New York (N.Y.)

The William Werner Bloch Collection documents chapters in the life of William Werner Bloch, especially his involvement as an American soldier in World War II, as well as the history of his family and the claim for compensation against Germany after World War II.

The collection holds the documents and correspondence of the Wimpfheimer family from Karlsruhe. The collection covers the Wimpfheimers’ emigration to Switzerland and later the United States as well as their restitution efforts regarding the family’s malting factory in Karlsruhe.

This collection primarily contains the correspondence of the Winn and Taussig families of Czechoslovakia and the United States.

The Wladimir G. Eliasberg Collection documents the lives of the members of the Eliasberg family and to a lesser extent professional activities of Wladimir Eliasberg. The collection consists of personal correspondence, writings, vital and professional documents, and printed materials.

The Wolf-Oppenheimer Collection provides details on the lives, both personal and professional of more than three generations of members of the related Wolf and Oppenheimer families. Most prominently represented among the collection's papers are Hermann and Irene (née Oppenheimer) Wolf and their daughter Marlies (née Wolf) and Eugene Plotnik, but the papers relate to many other family members as well. The collection includes personal papers, official and educational documents, family correspondence, photographs, family trees, articles as well as personal family writing, and newspaper clippings.

The collection holds two autobiographical writings by the artist Elisabeth Model. One work centers on her husband’s persecution by the Nazis in Amsterdam, their narrow escape with their sons Wolfe and Peter, and her sister Mali to New York, and their life in the United States. Her second work focuses on her life in relation to various places and people that impressed her. Also included are family photo albums, some correspondence, and other documents that constitute addenda to the original Elisabeth Model Collection, AR 6306.

The collection holds the personal documents of both the Wulkan and Berger families from Vienna. While most of the documents cover the time of emigration to the United States and Kenya, the collection also holds documents on the family’s life in Vienna before World War II. Much of the correspondence was written during the 1910s, 1920s, and early 1930s.

Record Group 1.1, the primary collection of records from the period when YIVO was headquartered in Vilna, reflects the wide range of activities YIVO engaged in from 1925-1941. Founded as an institute for the study of Yiddish speaking Jewry, YIVO grew to become a research institute, library, archive, and graduate program in one. The collection consists primarily of administrative material such as correspondence, financial records, minutes, reports, lists, and newspaper clippings, as well as essays and publications of the Aspirantur, Division of Youth Research, and the Economic-Statistical, Psychological-Pedagogical, and Philological sections. It incorporates material generated by the Vilna office, satellite offices in Berlin, Warsaw, and New York, and by supporters and collectors throughout Poland, Europe, and indeed the world.

The collection consists of a copy of the constitution of the Council of Young Israel and Young Israel Synagogue Organizations (undated), photocopies of minutes of the movement (1913-1917), circulars and newsletters of Young Israel of Brooklyn (1933-1934), Souvenir journals from annual conventions (1918, 1930-32, 1934, 1937), annual reports of the national council (1930-1931, 1950), a program from the first annual conference of the New England Council of Young Israel (1935), programs of annual dances of Young Israel of Greater Boston (1926-1947), the first three volumes of the movement's Collegiate culture series as well as other miscellaneous documents and publications issued by the organization both in American and Israel.

The material in this record group was culled from Hadassah's Central Files in Israel in the early 1980s to document Hadassah's role in Zionist history. Originally formed from a Zionist women's study group, the first Hadassah chapter in New York had a strong relationship with the Zionist Organization of America (ZOA; then known as the Federation of American Zionists). The material in this record group documents Hadassah's relationship to the ZOA and to other Zionist organizations in the United States, Europe, and Palestine/Israel, particularly in the years leading up to Israeli statehood in 1948. Other subjects addressed in this record group include the founding of Hadassah; World War II, particularly relating to Jewish emigration and refugees; the founding of the United Nations and the debate over recognition of a Jewish state; the partition of Palestine; and Arab-Jewish relations. Included are articles, clippings, convention resolutions, correspondence, diary extracts, memorandums, minutes, press releases, printed ephemera, publications, reports, and speeches.