Jews -- New York (State) -- New York -- History

The Congregation B’nai Jacob Collection includes materials documenting the history of the congregation and includes bank statements, circulars, correspondence, documents, membership lists, minutes of Annual Meetings, journals containing information about the congregation’s cemetery, a prayer book, and rubber stamps.

The personal and social engagement diaries of Florence Lowenstein Marshall (1873-1916), wife of Constitution and civil rights attorney Louis Marshall and mother of lawyer James and conservationists Robert and George Marshall and daughter Ruth, span the years of 1894 until her death in 1916 of cancer. Her diaries record the events of her life—without the benefit of commentary on them—regarding social and family gatherings, theatre and music performances, her children's activities (including illnesses and vaccinations), her philantrophic meetings, and a meticulous recording of Louis's life as a leader.

The Goldie Seiden Chirlin Photograph Collection depicts American Jewish family life in mid-20th century Albany, New York. The collection encompasses black and white photographs, primarily taken by Goldie Seiden Chirlin, of her friends, family, and local Jewish Community during social gatherings, birthdays, and holidays in Albany, New York and surrounding areas.

Contains the Bulletin of the Jewish Center of Williamsbridge from the 1940s to the 1970s and gift books bound with yearbooks of the Center bound inside. Also includes material regarding Doctor Rabbi Akiba Predmesky (d. 1998), who served the Jewish community and the Jewish Center of Williamsbridge for over fifty years.

The Loeb Family Papers, 1893-1998 documents one of America’s most famous financial and political power couples of the 20th century—John Langeloth Loeb and Frances "Peter" Lehman Loeb, as well as their children, including Ambassador John Langeloth Loeb, Jr. The family history begins in 19th century America with the Loebs and Moses families (including Carl Loeb and Adeline Moses Loeb), and the Lehmans and Lewisohns (Arthur Lehman, financier and brother of New York State Governor Herbert Lehman, and Adele, daughter of businessman Adolph). The collection focuses on the lives of John and Frances, including the brokerage firm Loeb, Rhoades, and Co., as well as business, personal, family, and political correspondence, art collection documentation, philanthropic and financial records, and a host of family photographs and ephemera.

The Laura Rubin Family papers are comprised of four generations of family photographs and certificates of marriage, birth, and death for members of the Rubin-Simpson family of Brooklyn, New York and the Simpson-Bernstein family of Schenectady, New York.

Correspondence relates to the research and publication of The Lee Max Friedman collection of American Jewish colonial correspondence : letters of the Franks family, 1733-1748, edited by Leo Hershkowitz and Isidore S. Meyer. The work was published by the American Jewish Historical Society in 1968. Collection also includes research articles, notes, and summaries; and minutes of the American Jewish Historical Society's Publication Committee.

Ms. Brandmark conducted research on early Jewish wills in New York City in order to complete the requirements of an undergraduate course conducted by Leo Hershkowitz at Queens College. Her research includes typed worksheets for each will, statistical charts compiling information in various categories, and lists of death records by synagogue name.

The collection documents the work and correspondence of Joy Zacharia Appelbaum and reflects various aspects of her life, personal research and writings in the field of Sephardic Jewish culture and society, mainly as they made their way here in the United States. Collection consists in large part of a large array of newspaper and magazine articles describing Sephardic life in various areas of the world, and especially in the United States. An extensive portion of the collection examines the various customs and traditions found among the Sephardim, including customs for the Jewish Holidays (and especially Passover). The collection also includes a significant quantity of information about the American Sephardi Federation, focusing a great deal on its conventions and activities in the late 1980s to early 1990s. There is also a sizable amount of information about the Sephardic communities in the Ottoman regions of Turkey, Greece, and the Balkans, with a considerable amount of material that focuses on the Quincentennial celebrations held to commemorate the expulsion of the Jews from Spain in 1492.

This collection documents the life and extended family of Richard F. Koch (1920 -). Much of the material relates to his mother, Stella Dreyfus Koch (1878-1962), and her family. Both the Dreyfus and Koch families were descended from German-Jewish immigrants that arrived in New Orleans in the mid 19th century. The bulk of the collection consists of personal correspondence, but the collection includes scrapbooks, educational materials, military materials, clippings, poems and songs, printed ephemera, and photographs. Highlights include a set of about a dozen handwritten German poems from the 1830s, and diaries and letters written during Fred Dreyfus's US army service in World War One.

The Steven M. Lowenstein Collection documents professional activities of Steven Lowenstein, writer, researcher, historian, and teacher and consists of manuscripts, printed materials, statistical data, and correspondence. Documents comprising the collection reflect Dr. Lowenstein’s interests in a wide spectrum of topics related to Jews and Judaism, such as modernity and tradition and their influence on the religion and common folks, Berlin Jews of the upper strata, similarities and differences between agrarian/rural and urban Jews, Eastern and Western Jewry, popular and official Judaism, and secular and religious Jews, to name but a few topics.