Public welfare

Microfilms with copies from the Hirsch Collection at the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

The collection consists of various materials covering aspects of the Berlin Jewish community’s history from the 1880s to the 1990s, concentrating on documents from the community’s sole official congregation, “Jüdische Gemeinde zu Berlin”.

This collection contains a broad range of materials offering insights into the Jewish community of Cologne throughout the 19th and 20th century. Included are a few original documents from 1880 to the 1930s, photocopies of various community and legal documents, as well as brochures and booklets pertaining to Cologne community and welfare organizations.

This collection contains records of the Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. The bulk of the collection consists of confidential summaries of applications and communications from applicant organizations. Other materials include reports, agendas, memoranda, and communications of the Executive Committee, as well as documents from the founding of the Claims Conference.

Emigration 1864-1952: This collection - encompassing about 90 years - contains papers about the situation and persecution of Jews in Eastern European countries (Russia, Poland, Roumania, Bulgaria, Lithuania). Papers describe the activities of various relief organizations. There are more than 170 papers (ca.900 pages), about half of them written in German, about 30 each in French or English, over 20 in Yiddish and some in Polish. A printed appeal of the Reichsausschuss fuer Russisch-Juedische Fluechtlingshilfe, Berlin (1929) carries among others the signatures of Leo Baeck and ALbert Einstein. (VI, 16).

The collection contains three circumcision registers (Mohelbuecher) with some entries from Prague, 1816 and Baiersdorf, 1819 and mostly from Munich, 1826-1885. In addition there is a ‘Memorbuch’ from Fuerth, Bavaria.

The bulk of the collection consists of letters to Esriel Hildesheimer\ and others from various individuals, mostly rabbis in Germany, Austria-Hungary, Palestine, Eastern Europe, and the United States, and institutions, including Akiba Lehren, David Neimann, Simcha Bunem Sofer, Yeshiva Etz-Hayyim, Adolf Jellinek, and the Oesterreichisch- Ungarisch- Israelitische Gemeinde, Jerusalem. Approximately one-half of the correspondence is transcribed.

Financial, business, and personal papers of the Eltzbacher family and related families, including correspondence, architectural plans, financial ledgers, wills and testaments, clippings, and eulogies; of particular interest is the business correspondence of Count Aloys zu Kaunitz-Rietberg with the banker Jacob Loeb Eltzbacher (1758-1825), who was based in Neuenkirchen, Westphalia, along with supporting documents and records; material on the career of the lawyer Carl Eltzbacher (1854-1936), including clippings on his candidacy to the Cologne city council in 1903 and correspondence, including a letter from Konrad Adenauer.

Sermons (over six hundred), 1860-1918, organized chronologically and given by Guedemann on Sabbaths, holidays, and other occasions, including confirmations, weddings, funerals, and the Kaiser's birthday

Extensive autobiographical manuscript by Troller, with illustrations and other supporting material, discussing his family and community, his early life, and his experiences during and after the Holocaust.

This collection consists of photographs and negatives of World ORT conferences and congresses, various individuals connected with ORT, and ORT vocational programs and activities, including in Displaced Person’s camps, in Europe, Asia, the Middle East, Africa, Cuba, and North and South America.

This collection consists of photographs of OSE programs, OSE conferences and congresses and various individuals connected with OSE and its programs, mainly dating from World War II and the years just following. Many of these photographs are related to the work OSE does with children’s health and nutrition but there are also numerous pictures of leisure activities, care homes, vocational training, and education.

Correspondence of Schoenewald with institutions and individuals, including Leo Baeck, Klara Caro, Dora Edinger, Alfred Hirschberg, Selma Jolowicz, Hannah Karminski, Ernst Lowenthal, and Lilli Marx; Manuscripts, clippings, and offprints of articles, lectures, and speeches, by Schoenewald and others, on feminism, social work, the Juedischer Frauenbund, post-World War II Germany, U.S. immigration laws, and denazification; Material on Bertha Pappenheim; Records of the Juedischer Frauenbund; Records of the International Council of Jewish Women; Clippings.

The collection documents a very wide spectrum of Paul Rieger’s writings and interests. Series I contains personal documents such as his ordination certificate as well as Rieger’s correspondence. The most extensive part of the collection is Series 2: Writings, which contains a variety of manuscripts, articles, notes, index cards, correspondence, excerpts and lectures. Rieger’s articles cover a wide scope of topics, incuding Jewish and non-Jewish issues. His main work however, was Zur Geschichte der Juden in Rom. Series 3 holds a vast amount of off-prints about different subjects, such as on Jewish and non-Jewish topics, on Palestine and Israel as well as on Leo Baeck. Series 4 consists of Jewish, Yiddish, Israeli and German newspapers, and newsletters of Jewish communities in Germany. Series 5: Varia covers miscellaneous documents, such as letters of protection, legal documents, an abundance of marriage contracts, original signatures of Jewish personalities such as of Martin Buber and a record of the first meeting of the Centralverein deutscher Staatsbuerger juedischen Glaubens. There are also various pictures and drawings of different places, synagogues and people. Series 6: Oversized Materials contains Hebrew learning material, newspapers and fliers of Germany as well as Nazi propaganda.

The papers of Jewish civic leader Philip Bernstein contain writings and professional papers related to his career with the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, including his participation in the establishment of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and the National Jewish Community Relations Council, and his work with many other Jewish communal organizations, including the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Joint Distribution Committee, the United Jewish Appeal, and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.

The Association of Jewish Deaf-Mutes in Poland was founded in 1930 in Krakow, through the efforts of Bogumil Liban, as a union of local deaf-mute societies and sports clubs. It was active until the outbreak of war in 1939. This collection contains correspondence and other administrative records of the association.

Correspondence and materials by and about Kamnitzer and Echt on Danzig; personal materials on life in emigration; childhood memoirs in Danzig.

The collection consists of Annual Reports from the years 1931-1934 for the Loeb Convalescent Home of Westchester County, New York. The institution was founded in 1904 by members of Loeb, Warburg, Schiff and Seligsen families in memory of their parents, Solomon and Betty Loeb in order to serve the convalescent poor. 4 items.

Personal documents of William Graetz, including military papers, and membership and identity cards. Records of ORT committees, minutes of executive committee meetings, correspondence and reports of the activities of ORT branches during the years 1926-1970 in Argentina, Bessarabia, Bolivia, Brazil, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, South Africa, Switzerland, and the USSR, also including letters from Leo Baeck. Records of the Jewish community of Berlin, in 1929 and 1930, including correspondence on juvenile care, financial reports, and meeting minutes. The following individuals are mentioned in this collection: Graetz, William; Baeck, Leo; Syngalowski, Aron; Lvovitch, David; Frumkin, Jacob; Sadler, Ilse.