Soviet Union

Papers of the Soviet Jewry movement activist Grayce Perlbinder of Great Neck, NY reflect her activities as one of the leaders of the Long Island Committee for Soviet Jewry during the 1970s and early 1980s. The materials include speeches, notes, reports, a play script, information on trips to the USSR, correspondence, bulletins, memos, proposals, news clippings, newsletters and photographs.

This collection documents the activities of a human rights grassroots organization on behalf of Jews in the Soviet Union. The collection features annual reports, calendars, general correspondence, announcement pamphlets, meeting fliers, banners used at rallies, miscellaneous speakers and conferences information, membership documents, and materials about engineering, legal, medical, youth, and women’s coalitions.

This collection contains the personal papers of Soviet Jewry Movement activists Harold and Judith S. Einhorn. Residents of Laverock, PA, husband and wife Harold and Judith S. Einhorn were among the pioneers of the grassroots Soviet Jewry movement. Harold Einhorn chaired the Temple Beth Tikvah Community Relations Committee and Judith S. Einhorn chaired the Soviet Jewry Committee at Congregation Adath Jeshurun.

Harry Lerner, a children’s books publisher, who, with his wife Sharon Lerner, was an activist of the American Soviet Jewry movement in the Minneapolis area. The materials include newsletters, articles, memos, haggadahs, profiles and lists of Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience and Refuseniks.

The records of the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, now known as HIAS, comprise much of the history of HIAS through the second half of the 20th century, primarily through the files created by leadership based in the New York headquarters. Since the 1880s HIAS has worked with immigrants and refugees to help them emigrate legally from their home countries to safe resettlement in the United States and elsewhere, and they continue this work today. The records focus on files of the Executive Directors, including James P. Rice, Gaynor I. Jacobson and Karl D. Zukerman, and other material created by executive staff and by the Board of Directors. Also of importance is the work of the HIAS United States Operations Department in the New York office, handling the everyday details of immigration documentation, migration issues and resettlement activities in connection with communities throughout the United States, and in coordination with HIAS staff in overseas offices and the other departments in New York and Washington, D.C. In addition, more than 1100 files of legacy photographs have been digitized as part of this project and made accessible online.

The collection documents the trip to the Soviet Union that Dr. Irwin H. Krasna, a pediatric surgeon, and his twin brother, Dr. Alvin I. Krasna, a Professor of Biochemistry at Columbia University, took in September-October 1971, traveling under the auspices of Arye Kroll, a prominent Israeli Zionist and representative of Lishkat Hakesher (commonly known as Nativ), the Israeli liaison Bureau that carried out clandestine activities to establish contact with Jews in Eastern Europe during the Cold War to encourage them to immigrate to Israel. Materials include a manuscript, an audiocassette and photographs.

The collection contains papers of Jack Forgash, an activist in the American Soviet Jewry movement. Forgash held leadership positions in the Brooklyn Coalition for Soviet Jewry and the Greater New York Conference on Soviet Jewry during the 1970s, and co-chaired the Jackson for President Committee during the presidential campaign of Senator Henry M. Jackson in 1976. The materials include correspondence, memoranda, photographs, brochures and news clippings.

The collection documents the activism of Dr. Jack Minker, a leading authority in artificial intelligence, on behalf of foreign scientists whose human rights and scientific freedom were violated. The bulk of the collection focuses on Soviet Jewish Refuseniks, such as cyberneticist Alexander Lerner, mathematicians Victor Brailovsky and Anatoly Sharansky, and a dissident human rights activist, nuclear physicist Andrei Sakharov. The documents include manuscripts, correspondence, memos, notes, publications, news clippings, and photographs.

The Jewish Chronicle is a weekly newspaper covering local, national and global news for the Jewish community of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, USA and its vicinity. The collection contains information and photographs used by The Jewish Chronicle for coverage of the situation of Jews in the Soviet Union during the decades of 1960s and 1970s. The bulk of the materials originated from the Soviet Jewry movement organizations and other Jewish institutions in the United States and includes publications, press releases, correspondence and photographs related to Soviet Jews.

The Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans (JFSGNO) was a social service agency created in 1948 to establish and preserve the self-sufficiency of Jewish families. The collection focuses on the JFSGNO’s work to resettle Jews from the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s, often in cooperation with similar agencies, such as Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), United Service for New American, and United Jewish Fund. Also included are lists of the Displaced Persons who arrived from Eastern and Western Europe by ships to the port of New Orleans in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and materials on resettling of refugees from Southeast Asia in the 1970s-1980s. The documents include ship manifests, memos, agendas, correspondence, clippings, policy statements and procedures, statistics, congressional reports, programs and budgets.

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 papers of Reverend John Frederick Steinbruck, an ordained Lutheran minister and humanitarian activist, reflect his involvement in the American Soviet Jewry movement. The materials include news clippings, correspondence, photographs, pamphlets and a brief manuscript of memoirs.

Joseph Bornstein was one of the most accomplished journalists of Weimar Germany. His criticism of the political and social conditions in Germany in general, and of the practices of German justices in particular, made him a strong opponent of the right wing and populist parties long before the Nazis took power in Germany in 1933. Immediately after takeover, Joseph Bornstein left Germany and settled in France where he worked for various German exile newspapers. After the war broke out, he left France and managed to emigrate to the United States where he worked for the Office of War Information. After the Second World War he became a literary agent and writer of non-fiction books. The material in the Joseph Bornstein collection contains material from the post-war period of his life until his death in 1952. It consists of manuscripts, research notes, and professional and personal correspondence. An important part of this collection is material related to Joseph Roth that contains some of his notes, his poems, and correspondence with some of his friends and publishing houses.

Joseph Roth was one of the most prominent Austrian writers of the first half of the 20th century. Particularly his novels and newspaper essays gained him the respect of contemporary critics. Joseph Roth's papers at the Leo Baeck Institute Archives consist of handwritten and typewritten manuscripts of novels, novellas, short stories, and essays, including mostly complete manuscripts of his works Die Hundert Tage (The Ballad of the Hundred Days), Büste des Kaisers (The Bust of the Emperor), and his 'Trozki' novel Der stumme Prophet (The Silent Prophet). Joseph Roth's journalistic work is also well represented. There are a few personal items and over one hundred photographs of Joseph Roth and his wife Friederike. The Joseph Roth collection also contains correspondence with family and publishers, clippings about Joseph Roth, and reviews of his work. The addenda mostly consist of invitations to conferences and exhibitions, and scholarly articles on Joseph Roth's work and life.

The collection contains the papers of Judith A. Manelis, the Executive Director of the Communications Department of the United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York. The papers pertain to the UJA-Federation Campaign for Soviet Jewish Emigres. The materials include ads, mailings, news releases, position papers, stationery, a button, and a poster.

Kathleen M. Hyman of La Grange Park, IL is a former Soviet Jewry movement activist, who was involved with Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry, grass-roots non-profit organization that has advocated for Jews in the U.S.S.R. In 1976 Mrs. Hyman traveled to U.S.S.R., where she established contacts with prominent Soviet Jewish Refuseniks. She has been involved with the West Suburban Synagogue in Oak Park and their adopted village Penza in the Former Soviet Union and has been a liaison between her synagogue, Congregation Beth Shalom, Naperville, IL and the remnants of the Jewish community in Jekabpils, Latvia. The collection contains Mrs. Hyman’s correspondence with Refuseniks, memos, notes, and clippings related to the Soviet Jewry movement.

This collection contains the family papers of the Loewald and Landshut families, notably personal and vital papers from before, during and after World War II which illustrate both the family's history and personal and professional lives. In particular, this collection amply documents the family's emigration in 1939, as well as a relative's internment in Theresienstadt, through legal documents and personal and official correspondence. There are also a large number of photographs illustrating Rosa Loewald's work as a nurse during World War I.

The collection contains papers of Laurel Gould and her lawyer husband Alan J. Gould, activists of the American Soviet Jewry Movement involved with the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews in Washington D. C. area and in the San Fracisco Bay area, Northern California Lawyers Committee for Soviet Jews and the National Conference on Soviet Jewry. The bulk of the collection covers the decade of 1970 through 1980. The materials include correspondence, memoranda, individual files on Soviet Jewish Refuseniks, documentation of special projects, events and visits to USSR, publications, legal materials pertinent to the Soviet Jewry, photographs, slides and audio recordings of conversations and interviews with the Soviet Jews.

The collection contains the papers of Soviet Jewry movement activist and New Jersey-based attorney, Lawrence I. Lerner, who repeatedly traveled to the Soviet Union in the 1980s to visit Refuseniks. Mr. Lerner participated in filing legal pleas for Prisoners of Conscience based on international treaties and the Soviet Constitution, and after the collapse of the U.S.S.R., he became President of the Union of Councils for Jews in the Former Soviet Union. The collection consists of four trip reports taken by Mr. Lerner in 1988-1989 and 1991 and case histories of Refuseniks whom he visited, or considered visiting during those trips. Some of the case histories include photos and notes by Mr. Lerner.

Papers of the Soviet Jewry movement activist Leslie Schaffer of Reno, Nevada document her trip to the Soviet Union to visit Soviet Jewish Refuseniks in Leningrad, Moscow and Kiev in March of 1982. The collection includes trip reports notes and photographs, correspondence, biographies of the Refuseniks, travel documents and receipts and background materials on the U.S.S.R.

The papers of Lillian Foreman reflect her work on behalf of Soviet Jews as a member of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews. The collection includes correspondence with Jews in the Soviet Union, materials used to create a database of the Refuseniks, materials pertaining to Bar and Bat Mitzvah Twinning and Adopt-A-Family projects, clippings collected in order to monitor the situation of Jews in the USSR and newsletters from Soviet Jewry movement organizations.

The collection contains papers of the American Soviet Jewry movement activist Linda Rutta. The materials focus on her activism as an undergraduate student at City College of New York, and her relations with the family of the Soviet Jewish Refusenik, Victor Ozar. The collection includes materials from the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ), such as a Soviet Jewry fact sheet, college campus action outline, and correspondence with SSSJ regarding Soviet Jewish Prisoners of Conscience. Also included is Rutta's correspondence with the Ozar family.

Papers of Margery Sanford cover the period from the early 1970s to the late 1980s and document her activities as the Documentation Committee chairperson of South Florida Conference on Soviet Jewry, as well as her individual efforts in the American Soviet Jewry Movement. The documents include correspondence, notes, memos, minutes, publications, news clippings, photographs, stickers and a flag.

Personal papers of the American Soviet Jewry movement activist Marilyn Labendz, who participated in the MetroWest Conference on Soviet Jewry, chaired the MetroWest mobilization to Summit II, and Women's Interfaith Plea for Soviet Jewry. The collection contains speeches, memos, correspondence, pamphlets, news clippings and digital photographs.

Correspondence of Mendel Sudarski relating to the publication of the book Lite. Manuscripts, notes, and photographs for the book. Correspondence of Alte Sudarski relating to Jewish refugees in Shanghai 1946-1952, and to food and clothing packages for Jews in Russia, 1950s. Correspondence of Alte Sudarski with Yiddish writers.

Personal collection of Soviet Jewry Movement activist Meta Joy Jacoby who chaired the Soviet Jewry Committee of the Main Line Reform Temple, Beth Elohim in Wynnewood, PA. The Committee provided moral support to Soviet Jewish families through the mailing of letters and telegrams, placing phone calls, and sending Jewish cultural materials to the Soviet Union. Meta Joy Jacoby repeatedly traveled to the Soviet Union to meet with and deliver aid to the Refuseniks. The collection includes memos, correspondence, newsletters, brochures, and clippings.

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.

Manuscript of the memoirs of Vera Zaslavska. Manuscript of the memoirs of Misha Fishzon, titled Untern forhang fun yidish teater (Behind the Curtain of the Yiddish Theater). Playscripts. Photographs of Vera Zaslavska, Misha Fishzon, Jewish actors in Russia and Romania, the Lyric Theater in New York. Clippings, including obituaries.

Papers of Morey Schapira reflect the work of the prominent activist of the American Soviet Jewry movement in the years 1965-1993. The collection includes details on Mr. Schapira’s leadership role with organizations Action for Soviet Jewry, the Bay Area Council on Soviet Jewry, the New England Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, and the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews. The collection contains files on many other groups, individuals and topics.