Zionism

The papers of Philip Lax document his work with four major organizations: the American Jewish Historical Society, B'nai B'rith International, National Conference on Soviet Jewry, and Ellis Island Restoration Commission. The collection documents the years 1915 to 2008, with the bulk of the material dating from the 1970s and 1980s. The papers contain photographs, correspondence, speeches, publications, subject files, and organizational records, such as minutes, financials, memorandums, agendas, and reports.

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

Consists of two letters written by Mendes; one to President Harry S. Truman, and the second to the Editor of the "New Republic." Mendes writes of the God-given ownership of Israel to the Jews, and the threat he perceived the Palestinians as posing to Jewish Statehood.

This collection contains the minute book, in Yiddish, of the organization for the period Feb. 1948-May 1966, describing its activities, finances, and data about its membership. It includes information about its relations with other groups, such as the Workmen's Circle, the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, and other Radomer societies in Montreal, Toronto, Melbourne, and Israel, and particularly its numerous Zionist activities. The minutes also contain extensive eulogies for Albert Einstein and John Fitzgerald Kennedy.

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.

Century Productions produced the one-woman show, "Hannah Senesh: Portrait of a Woman Warrior," written and directed by David Schechter and starring Lori Wilner as Senesh. The script was based on the diaries and poems of the WWII Hungarian-Jewish paratrooper Hannah Senesh, with songs and music composed and arranged by Steven Lutvak with additional music by Schecter and Elizabeth Swados. “Hannah Senesh” ran at the Cherry Hill Theater in New York City from 1984-1985 and traveled throughout the U.S. and Israel until 1987.

This collection contains newsletters, pamphlets and fact sheets published by an organization devoted to the economic development of Jewish industries in Palestine.

This collection contains incorporation and bylaws, financial statements, memorandum, minutes, newsletters, promotional pamphlets and brochures, bond receipts and certificates, security registration statements and prospectus relating to the corporation's work in marketing and selling bonds for Israel.

This collection contains annual reports, catalogs, pamphlets, brochures, newsletters and bulletins concerning the Hebrew University in Jerusalem from 1938-1993. Also includes fundraising brochures, correspondence, activity information and press releases outlining the work of American Friends of the Hebrew University.

The American Jewish Alternatives to Zionism Collection consists of correspondence, articles, pamphlets, speeches, lectures, and reports issued by the organization lobbying its stance on Jewish anti-Zionism as a solution to the Arab-Israeli conflict from 1959 to 1988.

This collection consists of general reference files from the New York City headquarters of the American Jewish Committee (AJC). Materials originated in various AJC departments and were maintained by a Central Records office until 1962, when records retention policy was decentralized. Document types include correspondence, memoranda, reports, clippings, and published materials concerning individuals, businesses, government agencies, and other organizations related to the work of the AJC.

The collection represents the papers of Morris David Waldman (1879-1963), a rabbi, social worker and communal leader, who was appointed executive secretary of one of the main Jewish defense organizations, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), in 1928. The executive secretary had top executive function at the organization and was in charge of working out and implementing the organization’s projects and policies regarding monitoring the civil and human rights of the Jews, and intervening on behalf of the Jews both in the U.S. and abroad. In 1942, Waldman was promoted to executive vice-president, a position he held until his retirement in 1945. The Morris Waldman Files relate to all of Waldman's activities as acting executive secretary and vice-president of the AJC.

This collection contains the records of the Union of Jewish Student Associations in Germany (Yiddish: Farband fun di Yidishe Studentn Fareynen in Daytshland; German: Verband Jüdischer Studentenvereine in Deutschland), an umbrella organization of associations of East European Jewish students who were pursuing their education in cities throughout Germany in the 1920s. Along with the Union's records are the records of two of its affiliate associations, the Jewish Student Association in Berlin and the Jewish Student Association in Jena. The student associations and the umbrella organization that they founded aimed to further Jewish cultural life among members; to provide material assistance to members in need; and to advocate for the interests of members vis-à-vis state and academic authorities. Included are administrative records such as bylaws, minutes, and announcements; materials documenting membership meetings of the Berlin association and conferences of the umbrella organization; petitions and correspondence from members concerning financial aid; materials documenting libraries maintained by the students, and other activities; and general correspondence. Among the correspondents are Jewish charitable and social-welfare organizations that contributed to the support of East European Jewish students through the student associations, including the Yidishe Velt-Hilfs-Konferents (Conférence Universelle Juive de Secours, Paris), the Verband der Russischen Juden, the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden, and the Zentralwohlfahrtsstelle der Deutschen Juden, as well as the Jewish Community of Berlin, and Jewish communities in other cities in Germany. The collection also includes a relatively small amount of materials of mixed provenance documenting the activities of other associations and umbrella organizations of East European Jewish students, both in Eastern Europe and the West, the greatest portion related to interwar Poland, especially Vilna.

The collection contains the records of the Jewish Defense League (JDL), a militant Zionist organization with a stated goal to protect Jews from all forms of antisemitism. The materials document the origins of the JDL, the organization's mission statement and recruitment strategies and account for its most definitive actions. The collection also reflects the League's turbulent relationship with, and its criticism of the mainstream Jewish agencies, as well as examples of criticism of the League's controversial methods from various sources. The collection prominently covers the JDL's role as a pioneer of the American Soviet Jewry movement. Materials on the 1971 World Conference of Jewish Communities are also included. The documents include the Articles of the Organization, correspondence and press releases, membership and recruitment materials, newsletters, newspaper clippings and ephemera.

This collection contains programs and papers read at the Annual Meetings of 1915-1916, the resolution passed at a special meeting in 1915 regarding the founding the School for Jewish Communal Work, the pension plan proposals, and correspondence regarding the Summer School for Social Work held jointly with the Jewish Chautauqua Society. Includes correspondence with the American Jewish Committee, National Americanization Committee, National Conference of Jewish Charities, New York City Board of Education, and the U.S. Dept. of Labor Immigration Bureau relating to the work of the association. Contains also the correspondence of Cyrus Adler, Ludwig Bernstein, Louis d. Brandeis, Lee K. Frankel, Israel Friedlander, Oscar Leonard, Louis Levin, Irving Lipsitch, Minnie F. Low, Louis Marshall, Belle Moskowitz, Milton Reizenstein, H.L. Sabsovich, Philip Seman, and Morris D. Waldman.

The majority of this collection contains documents related to the time prior to the merger of the Mizrachi Organization of America and Hapoel Hamizrachi of America (which eventually formed the Religious Zionists of America). Also included are items concerning their sub-entities and affiliates as well as information regarding Mizrachi’s Youth and Education Department, National Education Committee, and Education and Expansion Fund. Types of materials encompass souvenir journals, publications (Yiddish and English), youth leader’s guides, cultural guides, manuals, newsletters, pamphlets, brochures, activity and annual reports, plays, press releases, convention and event invitations, a musical score, and a children’s Hebrew primer. Of interest is the issue of New Horizons, published by the National Committee for Unity of Religious Zionism that describes the merger. Also of appeal is a 1952 souvenir program for the Hapoel Hamizrachi of Boston that honors and includes an address by Jerusalem Mayor S.Z. Shragai.

Folder I contains the following: Personal documents of Moshe Liwni/Robert Weiss: his doctoral certificate, business cards, and a CV. One letter addressed to him. Four published works written by Liwni,. and four (copies of) essays and notes written by him, as well as two unpublished plays. Folder II contains a list of essays he wrote and several newspaper articles written by him.

The collection contains 181 letters and 29 photographs. It consists mainly of family correspondence, primarily of letters from Robert Weltsch to his sister Lise [Elisabeth] Weltsch mostly from the years 1909 to 1919.

This collection's diary, personal dedications, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and photographs pertain to the legacy of Robert Weltsch, an eminent journalist, editor, and Zionist. The collection also documents the lives of Robert Weltsch’s family members including his wife Martha and their children, Ruben and Shoshanah, and the implications of their Jewish heritage on their choice to emigrate to Palestine amid the rise of Nazi Germany.

The Rudolph Seiden Collection describes the life and work of Rudolph Seiden, who was a chemist and a Zionist activist. Included in this collection is personal and editorial correspondence regarding Judaism, Zionism, anti-Semitism and the proposed Jewish resettlement in Alaska in the 1930s. Unpublished manuscripts collected by Rudolph Seiden for the Foreign Authors’ Syndicate can be found in this collection as well as autographs from Max Brod, Lujo Brentano, Franz Oppenheimer, Erich Muehsam, Arthur Schnitzler and Otto Warburg.

The Ruth Gay Collection consists of Ruth Gay’s research material for her book The Jews of Germany: A Historical Portrait and includes numerous copies of the documents from the 1930s, photographs and illustrations used in the book and audio tapes with 11 interviews with German Jews living in Israel.

The collection contains various ephemera pertaining to the 20th century history of Jews in Germany and German Jews in Israel, including stamps, letters and postcards, cirulars and leaflets, and membership cards.

The collection consists of 6 boxes and 46 folders.

The collection contains the papers of Shalom Schwarzbard (1886-1938), the Russian-born French Jewish watchmaker, revolutionary, writer and activist for Jewish self-defense. In May 1926 in Paris, Schwarzbard assassinated the exiled Ukrainian nationalist leader Simon Petlyura, whom he held responsible for the pogroms against the Jews in the Ukraine in 1918-1921. His trial in October 1927, at which he was acquitted, drew worldwide attention. The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts of Shalom Schwarzbard's autobiographical writings, personal documents, clippings, and printed ephemera, as well as poems by Schwarzbard's wife Anna and others. Materials in this collection mostly relate to Shalom Schwarzbard's writings, his speaking engagements following his acquittal, and his efforts in the 1930s to organize Jewish war veterans and war victims of the First World War.

The collection relates to the life of Jewish refugees, mostly of German and Austrian origin, in Shanghai primarily between the years 1939-1948. It covers many aspects of their experience, including political and cultural events, relief and charity activities, and self-help. The collection originated from the YIVO exhibition that was organized and displayed in 1947 in Shanghai and later in New York. The collection consists of manuscripts, minutes of meetings, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and printed materials.

Family papers of the American Sephardic Solis and Cohen families, composed of materials created through circa. 19860, through to the 1930s, with some additional materials prior to and after the time period. Contains correspondence, diaries, journals, medical papers, and eulogies of the family; materials relating to Zionist and Jewish organizations in the United States and abroad; genealogical research and correspondence of several famous Jewish personas; and artifacts, art work and other ephemera.

The collection contains documentation of the Sonneborn family, particularly Leo Sonneborn and his wife Settie; Siegmund Sonneborn; as well as photographs of Line Speyer née Sonneborn’s family.

The collection has been arranged according to the following broad subject areas: personal affairs; speeches, sermons, and articles, both manuscript and published; the Free Synagogue in New York City; the Jewish Institute of Religion; American Jewish affairs; relations between the Jewish and non-Jewish communities; New York City affairs; United States affairs; the press (both Jewish and non-Jewish); world affairs; the American Jewish Congress and World Jewish Congress; refugees; Zionism; Palestine and Israel; arts and letters; and individual corrspondence of a general nature.

Collection encompasses an extensive variety of organizations, subjects, and formats and is most useful for genealogists and researchers interested in general information. Researchers looking for a particular publication will also find this collection helpful.

This collection consists of materials relating to Jewish life in countries around the world from 1778-1957. Topics include cultural and educational organizations, political parties and elections, charitable institutions, labor, and religious life.