#ajhs

By Andrey Filimonov, Archival Services Manager at the Center for Jewish History

“Zions Captives”: documentary on Ida Nudel (watch online: http://digital.cjh.org/4585693)

Original archival material found Houston Action for Soviet Jewry Records I-500; box 35; VHS tape 022; American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY;  PID http://digital.cjh.org/798129

Screenshot from “Zions Captives, documentary on Ida Nudel”

Original archival material found Houston Action for Soviet Jewry Records I-500; box 32; VHS tape 022; American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY PID http://digital.cjh.org/4585693

Thanks to a generous grant from the Blavatnik Family Foundation, American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS) and Center for Jewish History (CJH) were able to preserve and make accessible online 272 hours of historic video recordings from AJHS' Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM) [ajhs.org/aasjm]. Included in this project are over 430 VHS tapes found in 12 different collections, with recordings dating from 1970s to 1990s, featuring interviews with Soviet Jewish Refuseniks, dissidents, and Prisoners of Conscience, Western human rights activists and elected officials, television programs and news reports on Soviet Jewry, footage of Jewish communities in various parts of the USSR and the FSU, rallies and demonstrations in the United States and in Europe, examples of the Soviet state-sanctioned Anti-Semitic and Anti-Zionist propaganda films, documentaries produced by the Soviet Jewry movement organizations, and other related materials. Prior to this digitization project, the recordings were completely inaccessible and in urgent need of preservation.

Many video recordings in this collection provide powerful visual documentation of the systemic human rights abuses in the Soviet Union, as well as remarkable examples of individual resistance to oppression and resilience in the face of injustice. One of the digitized VHS tapes, from the Houston Action for Soviet Jewry Records I-500, contains footage of a prominent Soviet Jewish political activist Ida Nudel that was made during her exile in Siberia where she was subjected to severe mental and physical torment as punishment for her dissent against the totalitarian suppression of basic human rights in the Soviet state.

Ida Nudel became an activist in the Soviet Jewry movement after she was refused permission to leave the USSR in 1970. In 1972 she organized an unprecedentedly daring hunger strike at the Moscow headquarters of the Communist Party, protesting an unlawful arrest of a fellow Refusenik. For many years she served as the lifeline between the West and the unjustly imprisoned Soviet Jewish activists and Hebrew teachers, ensuring that their stories are not forgotten and that they are supplied with food, medicine, and clothing, necessary in the brutal conditions of the Soviet prison camps. Ida directed a continuous flow of correspondence to the Prisoners of Conscience with messages of hope and support from all over the world.

Her courageous and fervent activism earned her the nickname "the guardian angel" in the Soviet Jewish community, and four years of internal exile in Siberia for “malicious hooliganism” from the Soviet authorities.

By Andrey Filimonov

Audio recording: Public Service Announcements urging support for Soviet Jewry by Rita Moreno, Bayard Rustin, Sam Levenson and Alan King, recently digitized at the Center for Jewish History. Link to digital audio file: http://digital.cjh.org/4552838 

Originally found on an open-reel tape, in the Records of National Conference on Soviet Jewry, I-181A, Box 369, Tape number M15.

Bayard Rustin. Original photograph found in Box 159, Folder 7 of the Action for Soviet Jewry Records I-487; American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY.

 The Soviet Jewry Movement (circa 1963-1991) was a worldwide effort to obtain freedom for Jews in the Soviet Union to practice their religion without state persecution or discrimination; or to emigrate to Israel, the United States or elsewhere to seek the blessings of freedom, and to pursue lives of their own choosing.

The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS; a partner organization of the Center for Jewish History) has established its Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement to help assure that the story of the role played by Americans of all faiths in this Movement will be collected and preserved so that future generations will be familiar with, and inspired by, their achievements.

Thanks to a generous grant from the Blavatnik Family Foundation, AJHS and CJH were able to preserve and make accessible online 357 historic audio recordings from 1960s-1980s, totaling over 195 hours.  Originally acquired on magnetic tape, in open-reel and cassette formats, now digitally preserved and made accessible worldwide, the recordings feature phone calls to Jews in the USSR, interviews with "Refuseniks" and Prisoners of Conscience, US politicians, foreign policy experts, civil rights and cultural leaders.

One of the audio recordings preserved and made accessible by this project demonstrates a direct tie in lineage and legacy between the civil rights movements of the 1950s-1960s, and the American Soviet Jewry movement in the 1970s-1980s. It demonstrates the important role African-American leaders such as Martin Luther King Jr., Roy Wilkins, Asa Philip Randolph and Whitney Young played in shaping, directing and informing the movement for the rights of Jews in the USSR. It features an address to the American public by Bayard Rustin (1912-1987), a prominent American civil rights leader, a principal organizer of the 1963 March on Washington for Jobs and Freedom, an iconic advocate for the LGBT rights, and a pioneer of the Movement for the rights of Soviet Jews.

Bayard Rustin addressing American Jewish Congress at Convention, 1966 Original photograph found in Box 745, Folder 31 of the American Jewish Congress records, I-77; American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY

 In a public service announcement recorded in the early 1970s for the National Conference on Soviet Jewry Rustin urges Americans to write to their congressmen, to President Nixon and the Soviet Ambassador to demand justice for the oppressed Soviet Jewry: "The world has shown its horror at the senseless persecution of Jews in the Soviet Union… We must do our share in the community of mankind. Therefore, on behalf of Soviet Jews, we shall be heard—you can be heard!"

Preserving and providing access to this recording is particularly important because the legacy of this extraordinarily influential social activist remains relatively obscure. For most of his life Rustin was kept largely out of the public eye  and on the margins of the movements he had planned and directed —in large part because he lived as an openly gay man at a time when gay, lesbian, bisexual, and transgender people in the United States were criminalized, considered mentally ill, widely discriminated against and legally persecuted.

Bayard Rustin, attending the Second World Conference on Soviet Jewry held in Brussels, Belgium, February 17-19, 1976. Notes: Original photograph found in Box 361, Folder 7 of the National Conference on Soviet Jewry Records, I-181A; American Jewish Historical Society, New York, NY

American Jewish Historical Society holds the Papers of Bayard Rustin. The collection focuses on his involvement in the American Soviet Jewry movement. It contains speeches and articles on Soviet Jewry by Bayard Rustin from 1960s-1980s. Also included are publications by the executive secretary of the Conference on the Status of Soviet Jews, Moshe Decter— Redemption! Jewish freedom letters from Russia with foreword by Rustin, and "Silence and Yearning: A Report and Analysis of the Status of Soviet Jewry" based on the findings of the Ad Hoc Commission on the Rights of Soviet Jews, chaired by Rustin.

By Nicole Greenhouse, Archivist

The American Jewish Historical Society and the Center for Jewish History are proud to highlight the AJHS Counter Culture Collections, a set of over 170 linear feet of 25 smaller collections documenting Jewish involvement in left politics, the Jewish Renewal movement, the Peace movement, and Jewish student activism in the 20th century.  Materials in the Counter Culture Collection date as early as anti-war activism in the 1940s to the explosion of counter-cultural output during the 1960s and 1970s to the contemporary successor organizations of the counter cultural movement.

The earliest materials in Counter Culture Collection focus on Jewish activism combating war. In 1941, the Jewish Peace Fellowship was founded to support Jewish conscientious objectors in World War II. Over time, the Jewish Peace Fellowship also supported objectors during Vietnam War and wars in the Middle East up until the present day.

Cover of of “JPF Tidings”, Fall 1956; Jewish Peace Fellowship Records; I-189; Box 25, Folder 9; American Jewish Historical Society.

  AJHS also holds the records of an early founder of the Jewish Peace Fellowship, Arthur Lelyveld, who was an activist rabbi in Omaha and Ohio. He was most known for his civil rights activities, as well as his work for the American Jewish Congress (AJC). AJC also had other activist members, including Virginia Snitow, who fought for equal rights for women and was an outspoken opponent on issues of racial inequality, the Vietnam War, and nuclear power.

Virginia Snitow lights candles on Israel Birthday cake at Convention Banquet, with Rabbi Arthur Lelyveld, Shad Polier, Michael S. Comay, and Theodore Bikel; American Jewish Congress Records; I-77; Box 745; Folder 31; American Jewish Historical Society.

Jewish solidarity with people of color during the Civil Rights movement also appears throughout the collections, especially in Jews for Urban Justice Records, an organization formed in 1966 in Washington DC, to end discriminatory practices within the Jewish community.  Jews for Urban Justice was also a sponsor of the first Freedom Seder in 1969, written by Arthur Waskow, an interfaith event held on the first anniversary of Martin Luther King Jr.’s death.

Cover of “An Abbreviated History of Jews for Urban Justice”; Jews for Urban Justice (Washington, D.C.) Records; I-159; Box 1; Folder 7; American Jewish Historical Society.

In addition to being involved in the political aspects of the Counter Culture movement, Jews also began to focus on anti-establishment and alternative practices in Judaism. Waskow and other rabbis, like Goldie Milgram, were leaders in the Jewish Renewal movement, which featured nontraditional aspects of Judaism—mysticism and egalitarianism. Havurah were also a significant aspect of the Jewish Renewal movement; both Shira Eve Epstein and Riv-Ellen Prell studied Jewish communes and prayer groups that identified as havurot.

Flier for Beit Havurah Legal Defense Fund Benefit; Riv-Ellen Prell Papers; P-795; Box 1; Folder 6; American Jewish Historical Society.

Waskow was also a member of Breira, founded in 1973 and one of the first Jewish organizations to advocate for a two-state solution for Israel and Palestine. Although Breira was short lived, it led to the establishment of other Jewish organizations that worked toward a two-state solution, including both the New Jewish Agenda and Brit Tzedek v'Shalom. Both Breira and the New Jewish Agenda were co-founded by Gerald Serotta.

 "We've Got Your Back, Mr. President: A Pledge to Support for President Obama's Pursuit of Israeli Palestinian Peace” Postcard, 2008; Brit Tzedek v'Shalom/Jewish Alliance for Justice and Peace Records; I-587; Box 10; Folder 13; American Jewish Historical Society.

Students and other young people were influential in pushing for progressive change in the Jewish establishment. In 1969, a group of students organized a series of disruptions at the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Fund's General Assembly. Out of these demonstrations grew the North American Jewish Students Appeal, an umbrella organization made up of student organizations on college campuses. Member groups like the North American Jewish Students Network, Progressive Zionist Caucus, Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry, and Lights in Action aimed to promote Jewish life on college campuses, often through activism. Student organizations were also prolific publishers, in addition to NAJSA’s Jewish Student Press Service’s publishing efforts, AJHS also holds hundreds of other student publications in their Jewish Student Organizations Collection.

Cover of “Jewish Student Review,” November 1970; Jewish Student Organizations Collection; I-61; Box 27; Folder 1; American Jewish Historical Society.

Other collections at AJHS focused on Counter Culture include the Jewish Labor Committee Records, Vermont Chapter of the New Jewish Agenda Records, Trees and Life for Vietnam Records, Leonard Fein Papers, Ruth Abusch-Magder Papers, Jack Jacobs Papers, Jack Nusan Porter Papers, and the general Jewish Counter Culture Collection.

Also materials in these collections focus on a number of issues often associated with the Left, such as feminism, nuclear disarmament, environmentalism, LGBT rights, global peace, workers rights, racial inequality, and criticism of Israeli policy.  

By Patricia Glowinski, Archivist at the Center for Jewish History

Processed in the Shelby White & Leon Levy Archival Processing Laboratory at the Center for Jewish History (CJH) are the Grand Street Boy's Association Records, just one of the many archival collections of the American Jewish Historical Society, one of the five partner institutions comprising CJH. The collection documents 20th century American Jewish history and New York City history, as they intersect in the activities of the once thriving club whose motto was "Good Fellowship, Benevolence, Charity."

The origins of the Grand Street Boys' Association date back to 1916 when  a reunion  was held in Manhattan for men who had grown up on or near bustling Grand Street, a main thoroughfare in the Lower East Side. Grand Street in the early 1900s was the center of a large immigrant neighborhood and was home to many Eastern European (many of them Jewish), Italian, and Irish immigrants. The success of that 1916 reunion led to a second reunion in 1920 where it was decided that a permanent club should be formed. The Grand Street Boys' Association was incorporated in 1921 and they opened their first clubhouse in 1924 in the former MacDougal Club, located at 106-108 West 55th Street in Midtown Manhattan. The clubhouse had a gym, lounge, dining room, barbershop, library, and an auditorium.

Mirroring the demographic makeup of the Lower East Side in the early 1900s, original members were primarily Jewish, but were also Irish and Italian, among other ethnicities. Open to all men (and eventually women) regardless of religion, ethnicity, or social class, the Grand Street Boys promoted welfare projects, acts of fellowship and tolerance, scholarships, youth employment, war efforts, and the elimination of discrimination in sports, among other projects. At first, only men who grew in the vicinity of Grand Street were eligible to enroll. This restriction was soon removed and the Association became the "headquarters of those who really love New York."

As documented in the extensive membership records from the collection (See Series 1, Subseries 4), membership spanned all sectors of social class and occupations. Alongside governors, mayors, judges, senators, and famous entertainers were bartenders, furriers, detectives, opera singers, restaurateurs, art therapists, umbrella salesmen, meter readers, and firemen. Well-known members included Irving Berlin, Eddie Cantor, Irving Caesar, Fiorello La Guardia, Al Smith, John Lindsay, Robert F. Wagner Jr., Jonah J. Goldstein, Herbert H. Lehman, Nelson A. Rockefeller, and Cardinal Patrick Hayes.

The collection documents the activities of the Association, as well as the Grand Street Boys' Foundation, its financial arm established in 1945, and its Hobbycraft Program, a charitable program tasked with collecting and redistributing donated items to charitable and nonprofit organizations. Materials include administrative records, financial records, correspondence, minutes, membership records, newsletters, yearbooks, artifacts, and photographs. The collection’s strengths include the membership records, the meeting minutes, the Grand Street Boys’ publications including the newsletter, Wuxtra, and the yearbooks, and the photographs which capture the spirit and essence of the Grand Street Boys' Association during its prime. Below are just a few photos that will (hopefully) inspire researchers to come to the Lillian Goldman Reading Room and use the collection!

1. Boy Scouts with Jonah J. Goldstein, President of the Grand Street Boys’ Association, at the Grand Street Boys’ clubhouse, circa 1960 (Photo credit: New York Times)

  2. Irving Caesar (third from left), songwriter and Grand Street Boy, at Colony Records in Manhattan for the publication of the Grand Street Boys’ song, 1960

3. Golden wedding party at the clubhouse showing Mr. and Mrs. Frank Hershkowitz dancing to Jack Snyder’s accordion music, 1959 (Photo credit: Daily News)

4. Jonah J. Goldstein presenting a Grand Street Boys’ Association award to Mickey Mantle, 1953

 5. Grand Street House London showing Sir Louis Sterling (former Lower East Sider and life member of the Grand Street Boys), 1941 (Photo credit: Sport & General Press Agency, London)

6. Gramercy Boys Club, known for its marching band, performing in the auditorium at the clubhouse, circa 1960