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Subject Guide: Jewish Philanthropy

Archival and library highlights found at the Center relating to both personal and organizational philanthropic activities throughout history.

Women's Division--Audio-Visual Mobile Unit (Box 52, Folder 13), c 1950s. I-363. AJHS

Women's Roles in Philanthropy

Jewish women’s philanthropy, then, represents the nexus of women’s roles in the Jewish community and the societies in which they have lived, and reflects the influence of religious and secular values. Although some critics see philanthropic endeavors as ways to keep women from real work in the form of paid jobs, and keep them subordinate and marginal, providing an illusion of participation but little real influence, other observers have noted the myriad other functions of philanthropy. It is important to recognize that much of the routine philanthropic work of Jewish women has enhanced the quality of their lives, enabled many to find meaningful careers albeit in unpaid work, cemented their relations with other women, provided emotional support and built social capital in Jewish communities, supported institutions, and promoted Jewish continuity.

Chambre, Susan M.. "Philanthropy in the United States." Jewish Women: A Comprehensive Historical Encyclopedia. 20 March 2009. Jewish Women's Archive. (Viewed on December 2, 2019) <https://jwa.org/encyclopedia/article/philanthropy-in-united-states>.

Philanthropic Women

Ruth Abusch-Magder Papers (P-841)

Papers document Abusch-Magder's involvement in Jewish student and Jewish feminist groups. Also includes articles within the Jewish Feminist Sourcebook that relate to abortion, anti-Semitism, Arab women's liberation, domestic violence, infertility, intermarriage, poverty, sexual stereotypes, and zionism. Among the organizations represented in these papers are American Zionist Youth Foundation; National Jewish Council of Jewish Women, New York Section; North American Jewish Students' Network-Canada; and World Union of Jewish Students.

Elizabeth Blume-Silverstein collection (P-671)

Blume-Silverstein was the first woman lawyer in practice in Essex County, to represent a defendant in a murder case in New Jersey without an associate counsel, and to serve as a delegate to the 12th Congressional District to the Republican Convention (1932). Collection includes newspaper clippings, articles, an excerpt from an oral history interview, and a short biographical summary of Elizabeth Blume and her husband Max Silverstein's careers. Of interest is Ms. Blume's oral history excerpt, where she describes an opinion she helped prepare for the American Jewish Congress concerning the Balfour Declaration

Shirley T. Joseph Papers (P-932)

Joseph chaired several committees and task forces for the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC) in the 1980s and 1990s. Through her participation in the UN World Conferences on Women, she was connected to an international network of Jewish women's organizations, but her activities in the late 1990s seem to have become more locally focused. This collection documents the community activism, political advocacy, and volunteer work of Shirley T. Joseph. Women's rights and anti-Semitism were Joseph's main focus, but other issues included here are poverty, hunger, and early childhood education. Topics of particular interest are anti-Semitism in the women's movement and the intersection of feminist and Jewish perspectives.

Alice Davis Menken Papers (P-23)

Primarily correspondence, reports, etc. relating to activities with the Society of New York State Women, Jewish Welfare Board, Jewish Protectory and Aid Society (later called Jewish Board of Guardians), New York City Woman's Night Court, Hudson State Training School, New York State Reformatory for Women, Society for Political Study, Daughters of American Revolution, Progressive Party, Mayor's Committee of Women on National Defense, New York, Congregation Shearith Israel, Florence Crittendon League, Committee of Fourteen and the Inwood House; includes also journals, diaries and other material relating to personal life, and a biographical sketch submitted to the Jewish Biographical Bureau, and copies of published and manuscript articles. Contains a "Survey of Reformatory and Correctional Institutions and Agencies As Related To The Problem of Commercialized Vice" in manuscript, submitted in August, 1919 and also material relating to program and activities of New York Training School For Community Center Workers.

Emily Phillips papers (P-202)

Collection contains printed and manuscript letters, written primarily in English, Yiddish and Hebrew, requesting funds, addressed to Emily Phillips from the Sephardic Chief Rabbi of Jerusalem, private individuals and private institutions.

Papers of Cecilia Razovsky (P-290) [Collection is digitized and available online.]

The papers consist of correspondence and reports of Cecelia Razovsky (married name: Davidson), noted social worker specializing in immigration and resettlement of refugees. The collection includes information about her work with the National Council of Jewish Women in the 1920's, and with the National Refugee Service (and predecessor organizations) in the 1930's. Information is included about her work as a Resettlement Supervisor in the post-World War II DP camps in Europe, and as a field worker in the southwestern U.S. for the United Service for New Americans in 1950. The collection contains reports and correspondence from her trips to South America, primarily Brazil: to explore possibilities of refugee settlement in 1937 and 1946; as a representative for United HIAS Service to aid in settling Egyptian and Hungarian refugees in 1957-58; and as a pleasure trip and evaluation of the changes in the Jewish community of the country in 1963. Also included in the collection are many of Razovsky's articles, plays, and pamphlets.

Virginia Levitt Snitow Papers (P-876)

Snitow was a prolific writer, worked closely with the Women's Division of the American Jewish Congress, and established a women's shelter in Israel called US / Israel Women to Women in 1978, among other achievements. Snitow passed away at her home in Scarsdale on October 16, 2000. After her death "The Virginia Levitt Snitow Lecture Series" was established by Women to Women in Haifa and Tel Aviv Universities.The collection encompasses the personal papers of Virginia Snitow, especially during her active years in the Women's Division of the American Jewish Congress and an organization she founded, US / Israel Women to Women. Papers contain correspondence, writings and voluminous notes with both fiction, and non-fiction writings on racial, gender and class equality.

Myrtle Sitowitz Papers (P-908)

The papers of Myrtle Sitowitz reflect her work on behalf of Jews in the U.S.S.R. Based in Los Angeles, CA, Mrs. Sitowitz was active in The 35's—The Women’s Campaign for Soviet Jewry, an international organization with members throughout the United States, Canada, Europe and New Zealand. Myrtle Sitowitz’s collection contains correspondence, newspaper articles, a children’s guide to Soviet Jewry, profiles and case histories of the Refuseniks and Prisoners of Conscience, community planning information. 

Lillian D. Wald collection (P-670)

Wald was most notably a pioneer in nursing services for the indigent and founder of Henry Street Settlement.

Library Highlights

Directory of the Jewish Charitable and Beneficent Societies and Institutions of the City of New York. New York : The Committee on Philanthropy, Council of Jewish Women, 1896. Print.

Hadassah and the Zionist Project / Simmons, Erica B. Lanham, Md.: Rowman & Littlefield, 2006. Print.

Plan of Religious Work Recommended to the National Council of Jewish Women by Its Committee on Religion. Chicago: Rosenberg Bros. Printers, 271 W. 12th St., 1894. Print.

Power of the Purse: Social Change in Jewish Women's Philanthropy / Einhorn, Deborah Skolnick., 2012. Brandeis University. PhD dissertation. Print.

Women’s Philanthropy Leadership Gallery / United Jewish Appeal-Federation of Jewish Philanthropies, New York, NY, 2015. Print.

Women, Religion and Philanthropy in Nineteenth-century France: The Case of the Baroness Betty de Rothschild / Schor. Laura S. New York: Hunter College of the City University of New York, 2006. Print.