Bat mitzvah

This collection contains the papers of Babette Wampold and the Alabama Council to Save Soviet Jews and documents their activities on behalf of the American Soviet Jewry Movement. The collection is comprised of correspondence, case files, clippings, newsletters, photographs, and trip reports.

This collection contains the institutional records of the Houston Action for Soviet Jewry, mainly news clippings, correspondence, files about refuseniks, and various materials and programs for events which Houston Action for Soviet Jewry sponsored or was involved with. There are also some materials from other organizations set up to aid Soviet Jewry, including the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews, the Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. Many of these materials concern the situation of Jews in the Soviet Union in the 1970s and 1980s, as well as in the 1990s, soon after the end of the Soviet Union.

The collection contains papers of Jerry Goodman, the founding director of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, the largest and most influential organization created by the American Jews to coordinate efforts on behalf of Soviet Jews, which survives today as NCSJ: Advocates on Behalf of Jews in Russia, Ukraine, the Baltic States & Eurasia. The bulk of the collection covers the activities from the early 1970s through late 1980s. The collection includes some minutes of meetings, memoranda, correspondence, newsletters and publications of the NCSJ and its precursor, the American Jewish Committee on Soviet Jewry (AJCSJ, 1964-1971). Among other materials are some posters and considerable number of photographs on Refuseniks and of the ASJM events in New York and the US, audio recordings on compact cassettes and reel-to-reels re-mastered into CD format, and VHS tapes. The collection also contains non-paper objects like pins, pendants, bracelets devoted to prisoners of conscience in the USSR, as well as a t-shirt, a scarf and a shopping bag.

The collection contains papers of Joel Sandberg and Adele Sandberg, among the co-founders of the South Florida Conference on Soviet Jewry. It covers the period from the mid-1970's to the early 1990's and documents the Sandbergs' activities as leaders of the South Florida Conference on Soviet Jewry, as well as their individual efforts in the American Soviet Jewry movement. The documents include correspondence, memos, minutes, news clippings and photos.

The collection contains items commemorating the weddings of several members of the Weinmann family. Included are items pertaining to the wedding of Sophie Hachenburger and Simon Weinmann, including a menu and handwritten book of poems and sketches, entitled Jugendbilder, dedicated to Sophie Hachenburger on the occasion of her wedding; items pertaining to the wedding of Johanna Weinmann and Jakob Burg, including a menu, poem, celebratory newspaper, and songs; and items pertaining to the wedding of Paula Weinmann and Gustav Marxsohn, including a menu, poem, and song. The collection also contains additional items pertaining to Sophie Weinmann née Hachenburger, including a certificate commemorating her bat mitzvah, and a letter from Max Weinmann to the Leo Baeck Institute regarding the Weinmann family.

The collection contains papers of the former President of the Long Island Chapter Zionist Organization of America (ZOA), Michael Greene. Greene wrote music and lyrics that were performed or played back at events dedicated to Soviet Jewry in the Long Island area and were delivered to Refuseniks in the Soviet Union by members of the Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry. The materials include correspondence, a book of poems and stories, sheet music, a CD, an audiocassette, and a tzedakah box.

This collection contains the records of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, the largest and most influential American Jewish organization created to coordinate efforts on behalf of Soviet Jewry; the NCSJ containes its work today, under the name, the National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry (NCSEJ).

The bulk of the collection covers the NCSJ's activities from the early 1970s, through late 1980s. It includes meetings minutes, memoranda, correspondence, newsletters and publications of the NCSJ and its precursor organizations (primarily the American Jewish Committee on Soviet Jewry, 1964-1971), and the individual files maintained on Refusenik, prisoners of conscience, and Jewish émigrés.

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The collection also includes a considerable number of reports from the visits to the USSR by Soviet Jewry Movement activists and other. A significant part of the collection is represented by the audio recordings that include 13-minute programs on the WEVD Radio dedicated to Soviet Jewry topics and recordings of phone conversations with Refuseniks. There is also a considerable number of photographs, posters and publications, several film strips and VHS tapes.

The Papers of Rabbi Samuel Geffen document his professional career as the rabbi of the Jewish Center of Forest Hills West in Queens. The collection is the result of Rabbi Geffen's work as a religious leader and educator at the Jewish Center and depicts the center's and Rabbi Geffen's role in the Jewish community there.

The collection contains the records of the ASJ, an organization active in the Boston area, which survives today as Action for Post-Soviet Jewry, as well as those of two other organizations closely related to ASJ: the New England Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and the Soviet Jewry Legal Advocacy Center. The bulk of the collection is from the decade starting in the late 1970s through the late 1980s. The collection includes large databases on Refuseniks, prisoners of conscience and Jewish émigrés. Along with the database spreadsheet forms there are a large number of individual files. Among these files are materials related to Soviet Jewish refugees in Italy from the time of the Ladispoli crisis of the late 1980s. The collection also includes a substantial number of reports from visits to the USSR by ASJ activists and other travelers cooperating with the Soviet Jewry Movement as well as a considerable number of photographs, posters and publications.

The collection documents the activities of a human rights non-government organization on behalf of Soviet Jewry and Jews in the Former Soviet Union. Organized by Harold Light in San Francisco in 1967, the group worked to bring the Soviet Jewry issue to national and international attention. The collection contains correspondence, minutes, case files, publications, newspaper clippings, card files of Refuseniks, subject files, audio/visual materials, and information on other Soviet Jewry and interreligious organizations. Also included are materials relating to Soviet Jewish emigration, Cold War relations, the collapse of the Soviet Union, and human rights conditions in Russia and the former Soviet republics.

The records of the National Council of Jewish Women, New York Section document the organization's community service, advocacy, and supportive administrative, fundraising, membership, and public relations activities from the Section's early years to the present. Included is a large amount of material from the National Organization in relation to the New York Section. This material is dated from 1896 to 1999 and consists of administrative, events, and advocacy matters. The New York Section's community services files include its work on aging, child care, consumer telephone referrals, counseling support, crime prevention, the disabled, domestic violence, early child education, feminism, homelessness, hunger, immigrants, Israel, Jewish education and promotion, literacy, probation, the sick, summer recreation for children and the elderly, and war relief. The Section's advocacy files consist of lobbying efforts for the rights of children, the disabled, the elderly, families, the homeless, immigrants, Israel, and women. The collection is primarily in English, with some Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Greek, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian. Among the types of material are audio tapes, blueprints, correspondence, minutes, photographs, publications, scrapbooks, and scripts.

Spanning from its inception and incorporation in 1925 to its culmination in 2002, the Queens Jewish Center collection highlights this congregation's wide-range of religiously oriented and secular educational activities, ceremonies, developments, events, and programs. Predominant in this collection are the reports, bulletins, financial, legal and property records, and meeting minutes. In addition, books, clippings, correspondence, pamphlets, programs, publications, negatives photographs are also contained with in this collections.

The Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry records documenting the activities of a human rights non-governmental organization on behalf of Soviet Jewry. The records date from 1972-1997 with the bulk in the late 1970s through 1980s. The collection includes administrative files, documents pertaining to various local and national institutions, programs and activities related to the Soviet Jewry movement, reports of trips to visit Jews in the U.S.S.R., information on U.S.-U.S.S.R. trade relations, Soviet laws and Soviet Antisemitism, information on Seattle’s sister city Tashkent. Besides the series with the general materials the collection features a series with files concerning Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience, and Refuseniks and an audio-visual series with photographs of Soviet Jews and local and national coverage of the events related to Soviet Jewry.

Collection encompasses an extensive variety of organizations, subjects, and formats and is most useful for genealogists and researchers interested in general information. Researchers looking for a particular publication will also find this collection helpful.

The collection contains the records of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ), an umbrella institution for approximately 50 grassroots organizations active in the movement to free Soviet Jews. The records documenting the UCSJ's operations, programs, and campaigns relate primarily to the 1980's, when the rescue movement reached its pinnacle of success and international attention, and to the 1990's, reflecting UCSJ's work on behalf of human rights after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The records include materials of UCSJ individual councils; materials by the Soviet Jewry Legal Advocacy Center, an affiliate of UCSJ; and a large volume of case files of Prisoners of Conscience, Refuseniks, and Soviet Jews who were allowed to emigrate to the West.