Ellis Island (N.J. and N.Y.)

This colleciton contains constitutions, by-laws, meeting minutes (1908-1917), Budget Committee minutes (1909-1910), the Ellis Island Committee attempt to centralize immigrant relief work in 1909, and the Special Committee "to investigate complaints ... duplication of work and other grievances, preferred by the Clara de Hirsch School for Immigrant Girls and by the Council of Jewish Women against the Hebrew Sheltering and Immigrant Aid Society.".

The records of the National Council of Jewish Women, New York Section document the organization's community service, advocacy, and supportive administrative, fundraising, membership, and public relations activities from the Section's early years to the present. Included is a large amount of material from the National Organization in relation to the New York Section. This material is dated from 1896 to 1999 and consists of administrative, events, and advocacy matters. The New York Section's community services files include its work on aging, child care, consumer telephone referrals, counseling support, crime prevention, the disabled, domestic violence, early child education, feminism, homelessness, hunger, immigrants, Israel, Jewish education and promotion, literacy, probation, the sick, summer recreation for children and the elderly, and war relief. The Section's advocacy files consist of lobbying efforts for the rights of children, the disabled, the elderly, families, the homeless, immigrants, Israel, and women. The collection is primarily in English, with some Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Greek, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian. Among the types of material are audio tapes, blueprints, correspondence, minutes, photographs, publications, scrapbooks, and scripts.

This collection contains records of the National Refugee Service (NRS), including committee files, correspondence, publications, and project files organized by partner organization and location. A few case files and a small amount of materials on predecessor organizations, notably the National Coordinating Committee, are also included. The records cover the major functions of the NRS related to migration, resettlement, retraining, employment, and social adjustment of refugees. Other subjects of note include affidavits, deportations, internees and enemy aliens in the United States, the refugee ship SS St. Louis, and the Fort Ontario refugee shelter in Oswego, New York. A few pieces of correspondence with Secretary of State Dean Acheson and Attorney General Francis Biddle are included.