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Collection Guide: National Jewish Welfare Board

Overview of the individual archival collections and library materials found at the Center relating to the NJWB and their activities.

Chaplain Abraham Ruderman commemorates the 170th anniversary of the Chaplains' Corps, July 29, 1945. (I-337, AJHS)

National Jewish Welfare Board Military Chaplaincy Records (I-249)

To view this collection's finding aid, please click HERE.

This collection documents the evolution of the Committee on Army and Navy Religious Activities-Division of Religious Activities-Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy (CANRA-DRA-CJC) and more broadly illustrates Jewish chaplaincy and Jewish participation in the U.S. military effort from WWII to the Vietnam War. The materials, which include minutes, reports, correspondence, speeches, sermons, autobiographical writings, photographs and printed materials, primarily derive from the office of the Executive Director of CANRA-DRA-CJC during the tenure of Aryeh Lev, 1946-1975, and his predecessor Philip S. Bernstein, 1942-1946. Also included is David de Sola Pool’s correspondence between 1940 and 1941 relating to the Sub-committee on Chaplains (later Committee on Religious Activities), the precursors to CANRA-DRA-CJC. Another substantial component of the collection are Aryeh Lev’s files from 1940 to 1945 while he was assistant to the Chief of Chaplains in the Office of the Chief of Chaplains, liaising with NJWB. Lev brought these files with him when he became Executive Director, and they were merged with his CANRA-DRA-CJC files. Much of this collection Lev used as resource material for his chaplaincy studies, reports, speeches, sermons and other writings. In the 1970s, in conjunction with the Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy History Project, Lev contributed his private papers consisting of personal documents, awards, manuscripts and clippings (Series IX).

The collection is a rich resource for the examination of subjects such as Jewish identity in the armed forces; the establishment of Judaism as one of the major faiths in the U.S. military establishment; interfaith efforts in the military; patterns of observance among American Jews; efforts at setting and maintaining standards of Jewish religious practice under adverse conditions of war; the combating of religious anti-Semitism and proselytizing; and the relationship between NJWB and the Office of the Chief of Chaplains. Notable is the documentation of Jewish chaplains’ work on behalf of Jewish survivors in post-WWII Europe, including narratives of Nazi crimes and vivid depictions via correspondence and reports of persistent efforts by the chaplains to rehabilitate displaced persons (especially Series VI and Folder 106 in Series IV).

Arrangement

This series contains minutes of plenary sessions and meetings of the Executive Committee and various other committees of CANRA-DRA-CJC from 1940 through 1980. Various documents are often appended to the minutes: lists and statistics on the status of the chaplaincy, including lists of chaplains on active duty or who were granted ecclesiastical endorsement; reports by the Executive Director detailing problems encountered and policy decisions made since the last meeting; reports of various committees; reports on overseas missions; analytical studies on certain issues of the time; major policy statements; lists of committee membership; and statements regarding the relationship between the NJWB and CANRA-DRA-CJC. The minutes also record the NJWB chaplaincy network involvement with service groups such as the Public Health Service and the federal penitentiary system. The first set of minutes, which precede and document the creation of CANRA, are the minutes of the NJWB Army and Navy Committee’s Committee on Religious Activities.
 
The reports in this series were submitted annually by the CANRA-DRA-CJC Chairman or Executive Director to the Executive Committee of NJWB. In these concise reports the year’s activities are summarized and major problems are discussed. Historical background is often given in the course of explaining important developments of the year. There is a gap in reports from 1957 to 1961.
 
This series contains correspondence on major organizational and policy issues with regard to Jewish chaplaincy in the U.S. Correspondence covers such topics as the evolution of CANRA-DRA-CJC through the wars; the attitude of the three branches of Judaism toward joining in one agency to provide unified ecclesiastical supervision of the Jewish chaplaincy; CANRA-DRA-CJC’s power of endorsement and withdrawal; CANRA-DRA-CJC’s efforts to change an unfavorable ratio of the Jewish chaplains in the armed forces; and anti-Semitism (Folders 57 and 70-71). In addition to correspondence, there are press releases, clippings, minutes, reports and texts of talks.
 
This series consists of materials regarding relations between CANRA-DRA-CJC, individual chaplains and the Office of the Chief of Chaplains. Subseries 1 covers subjects such as procurement and endorsement, and Subseries 2 documents conferences and trips, as well as evaluating reports that were made during visits. Items include correspondence, reports, minutes, talk transcripts, Aryeh Lev’s detailed accounts of trips abroad, photographs and newspaper clippings.
 
The setting of standards for Jewish religious practice and observance, and approval of religious supplies for the Jewish servicemen are major topics in this series, especially in relation to Kashruth and Passover arrangements. Included is extensive correspondence between the Army Chief of Chaplains and the NJWB on all aspects of Jewish religious practice. Also included are minutes, reports, and correspondence of those committees of CANRA-DRA-CJC which were established to supervise the observance of tenets of Judaism: Committee on Kashruth, Committee on Responsa, and Committee on Supplies.
 
These papers recount the efforts of Jewish chaplains to rescue and rehabilitate Jewish survivors of the Holocaust, most of whom became displaced persons after liberation in Europe, as well as in China and Japan.
 
This series documents the publishing activities of CANRA-DRA-CJC via correspondence and drafts related to the planning and execution of publications, as well as the final copies of newsletters, handbooks, educational booklets and brochures, and prayer books.
 
Aryeh Lev’s initial idea for a Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy History Project grew out of his concern for a meaningful presentation of the history of the Jewish chaplaincy in the U.S. and of the pivotal role of the NJWB chaplaincy. In 1971, CJC approved Lev’s history project proposal and formed the Research Project Committee, headed by Rabbi Edward T. Sandrow, in order to begin the project. The materials in this series were gathered and created in the course of that project, which was never realized to the full extent of Lev’s original vision. This series also consists of published and unpublished works on Jewish chaplaincy (reports, masters theses, reprints, newspaper clippings), publications from congregations, NJWB and military releases, chaplains’ recollections, notices and schedules of Jewish services, invitations for religious celebrations, photographs and correspondence with scholarly researchers.
 
The papers that Aryeh Lev generated or received in the course of his NJWB duties are throughout this entire collection, but the papers in this particular series relate to Aryeh Lev as an individual: his military service, his personal life, his career with NJWB, and his involvement and leadership in various organizations. Items include correspondence, military records, press releases, clippings, photographs and medals.
 
This series contains questionnaires that Aryeh Lev and later Gilbert Kollin solicited from Jewish chaplains in the United States Armed Forces between the 1940s and 1980s. The type of information requested on the questionnaires changes over time, but the questionnaires generally include data on the chaplain’s place of birth, citizenship status, marital status, education, language skills, branch of Judaism, rabbinical positions, organizational affiliations, and military assignments and tours.
 
This series contains newsletters, handbooks, educational booklets and brochures, and prayer books, most of which were issued by NJWB for Jewish soldiers and chaplains. Many of the items in this series had once been kept in NJWB’s library. Publications are often undated; dates in brackets are rough estimates.
 
This addendum to the collection is comprised of correspondence exchanged between the War Department’s Office of the Chief of Chaplains and the National Jewish Welfare Board from 1924 to 1950. The original material is at the National Archives. Aryeh Lev had the material microfilmed in two reels, which have been separated into the AJHS Microfilm Collection. The materials in the folders are print-outs of the microfilmed correspondence. Correspondents include David de Sola Pool, William Arnold, Louis Kraft, Aryeh Lev and Benjamin Rabinowitz.