Collection Guide: Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement

American Jewish Congress Records (I-77)

The records of the American Jewish Congress, a national Jewish agency, concerned primarily with Jewish and other minority civil rights, include the constitution, by-laws, and minutes of the Administrative and Executive Committees and Governing Council of the Congress. The collection has materials generated by the National Biennial Conventions, Executive Directors, including Phil Baum and Henry Siegman, and the General Counsel files of Will Maslow, Commissions and the Jerusalem Conferences of Mayors, Regional Chapters, National Women's Division, Business and Professional Chapters, Public Relations, and miscellaneous activities conducted by American Jewish Congress.

Jewish Student Organizations Collection (I-61)

The collection contains periodicals of and relating to many Jewish student organizations. For example, Soviet Jewry Action Newsletter, 1969-79, Soviet Jewry Update, 1977, SOS Soviet Jewry, 1966-1974. 

Jewish Student Press Service Records (I-248)

Founded in 1970 as a constituent organization of the North American Jewish Students’ Appeal, the Jewish Student Press Service (JSPS) served as a provider of student-written feature articles and news distributor for the Jewish student and young adult publishers in North America and Israel. This collection documents the activities of the JSPS from its founding to 1987 and includes correspondence, meeting minutes, flyers, and unpublished articles. The majority of the collection is made up of mailing packets, later known as Jewish Press Features.

National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council Records (formerly NCRAC, after 1997 JCRC) (I-172)

This collection documents the activities, administrative, planning, proceedings, and correspondence of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council from its founding in 1944 to 1994. The collection includes correspondence, programs, minutes, proposals, reports, clippings, press releases, and publications. 

North American Jewish Student Appeal Records (I-338/ I-338A)

The records of the North American Jewish Students Appeal (NAJSA or APPEAL) contains documents on two levels of concern: those documents dealing with the NAJSA as a student-run organization promoting Jewish identity among college-aged youth; and those documents dealing with the APPEAL as a fundraising organization for several well-known student constituent organizations. The Constituents were: the Jewish Student Press Service, Lights in Action, the North American Jewish Students Network, the Progressive Zionist Caucus, Response: A Contemporary Jewish Review, Yavneh Religious Students Organization, and Yugntruf Youth for Yiddish. Documents include correspondence, financial records, minutes, press releases, information on grants awarded to student organizations for programming and publishing, student journals and newspapers, photographs, and ephemera.

United Jewish Appeal-Federation of New York Records (I-433)

United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York is the organization that resulted from the mergers of various New York federations with the New York office of UJA. UJA-Federation and its predecessor organizations have been a central force for communal planning and philanthropy in the New York Jewish community since 1917, and in overseas Jewish communities since 1939. The largest section of this collection covers the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies and its predecessor organizations in Manhattan, the Bronx and Brooklyn. Important subject areas include Federation’s work with their affiliated agencies including detailed budget files through most of the 20th century; UJA’s programs in Israel and campaigns in New York during the 1960s and 1970s; an overview of the UJA-Federation Joint Campaign 1974-1986; and the day to day work of the successfully merged organizations 1986-2000.