Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954

Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954

Sources from the American Jewish Historical Society, New York

LIBRARY JOURNAL 'BEST REFERENCE' 2011

"Jewish Life in America makes available to scholars some of the American Jewish Historical Society's most important and valuable archival collections. Anyone researching the history of the American Jewish community will benefit from this treasure trove of primary sources."

Jonathan D. Sarna
Joseph H. & Belle R. Braun Professor of American Jewish History, Brandeis University and author of American Judaism: A History.

Editorial Board:

Professor Hasia R Diner, New York University
Professor Jonathan Sarna, Brandeis University

Source Library:

American, Jewish Historical Society, New York

Nature of the Material:

This is an indispensable resource for all those interested in understanding and exploring the history of Jewish communities in America from their first arrival in New York in 1654 to the integral part that they play today.

The collection illuminates key topics such as:

• The evolution of early Jewish Settlements in areas such as New York, Rhode Island and Philadelphia
• The immigration process and structures of support for those arriving from the Old World – the differing experiences of immigrants and, from the late 19th century, strategies adopted at Ellis Island and in Galveston
• The role of Jews in the American War of Independence and the Civil War
• The role of the synagogue as a focal point for Jewish communities
• The development of Jewish schools and charitable institutions
• Westward expansion and the attempts to establish Jewish farms
• The Jewish Diaspora – the influx of Jews from Western Europe, Eastern Europe and other places around the world and their dispersal across America
• The garment industry, peddling, general stores, finance and diversification into other industries
• The development of differing strands of Judaism in America – Reform, Conservative, Reconstructionism and Orthodoxy – and the roots of this in patterns of immigration and in societal changes
• Reaching out to Jewish communities around the world – especially to Russia, Romania, Germany and Eastern Europe
• American Jewish involvement in the Spanish-American War, World War I and World War II
• Involvement in Civil Rights and Minority Rights issues.

Scope of the Collection:

The collection is based on a rich variety of original manuscript collections from the unique holdings of the American Jewish Historical Society in New York, ranging from a peddler’s certificate signed by Benjamin Franklin, to records of organisations such as the Baron de Hirsch fund, which supported Jewish entrepreneurship all across America from 1819 to the 1980s.

Collections include:

• Papers of the Gomez Family, 1688-1905, Sephardic Jews who settled in New York City in the early 1700s.

• Papers, 1705-1885, of Jacques Judah Lyons, hazzan, rabbi and community leader who emigrated from Surinam to Philadelphia in the early 1800s and collected material on the early Jewish experience in North and South America. There is strong material on the Congregation Shearith Israel in New York, on the Jewish community in Newport, Rhode Island, and on Jews in the West Indies and Canada.

• Papers of the Franks Family, 1711-1821, colonial merchants, providing an insightful look at life in New York, 1733-1748, particularly in the Jewish community.

• Papers, 1740-1785, of Haym Salomon, known as “the financier of the American Revolution.”

• Papers of the Seixas family, 1748-1911, Portuguese Jews who played a prominent civic, mercantile and religious role in colonial Jewish affairs in Philadelphia, Newport, Rhode Island, Richmond, Virginia and New York. Moses Seixas, Gershom Mendes Seixas and Benjamin Mendes Seixas are especially well represented.

• Papers of the Levy family of New York, Philadelphia and Baltimore, 1710-1835.

• Papers of the Moses Family of New York, 1742-1897, including diaries, inventories, and a journal of a journey to India in 1798.

• The Philip Jacobs Collection, 1760-1832 – interesting material relating to business and real estate, as well as material on slavery and the New York Orphan Asylum.

• Papers of Uriah Levy, 1792-1862, who served in the American Navy during the War of 1812 and subsequently rose to the rank of Commodore. He famously abolished corporal punishment in the navy and helped to save Thomas Jefferson’s house at Monticello for the nation.

• Papers of Rebecca Gratz and family, 1753-1916. There are maps, land grants and a great deal of correspondence. Rebecca Gratz was an ardent advocate of education and community service and played an active role in civic life in Philadelphia.

• The manuscript autobiography of Joseph Nones of Philadelphia, 1797-1887, and other papers.

• Papers of Judah P Benjamin, 1811-1884, Senator for Louisiana and Attorney-General of the Confederate States – even though he destroyed many of his original papers, this collection is valuable to researchers studying the activities and experiences of Jews in the antebellum South, especially during the Confederacy.

• Papers of Bernard Felsenthal, 1822-1908, a powerful Chicago Reform rabbi and advocate of Zionism.

• The Myer S Isaacs Collection, 1841-1904, documents the life of one of the most important members of the Jewish community in New York in the 19th century. Isaacs helped to found and edit the Jewish Messenger, was an ardent advocate of civil rights and became the first President of the Baron de Hirsch fund. There is much on anti-Semitism around the world.

• The Emma Lazarus Collection, 1869-1887, explores her role as an advocate of immigrant rights and as a poet - author of ‘The New Colossus’, carved into the base of the Statue of Liberty.

• The Isaac Leeser collection, 1811-1919 - pertaining to his work as editor of The Occident; his translation of the Bible and his other literary works; discussions concerning Jewish law; Reform and Orthodox Judaism; the condition of Jews and Jewish education in America and in England; equal rights for Jews in Massachusetts and North Carolina; the controversy over the Touro Monument; slavery and the Civil War; and converts to Judaism. These papers complement the Leeser papers at the Center for Jewish Studies at the University of Pennsylvania and a link will be made to the new digital Leeser edition.

• The Jonas Phillips Levy Papers, 1851-1882, regarding Monticello and claims made during the Civil War and against Mexico.

• The Moss Scrapbooks, 1840-1895, documenting social and domestic affairs in Philadelphia and New York, the persecution of Jews in Russia and Romania and relief efforts on their behalf by American Jewry and Baron de Hirsch, religious and cultural efforts and trends, noted Jewish personalities, and the history of the Jewish communities in the US.

• Papers of Louis Marshall, 1905-1933, a leader in American Judaism; president and stragetist of the American Jewish Committee; Chairman of the Commission of Immigration in New York state; and campaigner against literacy tests for new immigrants and against Henry Ford’s anti-Semitic rhetoric. These papers complement the major collection at the American Jewish Archives.

• The Jefferson Monroe Levy collection, 1901-1939, regarding the saving of Monticello for the American Nation.

• Papers of Philip Cowen, 1853-1943, a Conservative Jew who founded and edited the American Hebrew , 1879-1906; was appointed by President Theodore Roosevelt as Immigration Inspector on the Board of Special Inquiry, Ellis Island; was a founder of the The Judeans society; a secretary for B'nai B'rith; and published an autobiography entitled Memoirs of an American Jew (1932).

• The Marion E Kenworthy Collection, 1938-1952, details the work of the Non-Sectarian Committee for German Refugee Children and its successor, and the effort to pass the Wagner-Rogers bill of 1939, which would have allowed 20,000 German refugee children of all faiths to enter the United States over a two year period.

• Papers of Bernard C Ehrenreich, 1876-1955, are another important collection recording the life of Jews in the South. Ehrenreich was a Rabbi and civic leader in Montgomery, Alabama, and was heavily involved with organisations such as the National Jewish Welfare Board.

• The Solomon Robert Kagan Collection, c1940-1955, details the experiences of Jews in the medical profession, as well as looking at Middle East politics in the post war period.

• Records of the Baron de Hirsch Fund, 1819-1983. Founded by financier and philanthropist Baron Maurice de Hirsch, the Fund existed to provide support for Jewish immigrants on their arrival in the US. In addition to providing access to basic education and immediate temporary work at ports or in urban centres, the Fund also established agricultural and trade schools to teach useful skills, and helped to plan agricultural communities in the US and South America. It was one of the most important Jewish philanthropic organizations in American history.

• Papers of the Industrial Removal Office, 1899-1922. The IRO helped Jewish immigrants to assimilate into American Society both culturally and economically. Travelling agents investigated and identified potential locations for individuals and groups across America, placing them as carpenters, shoemakers, butchers, blacksmiths, farmers, locksmiths, clerks, machinists, paperhangers, tanners, furriers, harness makers, printers, watchmakers, weavers, and wood carvers.

• Papers of the Jewish Immigration Information Bureau (Galveston, Texas), 1901-1920. The Galveston immigration records document the attempt of the Bureau, working in cooperation with several other Jewish organizations, to receive Jewish immigrants through the port of Galveston, Texas rather than New York City. The papers further describe their efforts to resettle the immigrants in communities throughout the United States.

• Records of the Board Delegates of American Israelites, 1859-1881. The Board was a critical Jewish civil rights organization which worked closely with the Committee of Deputies of British Jews and the French Alliance Israélite Universelle to provide support – and campaign for rights - for Jews throughout the Americas, Europe, North Africa, and the Middle East, particularly Romania, Ottoman Palestine including Jerusalem, and Morocco. There is much on anti-Semitism, exile, ghettos, persecution and humanitarian relief.

• Records relating to the American Jewish Historical Exhibition, 1901-1902 – minutes, reports and financial records of the Executive Committee describing an important effort to celebrate the Jewish experience in America, together with material relating to the International Exposition at St. Louis, in 1904.

• Papers regarding the American Jewish Tercentenary, 1954 - documents the administrative planning, research, publicity, and activities surrounding the American Jewish Tercentenary celebration from its inception in 1948 to its closing in 1955.

In addition to all of these diverse and interesting manuscript collections we also offer rare printed books and pamphlets from the Rosenbach and Soble collections at the AJHS. Sample titles include: Gershom Mendes Seixas, A discourse, delivered in the synagogue in New-York (1798); George Houston, Israel Vindicated (1820); Sabato Morais, An Address on the Death of Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States, Delivered Before the Congregation Mikve Israel of Philadelphia (1865); Statistics of the Jews of the United States. Compiled under the Authority of the Board of Delegates of American Israelites, and the Union of American Hebrew Congregations (1880); Myer Isaacs, The Persecution of the Jews in Russia (1882?); Simon Wolf, Address on the Life and Services of the Rev. Isaac Leeser (1887); and Barnett Elzas, Documents Relative To A Proposed Settlement Of Jews in South Carolina In 1748 (1902).

Finally, these are complemented by a range of contextualizing materials including essays by our Consultant Editors, and a selection of special articles and statistical analysis taken from the American Jewish Year Book, 1899-1956.

Taken together these sources will enable scholars to see the efforts made by the Jewish community both to look after itself and to also to integrate within American Society as a whole. They will show ways in which Jewish culture and characteristics have helped to shape American identity. They document the massive migration that took place between the Old World and the New from 1820 and 1924, and record the transformation of a small minority population into one of the largest, most significant and most powerful Jewish communities in the world.

 

Back to top