Manuscripts (documents)

This collection consists of material pertaining to Pinchas E. Rosenbluth (1906-1985).

The collection contains papers including vital documents, membership cards, awards, medals, diaries, memoirs, diaries, manuscripts, legal papers, correspondence, business records, wills, genealogies and family histories regarding the Pinkus family, notable textile manufacturers in Neustadt (now Prudnik, Poland) in Upper Silesia, and their personal and business affairs. The family was also highly regarded for its support of civic and cultural affairs in the area, and corresponded with several notable cultural figures.

Handwritten memoir (photocopy) by Moses Porges and his description of Jakob Frank's "court”, as well as typed transcripts and related correspondence.

Folder 1 contains a photocopy and transcript of a letter concerning the establishment of a physician in Posen (9/4/1937), Blaetter des Verbandes juedischer Heimatvereine No. 11/7 (July 1937) with article about the old market and the Jewish cemetery in Posen, program of the inauguration of the Jewish hospital in Posen (6/18/1895), regulations concerning the Jewish cemetery in Posen (10/1/1902), envelope of the Verband der Deutschen Juden in Berlin addressed to Rabbi Bloch in Posen with photo of the old Taharah house 1598 in the old Jewish cemetery on Theaterstrasse (n.d.), regulations concerning the "Repraesentanten-Versammlungen der israelitischen Corporationen" in Posen (7/1/1834), pamphlet "Aufruf" of the Central-Verein zur Begruendung der Colonisation der Juden in der Provinz Posen (4/7/1846), Amtsblatt der Koeniglichen Regierung zu Posen with police order regarding Jewish funerals, newspaper clipping and letter concerning C. C. Aronsfeld's "Memories of a Posen Childhood" by Margarete Jacoby-Orgler and Gustav Jacoby (1980), manuscript "Die Abwanderung der Juden aus der Provinz Posen - Denkschrift im Auftrage des Verbandes der Deutschen Juden" by Bernhard Breslauer (1909).

The collection contains various documents pertaining to Rabbi Dr. Isaac Prager and his son the psychiatrist Dr. Joseph Prager.

The collection contains mainly sermons and manuscripts by Rabbi Henry Joseph Messing, one of the earliest reform rabbis in America. The collection is arranged into two series and three subseries. Materials in the collection include sermons, manuscripts, non-liturgical texts, newspaper clippings, and notebooks.

The Rabbi Salomon L. Vaz Dias papers consist of book manuscripts, synagogue ephemera, sheet music, and audiocassettes.

The collection contains mostly photographs of Raphael Kahn and his mother, Mirjam in Palestine and in Germany. Also included are Raphael Kahn’s baby-book, covering his development from 1922 to 1927 in the handwritings of his parents (?); and a note book/diary of Fritz Kahn (?) with entries from 1923-1924.

The collection contains various documents and manuscripts pertaining to Dr. med. Raphael Levi, a dentist who worked in Munich.

This collection contains the papers of the historian Raphael Straus. Mainly consisting of research material, the collection holds typescripts and manuscripts, a galley, articles, reviews, and, above all, archival notes and research notes. In addition, there is also the correspondence of Raphael Straus.

The collection contains manuscripts and family trees on the history of the Raunheim family of Frankfurt am Main.

This collection consists of papers of Ray (Rachel) Frank, the first Jewish woman to preach formally from a pulpit in the United States. It contains correspondence relating to her personal life; her activities as an author and lecturer; programs; and printed and manuscript copies of sermons, speeches, and writings by Frank. There is also a scrapbook (1879-1901) of newspaper clippings of articles by and about Frank, reflecting her view on women's suffrage, Judaism, and other topics.

The file contains various documents relating to Recha Freier and her activities in Youth Aliyah in Germany.

This collection contains mainly correspondence between staff of the JDC Landsmanshaftn Department and members of various landsmanshaftn, benevolent organizations of immigrants originally from the same communities, as well as between the Landsmanshaftn Department and the interest-free loan associations (gmilas khesed societies) and heads of the various Jewish communities, mostly in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

This collection contains the administrative records of the Hebrew Actors’ Union (HAU), the professional union of Yiddish theater performers, which was based in New York City. Materials include correspondence, membership materials, financial records and members’ dues information, meeting minutes, and a great deal of sheet music and play scripts of performances from the Yiddish theater. A majority of these performances were in New York City, but there are also materials from Philadelphia, Chicago, Boston, Toronto, and Montreal, as well as various locations in Israel and South America.

This collection contains files relating to the history, mergers and functions of the Association, By-Laws (1960), Committees' records, President's reports (1949-1952), Executive Director's reports (1949-1952), Treasurer's reports (1945, 1948-1949), annual reports (1972, 1984-1990), and papers re various activities, including Childville, Edenwald, Foster Home Department (including material from the European Jewish Children's Aid Project), Friendly Home for Girls, Girls' Club Group Residence, Pleasantville, Psychiatric Clinic, Social Services Department, Sylvan Stix Workshop, and Vocational Services. Includes also statistical reports (1946-1970), and Studies on the Association (1949-1972), the Manual of Policies and Procedures (1972), and files on child care conferences, property sales, annual dinners, awards and ceremonies, the 75th anniversary celebration, the 150th anniversary celebration, Herman W. Block, the Child Care Alumni Council (1954-1964), the League to Aid Hebrew Infants (1948-1953), studies and papers by Association staff, memos, publications ("P.C.S. World," "Bulletin," "Our Children," "JCCA journal"), promotional material, photographs, and voluminous scrapbooks.

The records chronicle the ideology behind the Reconstructionist movement, the founding and activities of the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, and its growth and transformation from an ideology and movement into an established American Jewish denomination, Reconstructionist Judaism. The records also document two seminal figures in Reconstructionist Judaism, Mordecai Menahem Kaplan and Ira Eisenstein. Included in the collection are the administrative records of the Foundation (minutes, financial records, bylaws), publications produced by the Foundation including manuscript submissions for the influential publication The Reconstructionist, correspondence, sermons, prayer books produced by the Foundation, syllabi, sheet music, photographs, and speeches, among other material. In the correspondence are letters from Martin Buber, J. Edgar Hoover, and Albert Schweitzer.

This collection contains the institutional records of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, a fraternal organization founded in New York in 1921 to serve and unify the American Sephardic Jewish community. These records primarily pertain to issues of membership, including mortuary and sick benefits, scholarships and access to charitable funds, as well as information about community receptions and various other cultural activities.

The Records of the YIVO Ethnographic Committee is a sub-group of Record Group 1, Records of YIVO - Vilna. The activities of the Ethnographic Committee consisted of collecting folklore materials, preparing and analyzing folklore questionnaires, corresponding with folklore collectors throughout the world, and maintaining a museum. This collection also includes surviving fragments of the collections of the S. Ansky Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society which was active in Vilna from 1920 until 1940, and of Invayskult, also known as the Jewish Bureau of the Belorussian Academy of Science in Minsk (founded in 1925 and dissolved in the 1930s). Record Group 1.2 includes both administrative files of the aforementioned institutions and folklore and historical materials, which were gathered in these institutions' archives.

The materials in this collection document the activities of a wide range of organizations and individuals whose materials were donated to or collected by the YIVO Archives in Vilna before the war, and the activities of YIVO itself. They include documentation on Jewish communal and cultural life in Poland, Lithuania, Russia, and in other communities around the world.

The Aspirantur, a graduate training program for scholars of Jewish culture, was founded by the YIVO Institute For Jewish Research in 1935. Led by key figures such as Simon Dubnow, Max Weinreich, and Zalmen Reyzen, the Aspirantur educated students who continued to play an important role in the growth of Jewish studies, including Lucy Dawidowicz, Avraham Sutzkever, and Yosl Mlotek. This collection contains research projects produced by the students, evaluations by their professors, and administrative materials produced in the course of running the program, including planning documents, applications, and correspondence.

This collection contains records of the Zukunft monthly journal, which was devoted to publishing political, scientific and literary articles in Yiddish. It contains newspaper clippings, correspondence, meeting minutes, materials relating to conferences and anniversary issues, financial reports, programs, mailings, subscription materials, and typed and handwritten manuscripts submitted for publication.

The collection contains primarily circulars pertaining to the German organization of Jewish soldiers who fought in World War I.

TThe file contains various documents pertaining to the activity of the Reich Association of Jews in Germany (Reichsvereinigung der Juden in Deutschland) and comprises three folders.

The file contains various documents pertaining to the activity of the Reich Representation of German Jews (Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden) and comprises ten folders.

The file contains various documents pertaining to the educational activity of the Reich Representation of German Jews (Reichsvertretung der Deutschen Juden) and comprises six folders.

The Reiss Family Collection deals with the lives of two brothers, Moritz and David Reiss, sons of Josef.

Manuscript on the family history and genealogy of the Reiss and Perez families, personal and family correspondence, family photos, and a poetry journal.

The file contains various materials pertaining to the religious Zionist youth movements Esra (עזרא) and Zeire Misrachi (צעירי מזרחי, ברית תורה ועבודה) in Germany, and comprises two folders.

The Renate Bridenthal Family Collection primarily documents the lives and especially the emigration experiences of Renate Bridenthal's parents, Elchunon and Irene Rubin. Papers of Irene Rubin are prominent in the collection and include restitution correspondence and her writing. Documents related to Renate and her brother Harribald's early lives and emigration is are also present. The collection consists of extensive personal and restitution correspondence, official documents, newspaper clippings regarding Irene Rubin's death, drafts of her writing, and three albums.