Conservative Judaism -- United States

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 Robert Rifkind Papers document the Jewish philanthropic and lobbying activities of Robert Singer Rifkind. Robert Rifkind was born in New York City in 1936 and became a partner at the law firm of Cravath, Swaine and Moore in 1971. He served on the boards of many Jewish philanthropic and activist organizations, including the American Jewish Committee, the Jewish Theological Seminary and the Schechter Institute for Jewish Studies. The collection includes correspondence, photographs and publications from Rifkind’s involvement in these and other organizations, primarily dating from the 1980s to the 2010s.