregation at Temple Israel in New York City, 1930-1963. He was also an active leader in a number of Jewish social welfare and religious organizations. In addition to broadly documenting his rabbinical career and organizational activities, the William F. Rosenblum Papers reflect Rosenblum's interests in military chaplaincy, relations between Catholicism and Judaism, the media, race relations, post-WWII Europe, and the Vietnam War. Materials include correspondence, scrapbooks, sermons, speeches, notes, radio transcripts, clippings, photographs, audiotapes, and film.