American Jewish Historical Society Library

Resources (26)

• Action for Soviet Jewry

  Records (undated, 1943, 1964-1994). 108.6 linear feet (139 manuscript boxes and 23 [16x20"] oversized boxes). The collection contains the records of the ASJ, an organization active in the Boston area, which survives today as Action for Post-Soviet Jewry, as well as those of two other organizations closely related to ASJ: the New England Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry and the Soviet Jewry Legal Advocacy Center. The bulk of the collection is from the decade starting in the late 1970s through the late 1980s. The collection includes large databases on Refuseniks, prisoners of conscience and Jewish émigrés. Along with the database spreadsheet forms there are a large number of individual files. Among these files are materials related to Soviet Jewish refugees in Italy from the time of the Ladispoli crisis of the late 1980s. The collection also includes a substantial number of reports from visits to the USSR by ASJ activists and other travelers cooperating with the Soviet Jewry Movement as well as a considerable number of photographs, posters and publications. Finding aid available: http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=254789

• American Jewish Congress

  Records, 1916present, 125 ft, and growing. Correspondence, minutes, publications, tape recordings, photos, phonograph records, clippings, and other matter relating to the organization and its work. One of its national commissions is on International Affairs and Israel. There are references to the Warsaw ghetto and to Soviet Jewry. The Society expects to receive continuing additions to the collection; current holdings go up to 1971. (NUCMC 72–1363)

• American Jewish Relief Committee for Sufferers from the War

  Records, 1914–17, ca. 400 items. Some correspondence concerns requests for help from Americans' relatives in Russia and Germanoccupied Europe, obtained through the Jewish Colonization Association office in Petrograd and the Hilfsverein der Deutschen Juden. Includes appeal leaflets, circulars, addresses (speeches), and other papers. (NUCMC 72–1364)

• Baron de Hirsch Fund

  Records, 1885–1935, 30 ft. Fund to aid Jewish immigrants. Letters, minutes, reports, financial records, etc. cover both the Fund and a large number of related Jewish organizations. Some items relate to charitable work in Russia. (NUCMC 72–1365)

• Bernhard Felsenthal (1822-1908)

  Papers, 1856–1920, 2 cartons, 800 items. Rabbi. Material, primarily correspondence, about Jewish religion, social life, and history in Russia and Poland. Letters are in English, German, Hebrew, and French. Cyrus Adler was a correspondent. Index of correspondents. (NUCMC 68–129)

• Board of Delegates of American Israelites

  Records, 1859–80, 2 ft., 1,500 items. Includes information on programs, anti-Semitism, famine, and poverty afflicting the Jews in Russia (and elsewhere). Several letters from a Rabbi Isaac Elhanan Spektor appeal for help for a Jewish community near Kovno. (NUCMC 68–121)

• Central Committee of America in Aid of Starving Jews in Russia

  Receipt book, 1900.

• Cyrus Adler (1863-1940)

  Papers, 1887–1934, 3 ft. Founder of the American Jewish Historical Society, 1892, first president of Dropsie College, Jewish Theological Seminary president, and leader of conservative Judaism in the U.S. Correspondence and other material on Jews in Russia. Correspondents include, Theodor Herzl, Max J. Kohler, and Stephen S. Wise. (NUCMC 68–117)

• Jacob Fishman (1888-1962)

  Theater collection, 1915–60, 1 ft. Dramatist and director. Includes manuscript translations, in Yiddish, of plays by F. M. Dostoevskii [Dostoevsky/Dostoyevskii/Dostoyevsky] and M. Gorkii. (NUCMC 68–130)

• Jefferson Monroe Levy (1852-1924)

  Papers, 1901–39, 560 items. Lawyer and U.S. congressman from New York City. Letters, certificates, photos, and clippings. Material covers the suffering of Russian Jews and efforts to help them. (NUCMC 69–606)

• Kishinev Protest Meeting Committee

  Records, 1903, 22 items. Correspondence and other papers relating to the committee and its meeting, held 27 May 1903, at Carnegie Hall in New York City. Includes addresses of Robert Stuart MacArthur and former president Grover Cleveland, meeting resolutions, a copy of the appeal sent to Nicholas II, and letters of Lyman Abbott, Newell D. Hillis, and Carl Schurz. (NUCMC 68–142)

• Lucien Moss (1831-1895)

  Collection, 1840–95, 12 scrapbooks of newspaper clippings. Contains information on persecution of Jews in Russia, and other subjects.

• Max James Kohler (1871-1934)

  Papers, 1888–1934, 11 ft. Historian, lawyer, and communal leader. Correspondence, reports, notes, and scrapbooks. 2 major interests for him were the liberalization of U.S. immigration and naturalization laws, and the condition of Jews in Russia. (NUCMC 68–143)

• Myer Samuel Isaacs (1841-1904)

  Papers, 1878–98, 73 items. Lawyer and communal leader. Correspondence and clippings concern, in part, Russian anti-Semitism. (NUCMC 68–138)

• National Citizens Committee

  Records, 1911, 777 items. Committee organized to protest Russian abuse of travel and trade provisions of the Treaty of 1832 (e.g., Russian refusal to recognize passports of American Jews). Correspondence from U.S. federal, state, and local government officials, educators, lawyers, businessmen, and non-Jewish religious leaders; also published material, including a report on a mass meeting at Carnegie Hall, 6 December 1911. (NUCMC 68–157)

• National Committee for the Relief of Sufferers by Russian Massacres

  Records, 1905–1909, ca. 1 ft., 1,200 items. Correspondence and reports concern the committee's fundraising efforts in the U.S. on behalf of Russian program survivors, particularly orphans, in both Russia and the United States (emigres). Some correspondence is with the Russo-Jewish Committee in London. Letters are in English, Russian, French, German, Hebrew, and Yiddish with various foreign groups. Information on conditions of Jews in Russia during and after the programs, the self-defense movement and defense fund, relief action, and emigration. Baron Horace G. Gunzburg in St. Petersburg was among those active in this work. (NUCMC 68–159)

• National Conference on Soviet Jewry

  records (undated, 1949, 1954, 1956, 1958-1993). 228.5 linear feet (435 manuscript boxes, 8 half manuscript boxes, 1 bankers box, 6 [6"x6"x12"] audio boxes, 2 [6"x12"x16"] audio boxes, 3 oversized folders, 1 MAP2 folder). The collection contains the records of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry, the largest and most influential organization created by the American Jews to coordinate efforts on behalf of Soviet Jews, which survives today as National Coalition Supporting Eurasian Jewry (NCSEJ). The bulk of the collection covers the activities from the early 1970s through late 1980s. The collection includes minutes of meetings, memoranda, correspondence, newsletters and publications of the NCSJ and its precursor, the American Jewish Committee on Soviet Jewry (1964-1971). Among other materials are individual files Refuseniks, prisoners of conscience and Jewish émigrés. The collection also includes a considerable number of reports from the visits to the USSR by Soviet Jewry Movement activists and other. A significant part of the collection is represented by the audio recordings that include 13-minute programs on the WEVD Radio dedicated to Soviet Jewry topics and recordings of phone conversations with Refuseniks. There is also a considerable number of photographs, posters and publications, several film strips and VHS tapes. Historical Note: The National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ) served as a coordinating agency for major national Jewish organizations and local community groups in the United States. The NCSJ acted on behalf of Soviet Jewry through public education and social action, which aimed to stimulate all segments of the community to maintain interest in the problems of Soviet Jews. To this end the NCSJ also published reports, memoranda, and pamphlets and sponsored special programs, organized public meetings, projects and forums. Finding aid available: http://digifindingaids.cjh.org/?pID=338009

• People's Relief Committee (Jewish)

  Records, 1915–24, ca. 24 ft., 55,000 items. Correspondence (international, national, and intracommittee), in Yiddish and English, concerning relief work for Eastern European Jewry (arranged geographically). Among the correspondents: the All-Russian Jewish Public Committee, Central Jewish People's Relief Committee of Courland (Latvia), the Yiddishe Arbeite Helfskomite for Bukovina (Rumania), the Kulture League (Warsaw), and the Kultur League of Lithuania. Also includes newspaper clippings (U.S. and Canadian) and printed matter. (NUCMC 68–165)

• Philip Cowen (1853-1943)

  Papers, 1876–1934, 3 cartons, ca. 1,500 items. Journalist and U.S. immigration official. Correspondence and published material, in English, German, and Russian. Some items concern Count Arthur Cherep-Spiridovich, Russian anti-Semitism, the Russian passport question, ca. 1911, the National Citizens Committee, loans from Jewish bankers to the Russian regime, and immigration to the U.S. from Russia and Eastern Europe. (NUCMC 68–124)

• Selman Abraham Waksman (1888-1973)

  Papers, 1886–1969, 1 ft. Marine bacteriologist. Some documents in Russian concern his life before emigrating to the U.S. ca. 1910. Travel diaries for 1924–69 cover trips to Europe, Asia, and the Near East. On his travels he met and had discussions with prominent individuals Like Marc Chagall and Vera Weizmann. (NUCMC 72–1389)

• Simon Wolf (1836-1923)

  Papers, 1861–1923, 2 cartons, 342 items. Lawyer, judge, communal leader, and U.S. consul general in Egypt. Includes letters exchanged with U.S. congressmen and government officials concerning antiSemitism in the U.S. and abroad, and the 1832 treaty with Russia (abrogated in 1911). (NUCMC 68–183)

• Sol Grossbard (b. 1889)

  Engineer. Typescript, 123 pp., written while with the U.S. Army Signal Corps in Siberia in 1918–19. Attached to the staff of General W. S. Graves, he was in charge of transportation and communication. The manuscript analyzes Allied attitudes and policies toward Russia and its political factions, the intervention, and alternatives to the unsuccessful U.S. policy.

• Solomon Eudovich (d. 1959)

  Papers, 1902–40, 50 items. Ritual slaughterer, Torah reader, and adult education teacher. Correspondence and miscellaneous papers, in Hebrew and Yiddish, primarily concerning his emigration from Vilna [Vilnius, Vilno] to England and to South America and his career.

• Stephen S. Wise (1874-1949)

  Papers, 1841–1968, 191 boxes. New York City rabbi. Correspondence, speeches, articles, etc. pertaining to Zionism, world affairs, and American Jewish issues. Some relate to Russia. Unpublished finding aid (NUCMC 77–50).

• Union of Councils for Soviet Jews

  Records (undated, 1948, 1954, 1963-1965, 1967-2000). 160.5 linear feet (107 bankers boxes, 83 manuscript boxes, 3 OS1 boxes, 3 oversized folders and 1 MAP folder). The collection contains the records of the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (UCSJ), an umbrella institution for approximately 50 grassroots organizations active in the movement to free Soviet Jews. The records documenting the UCSJ's operations, programs, and campaigns relate primarily to the 1980's, when the rescue movement reached its pinnacle of success and international attention, and to the 1990's, reflecting UCSJ's work on behalf of human rights after the collapse of the Soviet Union. The records include materials of UCSJ individual councils; materials by the Soviet Jewry Legal Advocacy Center, an affiliate of UCSJ; and a large volume of case files of Prisoners of Conscience, Refuseniks, and Soviet Jews who were allowed to emigrate to the West. Finding aid available: http://findingaids.cjh.org/?pID=161195

• Union of Orthodox Jewish Congregations of America

  Records, 1933–68, 3 ft. Correspondence, minutes, and printed matter. Some relates to Soviet Jewry. (NUCMC 72–11)