Zionism

This record group includes documents created and maintained by the Office of the President, the Office of the Executive Director and the Chair of the Division Coordinators/Directors Committee. Prominent is the Henrietta Szold series, containing correspondence by and to Szold as well as printed materials written by and about her. The files in this record group were created by a national president or executive director, or for their use, or maintained in their office during their years in office. Included are correspondence, minutes, memos, publications, reports and subject files on topics with which these individuals were involved.

This collection of mainly anti-Semitic material was compiled by a Jewish librarian of German descent who infiltrated the pro-Nazi community developing in New York City in the years leading up to World War II. The bulk of the collection consists of publications and printed matter, with the notable exception of narrative reports that describe first-hand experiences and observations of Nazi-affiliated events. Document types include advertisements, event announcements, books, clippings, correspondence, magazines and newspapers, travel guides, political memorabilia, and other print ephemera.

This collection contains the papers of the lawyer and historian Franz Kobler (1882-1965), with the major focus of the papers here on his historical works. Included here are manuscript drafts, correspondence, official papers, notes, newspaper clippings, and a few photographs.

"Mein Weg von Karlsruhe ueber Heidelberg nach Haifa" is the memoir of Frieda Hirsch (née Goldberg) (1890- ). She describes the history of her parents, her upbringing in Karlsruhe as daughter of a well-to-do Jewish-orthodox family, her education at a humanistic high school (Gymnasium), her university studies (medicine) in Heidelberg, Karlsruhe and Breslau (1908-1913), and life during World War I in Karlsruhe and Heidelberg. She married Albert Hirsch (1887-1954) in 1915, a medical student and member of the Zionist student organization "Verein Juedischer Studenten" and settled in Heidelberg, where Albert worked as a pediatrician. Frieda Hirsch tells about life in Heidelberg, the births and upbringing of her children, various friendships (among others with Georg Hermann, Frieda Reichmann, Erich Fromm, and Eugen Taeubler), Zionist activities of her husband, and first anti-Semitic persecutions in Heidelberg in 1933. She gives detailed testimony of her emigration from Heidelberg via Salzburg and Triest to Haifa, where the family settled, of the difficult first years in Palestine with her husband opening a new medical office, and describes her experiences during World War II in Haifa, the founding of the state of Israel in 1948 and moving to Kiryat Ono after her husband's death in 1954.

The second text, an attachment of Hirsch's memoir, contains a genealogical table and a detailed history of Frieda Hirsch's (née Goldberg) and Albert Hirsch's families.

Original correspondence consists of one letter each to Peter Pringsheim (1912); Joseph Koeth (1928); and A. Sommerfeld; as well as six letters to Ernst Stern (1907-1908). A handwritten 1933 letter from Fritz Haber to Chaim Weizmann in Mannern, Switzerland (6 pages) is available as a photocopy only. Also included is a typescript by Hans Schaeffer on Jews in Breslau (photocopy), Die soziale, politische und religioese Stellung der juedischen Familien in Breslau um die Jahrhundertwende 1900. The typescript is part of a letter by Hans Schaeffer to Johannes Jaenicke, also in the collection.

Documents, photographs, and paintings related to the Goldschmidt Schlesinger family. Material related to the Schloessinger-Wuerzburger and the Goldschmidt-Bock families. Documents related to the Jewish community in Frankfurt.

This collection contains oral history materials collected by Tamar Morad, Robert Shasha, and Dennis Shasha, in connection with the writing and compilation of the book Iraq's Last Jews: Stories of Daily Life, Upheaval, and Escape from Modern Babylon (Palgrave Macmillan, 2008), including approximately 60 audio recordings of interviews, with at least one third accompanied by transcripts; and a small amount of related biographical material, including memoirs and other writings, one family history, and photographs. The collection contains the interview recordings on which 18 of the 20 narratives in the published book were based. In addition, it contains oral histories or autobiographical narratives pertaining to more than 40 individuals whose stories are not told in the book. The interviewees and their families represent a range of professions, including international merchants and bankers, as well as rabbis, doctors, politicians, intellectuals, musicians, poets, and artists. The materials convey personal accounts of Jewish life in Iraq from approximately the 1920s to the early 1980s, as well as Iraqi Jewish experiences of emigration, transit journeys, and new lives in the diaspora, in locations including Iran, India, Japan, China, Israel, Great Britain, Canada, and the United States.

This collection pertains to the personal lives of Gustav and Hannah Landau née Stein, especially centering on their lives in the 1930s. The focus of the collection is the handwritten correspondence exchanged between the couple, as well as their experiences with Zionism and the youth group Kadimah. Other notable items include a photo album and school and university papers.

The Hadassah Archives documents the activities of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. Founded in 1912, the organization engaged hundreds of thousands of American Jewish women in the Zionist project. Materials include extensive records of its social welfare projects in Palestine and later Israel, such as Youth Aliyah and the Hadassah Medical Organization. Administrative records document the organization's governance, operations, and functions. The collection also includes the papers of Hadassah founder, Henrietta Szold, as well as the organization's national presidents, executive directors, and other important individuals. Additional materials also document Hadassah's organizational activity in the United States such as annual and midwinter conventions and the dozens of active local chapters from all over the United States. Hadassah maintained an active publishing schedule, and the records include hundreds of published newsletters, flyers, and magazines. Other materials include thousands of photographs, extensive audiovisual material, and hundreds of artifacts.

The collection contains original and copied documents of Blau Weiss activities in Germany.

Correspondence of Frankenbach, including letters from Lion Feuchtwanger, Helmut von Gerlach, Emil J. Gumbel, and a card from Hermann Hesse.

Papers of Hans Kohn (1891-1971), historian and lawyer, who was active in Zionist organizations. He published extensively on questions of nationalism and related topics. The collection consists of documents relating to Hans Kohn's professional experience, materials relating to his political activities, correspondence, diaries, materials relating to his experience in World War I and as a prisoner of war, personal documents, photos, clippings.

The Hans Tramer Collection consists of 8 boxes and 52 folders.

This highly diverse collection contains material of various sources, times, and genres, from Germany, Austria, Eastern Europe and Argentina. The documents included range from correspondence, such as letters, postcards or telegrams, to emigration documents, such as ship lists and permits, to vital records, such as family registers, various certificates and awards, to a number of small publications, such as brochures, programs and clippings. There is also a number of Jewish devotionals, including Yahrzeit calendars, religious graphics and prayer manuals, as well as some ephemera.

'Schulnachricht' concerning Herta Deutsch (maiden name) issued by Allgemeine Volksschule f. Maedchen, Wolfgang Schmaelzlgasse 15, 1020 Vienna, on July 15th 1922; school certificate issued by Oeffentliches Reform-Realgymnasium f. Maedchen, 1020 Vienna, in July 5th 1924; 'Belegschein' concerning studies in Allgemeine Musikgeschichte (Prof. Lach) at the University of Vienna issued in Oct. 16th 1931

Questionnaire II of the Austrian Heritage Collection (2 copies) at the Leo Baeck Institute; unused business envelope of Dr. jur. Josef Deutsch (lawyer); confirmation of the Amercain embassy about arrival of documents (1933); leaflet of the children's nursery run by Hertha Deutsch in Vienna

The records document the Histadruth Ivrit's early history to the present, representing a significant portion of its work in spreading the Hebrew language in the United States in the second half of the twentieth-century. The records include substantial amount of material regarding the organization's history, administration, public events, publications, and reports. Some information of the early history of the Histadruth Ivrit could be found in the records kept by the writer Daniel Persky. Persky collected personal and professional records that include correspondence with friends, readers, and writers; a partial collection of the drafts of his own publications, and a collection of photographs and newspaper clippings. The functions and activities of the Histadruth Ivrit are documented through Board of Trustees and Board meetings agendas and minutes; various programs for events, conventions, conferences, and celebrations; documents related to fundraising; public relations, press releases and brochures; correspondence with different individuals, organizations, and foundations; Histadruth Ivrit's publications among them the newspaper Hadoar and Tov Lichtov; a large collection of photographs, and scrapbooks. The records of the Histadruth Ivrit represent the large majority of the organization's activities dating from the 1980s to the present. Records for the earlier years of activities are fragmented and incomplete. The records related to the life of Daniel Persky are also partial and copies of many of his publications are missing. This collection included brochures, correspondence, financial records, flyers, grant applications, invitations, lists, minutes, news clipping, orders, periodicals, photographs, press releases, reports, and scrapbooks.

The collection consists of memoirs and other manuscripts by David Feitelberg and other members of the Feitelberg-Hope families.

Collection sontains the minutes of the Board of Directors (Trustees) meetings, 1972-1975; staff meetings, 1972-1973; background materials and reports pertaining to projects proposed and acted upon; annual reports; financial reports; and miscellaneous publications.

Isaac Leib Goldberg Collection documents Isaac Goldberg’s active participation in the international Zionist movement. It also sheds light on his professional activities as a lawyer in the Russian Empire. The collection consists of circular letters, official documents, correspondence, court documents and Power of Attorney, leaflets, announcements, reports, minutes of meetings, financial reports and tables, balance sheets and Annual Reports, lists, and memoranda.

The bulk of the collection documents Kenen’s Zionist activities, his work with the United Nations, the American Israel Public Affairs Committee and its predecessor organizations, and the Near East Report. Materials include correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings, publications, press releases, manuscripts, notes, photographs, speeches, and scrapbooks.

This collection contains documents pertaining to Israel Cohen's role as author, reporter, Zionist leader, as well as his profound interest in documenting and reporting on the changes in European Jewish life between the wars. The collection is comprised primarily of notes, correspondence, clippings, and manuscripts of books about Zionism and topics in Jewish history, articles and reports on Jewish life in Austria, England, France, Germany, Hungary, Lithuania, Poland, Portugal, Rumania, Russia, Spain, the Balkans, and North Africa, circa 1910-1930s. The manuscripts of works on Jewish history include biographies of Jewish personalities and a report on the Czernowitz Yiddish Language Conference of 1908.

Manuscript of a play by Katz, titled In blut un fayer. Correspondence, 1946-1971. Photographs of J. Katz in Poland in the 1930s, of DP camps. Documents from DP Camps. Clippings from DP camp newspapers.

The collection consists primarily of correspondence reflecting Calmenson’s involvement in numerous national and local Jewish organizations. The largest quantity of materials is in relation to his work with the United Palestine Appeal (1926-1945, primarily 1926-1929), and the Zionist Organization of America (1919-1952). Among the local St. Paul Jewish organizations, the largest quantity of materials relates to the Emergency Committee for Palestine (1942-1951), and the Zionist Organization of America, St. Paul Chapter (1918-1950). Among his correspondents are Harry S. Truman, H.V. Kaltenborn, and Emanuel Neumann. Among the topics dealt with are the 1929 riots in Palestine, the protest against the Passfield paper, and the establishment of a Jewish army after World War I. The collection also contains materials relating to Calmenson’s private activities, and miscellaneous writings and papers belonging to the Calmenson family.

The records relate to Jewish Agency work with displaced persons following World War II, and include the following: correspondence with banks, vendors, Jewish National Fund, Keren Hayesod, and offices of the Jewish Agency in Geneva, Jerusalem, and Paris. Circulars and flyers. Financial records, including journals and account books, auditors' reports, cash books, ledgers, and records of support payments to individuals. Reports of the Immigration and Purchasing Departments. Correspondence and lists concerning release funds.

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 collection holds mostly manuscripts of lectures given primarily at institutions of Jewish adult education. They were given by various scholars, lecturing on Judaism; Jewish history; Jewish philosophy; and other topics pertaining to Jewish culture.

Contains material collected by the Jewish Media Service (JMS) on Jewish films, film company catalogs, resources and information from and about various media centers. The majority of the Jewish Media Service records date from when the JMS operated independently from 1975 to 1987. Types of material found in the collection include articles, brochures, catalogs, correspondence, examination study guides, filmographies, film stills, newsletters, pamphlets, photographs, posters, publications, scripts, and slides.

The Jewish National Fund records reflect the non-profit organization’s afforestation efforts in Israel in funding partnership with Hadassah. Included in this collection are personnel records, membership lists, and convention summaries, as well as correspondence, project documentation, and publications such as press releases, and magazines.

This collection documents the literary life of the writer Josef Kastein, born Julius Katzenstein. His literary work and his biographical details are the main features of the collection, which includes some of his manuscripts and personal correspondence with Shulamith Kastein. Other materials include the correspondence of Shulamith Kastein with publishers and individuals researching her husband's life and articles and clippings about him.

The collection documents Joseph Löwenherz's activities as the head of Jewish community in Vienna, Austria and his interactions with the Zentralstelle für Jüdische Auswanderung and Gestapo Hauptamt in Vienna. It contains copies of the memos and other reports Joseph Löwenherz had to submit to the Zentralstelle and the Gestapo, which were used as evidence in Adolf Eichmann's trial. Also included are documents and correspondence related to the Eichmann trial as well as correspondence between Löwenherz and his son written between 1939 and 1941 during his travels to several European cities, where he attended meetings concerning the mass repatriation of Jewish citizens out of Europe.