Finding Aids

Finding Aids to Archival Collections

This page provides access to electronic finding aids for Yeshiva University archival collections. The finding aids are displayed in alphabetical order by Creator, if one exists, otherwise by Collection Title. New finding aids will be added as the project proceeds. Please search the YULIS catalog for descriptions of collections that do not have electronic finding aids.

Creator: Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War

Title: Records of the Central Relief Committee, Volume I

Inclusive Dates: 1914-1948 Bulk Dates: 1914-1918

Size: 57 linear feet

Abstract: Orthodox Jewish overseas relief organization affiliated with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Established in October, 1914 to help Jews suffering as a result of the outbreak of World War I. After the war, the Central Relief Committee shifted its attention from providing economic relief to Orthodox Jewry overseas to preserving its religious and cultural identity. CRC supported hundreds of yeshivot in Europe and Palestine through 1950, when its affiliation with the JDC ceased. The Federated Council of Israel Institutions succeeded the CRC.

Creator: Central Committee for the Relief of Jews Suffering Through the War

Title: Records of the Central Relief Committee, Volume II

Inclusive Dates: 1914-1958 Bulk Dates: 1919-1950

Size: 102 linear feet

Abstract: Orthodox Jewish overseas relief organization affiliated with the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee. Established in October, 1914 to help Jews suffering as a result of the outbreak of World War I. After the war, the Central Relief Committee shifted its attention from providing economic relief to Orthodox Jewry overseas to preserving its religious and cultural identity. CRC supported hundreds of yeshivot in Europe and Palestine through 1950, when its affiliation with the JDC ceased. The Federated Council of Israel Institutions succeeded the CRC.

Creator: Central Orthodox Committee

Title: Central Orthodox Committee Collection

Inclusive Dates: 1942, 1945-1953 Bulk Dates: 1947-1950

Size: 5 linear feet

Abstract: Correspondence, financial records, reports, and other material concerning relief work with displaced persons following World War II. Includes correspondence and reports of European Directors Samuel L. Sar, Rabbi Solomon Shapiro, and Rabbi Manuel Laderman, and Treasurer A.M. Stavsky; and material concerning relations with Joint Distribution Committee, Vaad Hatzala, United Service for New Americans, and United States government agencies, as well as Jewish Central Orthodox Committee commission to Europe.

Creator: Chevrah Poel Zedek Anschei Illia

Title: Chevrah Poel Zedek Anschei Illia Collection

Inclusive Dates: 1893-1961

Size: 10 linear feet

Abstract: Records of a landsmanschaft synagogue founded by immigrants from the village of Illia (Lithuania) in the 1880s on the Lower East Side.

Creator: Enright, Maurice, 1905-1977

Title: Maurice Enright Papers

Inclusive Dates: 1921-1978

Size: 2.25 linear feet

Abstract: Maurice Enright was active in Jewish communal affairs, especially those affiliated with the Poale Agudath Israel. After the close of World War II, he traveled to Europe three times between 1946 and 1948 as a representative of the Vaad Hatzala and Rescue Children organizations. These post-war activities are the major focus of this collection, which consists of correspondence, scrapbooks, photographs, and newspaper clippings.

Title: French Consistorial Collection

Inclusive Dates: 1809-1939

Size: 4.75 linear feet

Abstract: Consistories were created by Napoleon I in 1808 to administer Jewish religious matters and facilitate the acculturation of French Jews. This collection contains diverse materials relating to Jewish communal life in nineteenth-century France, and includes personal and official correspondence, drafts, engravings, essays, community and organization records, accounts and financial records, petitions, demographical statistics, reports and membership lists. The Consistorial system was dissolved in 1905, after which some Consistories regrouped into Consistorial associations ("Associations consistoriales").

Creator: Halberstam, Tovia

Title: Tovia Halberstam Religious Broadside and Ephemera collection

Inclusive Dates: 1960-1985

Size: .5 linear feet

Abstract: Collection is made up of broadsides, clippings and printed ephemera from Brooklyn, N.Y., the largest hasidic community in the world outside of Israel. Materials relate to communal issues, the Lubavitch hasidic group, Zionism, and the anti-Zionist group Neturei Karta U.S.A.

Creator: Herzberg, Irving I.

Title: Irving I. Herzberg photograph collection

Inclusive Dates: 1950-1988

Size: 35 linear feet

Abstract: Irving I. Herzberg was best known for his human interest photographic essays. The collection consists of negatives, slides, and prints from his works on Brooklyn's Hasidic community, Israel, and scenes of general New York City life.

Creator: Hirschler, Gertrude

Title: Gertrude Hirschler papers

Inclusive Dates: 1929-1994

Size: 8 linear feet

Abstract: Gertrude Hirschler was a translator and editor of literary works, and was the leading translator of the works of the nineteenth century German rabbi, Samson Raphael Hirsch. The collection primarily consists of materials relating to Hirschler's publishing career, containing her publishing correspondence, as well as manuscripts, articles and miscellaneous writings by other authors that were sent to Hirschler for editing or translating. There is also a small amount of personal materials and original writings by Hirschler.

Creator: Institutional Synagogue

Title: Records of the Institutional Synagogue

Inclusive Dates: 1917-1967 Bulk Dates: 1928-1943

Size: .75 linear feet

Abstract: Contains minutes, financial records, legal documents, and newsletters of a synagogue founded in Harlem in 1917 as a center for religious, cultural and social programs, which remained in existence until 1943. A branch was formed in 1928 on Manhattan's Upper West Side, which became the current West Side Institutional Synagogue.

Title: Israeli Broadside Collection

Inclusive Dates: 1878-1981

Size: approximately 1100 items

Abstract: The collection consists of broadsides and other printed ephemera produced in Israel and pre-state Palestine by various government agencies as well as segments of the Jewish community in Palestine/Israel covering a wide array of economic, social, political, cultural and religious issues.

Creator: Jung, Leo, 1892-1987

Title: Leo Jung Papers

Inclusive Dates: 1878-1992 Bulk Dates: 1970-1979

Size: 26.5 linear feet

Abstract: Rabbi Leo Jung served as Rabbi of The Jewish Center Synagogue (Manhattan) for over 60 years, and was deeply involved in Jewish communal life and the development of Modern Orthodoxy in the United States. The collection contains correspondence (primarily from 1970s), personal materials, and writings of Rabbi Jung and others, as well as various financial records of the Jewish Center relating to fundraising and charitable donations.

Creator: Koenigsberg, Benjamin, 1884-1975

Title: Benjamin and Pearl Koenigsberg Papers

Inclusive Dates: 1890-1998 Bulk Dates: 1905-1972

Size: 23.5 linear feet

Abstract: Lawyer and Orthodox communal worker, the collection contains organizational records, affidavits, and correspondence of Benjamin Koenigsberg during his life on New York's Lower East Side. Also contains materials relating to the Koenigsberg/Friedman families.

Title:  Jamie Lehmann Memorial Collection – Records of the Jewish Community of Cairo

Inclusive Dates:  1886-1961 Bulk Dates: 1920-1960

Size: 6.75 linear feet

Abstract:  Consists of account books, by-laws, case files, certificates, correspondence, legal documents, minutes, photographs and reports from the Sephardic and Ashkenazic Jewish communities of Cairo. Also contains minute registers of two lodges of the International Order of B'nai B'rith in Cairo, which provide information crucial for understanding the modernization of Egyptian Jewry that took place in the early decades of the twentieth century.

Creator: Marton, Bernard Dov, 1909-1990

Title: Bernard Dov Marton Papers

Inclusive Dates: 1914-1998 Bulk Dates: 1932-1970

Size: 14.83 linear feet

Abstract: Bernard Dov Marton was an Orthodox rabbi who held numerous pulpits in New York and California from the 1930s through the 1980s. The Bernard Dov Marton Papers contain correspondence, legal documents, publications, newspaper clippings, printed materials, scrapbooks, sound recordings, and photographs pertaining to the life and career of Rabbi Marton and members of his family.

Creator: Morais, Henry S., 1860-1935

Title: Papers of Henry S. Morais

Inclusive Dates: 1877-1924

Size: 1.5 linear feet

Abstract: The papers of Henry S. Morais (1860-1935) span the years 1877-1924. They cover the life of this journalist/Rabbi in his two major places of residence - Philadelphia, Pa. and New York, N.Y. The papers were given to Yeshiva University by Morais as of an unknown date.

Creator: National Council of Jewish Women, Department of Service for the Foreign Born

Title: National Council of Jewish Women, Department of Service for the Foreign Born Records

Inclusive Dates: 1920-1968

Size: 430 linear feet

Abstract: The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) was founded in 1893. It undertook a wide range of religious, philanthropic, and educational activities in response to the wave of Jewish immigrants to American shores. One department, the Service for the Foreign Born, was founded in 1903 to help new immigrants adapt to life in the United States. The collection consists of this department of the NCJW's New York and Brooklyn Sections' case files dealing with the agency's efforts to help refugees adjust to the United States, its work to locate immigrants' missing relatives and friends, and administrative records of the Service for the Foreign Born.

Creator: Rescue Children, Inc.

Title: Rescue Children, Inc. Collection

Inclusive Dates: 1946-1985

Size: 5.25 linear feet

Abstract: Photographs and case files of child Holocaust survivors under Rescue Children, Inc. care in Sweden, France, Belgium, England, and Germany. Also contains some administrative records and correspondence of the organization.

Creator: Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry

Title: Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry Records

Inclusive Dates: 1956-2006 Bulk Dates: 1964-1991

Size: 250 linear feet

Abstract: Grass-roots national student organization formed by Jacob Birnbaum in 1964 to oppose the persecution of Soviet Jews and promote their right to emigrate freely from the Soviet Union through activities designed to pressure the Soviet government directly, to move the United States government to intervene with the Soviet government, and to boost the morale of Soviet Jews. Contains correspondence, questionnaires and statistical information on refuseniks, administrative and financial records, press releases and publicity material, newsletters, clippings, photographs, publications, reports, audio-visual material, and ephemera.

Creator: Vaad Hatzala

Title: Vaad Hatzala Collection

Inclusive Dates: 1940 - 1963 Bulk Dates: 1942-1949

Size: 27.75 linear feet plus two oversize document cases

Abstract: Orthodox Jewish relief organization established in 1939 initially to provide funds for rabbis and religious students in war-torn Europe and to work for their emigration. Involved in negotiations with Germans to save Jews from concentration camps, and provided assistance to Jews who fled Europe to places such as Japan and Shanghai. Provided spiritual rehabilitation to concentration camp survivors following World War II, and arranged for visas for refugee rabbis and religious students to the United States.

Creator: Wiernik, Peter, 1865-1936

Title: Peter Wiernik and Bertha Wiernik Collection

Inclusive Dates: 1886-1950 Bulk Dates: 1920-1935

Size: 13 linear feet

Abstract: Peter Wiernik was a prominent Yiddish journalist active in many Jewish organizations. The collection contains his records of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, with which he was involved, as well as records of other organizations he participated in. It also contains his personal papers, including correspondence from the 1920s and 1930s in the areas of Jewish belles-lettres, philanthropy and Yiddish journalism. His notes, drafts of articles, and newspaper clippings reflect his interest in Jewish political issues, history, bibliography and literature. The papers of his sister, Bertha Wiernik, contain correspondence and several plays she wrote in the 1930s and 1940s.