Landsmanshaftn

The Freedom Benevolent Society was a mutual aid and fraternal organization founded by Jewish immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire in 1882, on the Lower East Side of New York City. Originally known as the Erster Kaiser Franz Josef Kranken Unterstützungs–Verein, or the First Franz Joseph Sick and Benevolent Society, it was incorporated in 1883. Its main purpose was to provide its members with sick benefits, and relief in times of need, as well as fellowship and entertainment. Eventually it also functioned as a burial society, and maintained cemetery plots. The collection documents the society's activities over more than a century, from 1884 until its initiation of dissolution proceedings, in 1991. It includes membership applications from the early decades of the society's history (1884-1927), anniversary programs spanning fifty years (1932-1982), and a visitors' register for the 1500th meeting, in 1950, as well as account books, meeting notices, and two cemetery plans, one of which relates to the Franz Joseph Ladies Sick and Benevolent Society.

This collection consists of microfilm, and bound photocopies of incorporation papers for all Jewish or Jewish-related organizations incorporated in New York City, 1848-1920. The types of organizations included are fraternal societies, political clubs, professional associations, synagogues, landsmanshaften, benevolent organizations, and social clubs. The entire collection has been indexed by name of the organization and, in some cases, by the European town from which the incorporators came, or by general type of organizations.

The collection consists of:



1. Materials relating to the PPS (Polska Partia Socjalistyczna - Polish Socialist Party), including trial records and proclamations, 1905-1912



2. Proclamations by the Socialist-Zionist Party (SS) and the Bund, 1905 and 1934



3. Correspondence: family (1912-1938) and general (1911-1938, including a number of letters from Yiddish writers)



4. Records pertaining to the activities of various Łódź landsmanshaftn in the U.S.



5. Manuscripts, notes, printed articles, and personal documents of Gustav Eisner



6. Photographs taken in Poland, some during World War I



7. Records of the Gustave Eisner Travel Bureau, 1930s

The Territorial Collection Poland 1 is comprised of documents that were amassed at the YIVO in New York City. The Collection is of a mixed provenance and fragmentary nature. The commonality between the documents contained within this collection is that they all pertain to Jews in Poland prior to 1939. Documents of earlier years are also included. Collection consists of letters, essays, reports, correspondence, and clippings which pertain to the political situation, economic conditions, and cultural activities of Polish Jews.