The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of The American Jewish Archive

Resources (19)

• In addition, the AJA has materials scattered in various collections by or about the American Jewish Committee, American Relief Administration, American Society for Jewish Farm Settlements in Russia, Inc., foreign affairs, Joint Distribution Committee, League of Jewish Youth of America, Russia, Russian Famine Fund, and Russo-Jewish Committee which, according to published catalogues, contain information on Russian/Soviet Jewry. Also, there are vertical file materials on Russian Jews in 1917, antiSemitism in the USSR, etc. (mostly printed matter); tape recordings about Soviet capital punishment, 1964 (tape 183) and other Russian matters (tape 230); and microfilm holdings about Soviet Jewry (e.g., nos. 167–77).

• The Archives has material primarily concerning the history of the Jews in the Western Hemisphere. Among Russian/Soviet-related collections are the following:

• Alliance israelite universelle

  Records, 1887–1939, 17 microfilm reels. Correspondence. The group assisted Russian Jews in emigrating to Argentina. (NUCMC 68–8)

• Boris D. Bogen (1869-1929)

  Correspondence, 1921–24, 961 items. Educator and social worker; director general of the Joint Distribution Committee in World War I. Letters concern relief work for Jews in Russia and Poland and his travel with the Hoover Mission. (NUCMC 65–1721)

• Fanny E. Holtzmann Papers (1920-1980)

  7.2 Linear ft. The Fanny E. Holtzmann Papers (1920-1980) describe the career of Fanny E. Holtzmann, lawyer and friend to celebrities and nobility. The collection includes correspondence, newsclippings, legal materials, photographs, awards and miscellaneous items relating to Miss Holtzmann's many years of professional service as well as to her personal life. Biographical Note: Fanny Ellen Holtzmann (1895-1980) was a lawyer who specialized in motion picture and copyright cases, and who counted among her friends and clients such famous personalities as George Bernard Shaw, Gertrude Lawrence, Noel Coward, Clifton Webb and Fred Astaire, as well as the cream of British nobility. Fanny Holtzmann already had a lucrative law practice spreading west to Hollywood and east to London when she catapulted to international fame in 1934 during a sensational trial in the British capital. That case pitted Russian nobility against Metro-Goldwyn-Mayer Pictures in a dispute over the studio's film version of the stabbing of Rasputin, the "mad monk" who had gained a sinister influence over the Romanov's pre-Revolutionary court before being killed in 1916. he plaintiff was Princess Irina Alexandrovna Youssoupoff, the wife of Prince Felix, one of the noblemen who poisoned, shot, clubbed and drowned the monk in Petrograd. It was her contention that the film gave the impression that she had been intimate with Rasputin. She was awarded $125,000 in damages for the showing of the film in Britain.Fanny Holtzmann, who did not appear at the original London trial, a few months later reached a settlement on behalf of the princess in the suits that were pending in most of the countries where the film was shown. The settlement was for a sum well into the hundreds of thousands of dollars. Finding aid available: http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0084/ms0084.html

• Felix M. Warburg (1871-1937)

  Papers, 1910–37, 103 ft. Philanthropist. Includes Russianrelated material, ca. 24 items, from 1919 and 1926–27 in 3 boxes. References to A. I. Konovoloff (Konovalov), A. D. Margolin, A. J. Sack, Dr. Henry Sliosberg. Contains diary of James N. Rosenberg (copy) with reference(s) to Russia (box 236); and correspondence pertaining to Russia from Alexander de Guinzburg, ca. 16 items (box 182), Isaac Landman, 22 items (box 226), Walter E. Meyer, 4 items (box 227), and Milton J. Rosenau, 4 items (box 217).

• Frank Leopold Weil (1894-1957)

  Papers, 1897–1955, ca. 19,310 items and 8 boxes. New York City lawyer. Correspondence, reports, minutes, notes, and printed matter pertaining to his life and work, and to agencies with which he was concerned, including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, American Red Cross, and Committee on Public Information. (NUCMC 68–110)

• George L. Kline

  Professor of philosophy, specialist in Russian and Soviet philosophy. Tape recording of 1964 lectures delivered at the Frank L. Weil Institute for Studies in Religion and the Humanities (Cincinnati). The topic: religion and anti-religion in the Soviet Union. Published in revised and expanded form (Chicago, 1968). (Tapes 171–82)

• Gitelson Family

  Papers, 1897–1963, 36,193 items. Letters and business (textiles) records, plus family papers, in part photocopies. Some papers are in Russian and Polish. (NUCMC 68–25)

• Harold Berman (1879-1949)

  Papers, ca. 1929–47, 7 boxes. Journalist and author. Includes essays about pogroms and Russian Jews. (NUCMC 66–1017)

• Jacob H. Schiff (1847-1920)

  Papers, 1914–20, 29 ft. Financier and philanthropist. Correspondence and other papers. Includes 22 items concerning a war loan to Russia in 1916 (box 453); 31 items, 1917, about a Russian Commission (Mayor's Committee) and the Russian Information Bureau (box 461); and 42 more items on the Russian Information Bureau in 1918 and 1920 (boxes 468 and 470). 6 items of J. J. Goldstein are Russian-related (box 465). (NUCMC 65–1739)

• James H. Becker Papers. (1917-1927)

  0.4 linear feet. Correspondence, diaries, pamphlets, and other materials, relating to Becker's activities as a 1st lieutenant in the U.S. Army and his work with the American Relief Administration; his travels in Paris, France, Bucharest, Romania, Russia, Poland, and Palestine; World War I and war relief in Europe; and Joint Distribution Committee of the American Funds for Jewish War Sufferers; together with speeches honoring Becker given by the American Jewish Relief Committee for Sufferers from the War in Chicago. Collection material in English. Biographical note: Businessman and soldier, of Highland Park, Ill. Finding aid available: http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0536/ms0536.html

• Louis Marshall (1856-1929)

  Papers, 1891–1930, 96 ft. Constitutional lawyer, philanthropist, and Jewish leader. Correspondence and other papers concern anti-Semitism worldwide, Zionism, and many political questions. On Russian affairs in general, 1891–1929, there are materials in 25 different boxes; 15 boxes hold correspondence to and from Marshall concerning Russian and Soviet Jewry, 1916–17 and 1920–29; references to efforts to abrogate the 1832 Russian-American Treaty in the period 1910–1920s are in items in 16 boxes; and 7 boxes contain, in part, letters on Russian relief efforts, the Russian Information Bureau, and a Russian hospital unit. Also, information about Jewish agricultural colonization in Russia is in box 85. Access restricted.

• Moishe Leib Schnitzer

  Miscellaneous documents, 1890–99, 11 pp. Includes his military papers from the Russian army, 1890–93.

• Nelson Glueck (b. 1900)

  Papers, 1918–63, 220 items and 5 microfilm reels. Rabbi, archaeologist, and president of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. Correspondence and other papers, in part microfilm of originals retained by Dr. Glueck. Includes his statement about the plight of Soviet Jews (box 2382). (NUCMC 68–26)

• Samuel Kipnis (b. 1887)

  Papers, 1922–62, 1 microfilm reel. Partial autobiography and diaries contain Russian references. (No. 1685)

• Samuel M. Schmidt (1883-1964)

  Papers, 1919–45, 987 items and 1 microfilm reel. Cincinnati businessman. Active in Joint Distribution Committee activities in Europe during and after World War I. In World War II he was again involved with relief work, aiding Polish and Lithuanian refugees. Correspondence and miscellaneous documents relate to all of this work. The picture collection at the AJA has related items. (NUCMC 68–1148)

• Stanley F. Chyet (b. 1931)

  Former associate director of the AJA. Materials on Soviet Jewry, 1967 (box 2355).

• Stephen Girard Papers (1789-1829)

  291 items. Stephen Girard (1750-1831), born in Bordeaux, France, immigrated to Philadelphia in 1776. He was a businessman, maritime trader, and philanthropist whose purchase of government bonds during the War of 1812 provided economic support for the military campaigns of the United States. Girard bequeathed his fortune to social welfare institutions and the Stephen Girard College in Philadelphia. Business correspondence with prominent Jewish merchants (Girard himself was not Jewish) from 1789-1829 pertaining to his shipping company as well as political and philanthropic issues. The papers contain a considerable amount of materials regarding Russian-American trade in the early 19th century. Finding aid available: http://collections.americanjewisharchives.org/ms/ms0257/ms0257.html