Subject Guide: New York History

Associates of Orthodox Jewish Teachers of the New York City Public Schools Collection (I-305) 

This collection contains AOJT newsletters as well as publicity and membership information. Formerly called the Association of Orthodox Jewish Teachers of the New York Board of Education.

Congregation Kahal Adath Yeshurun with Anshe Lubitz [Eldridge Street Synagogue] (New York, N.Y.) (I-10)

Minute-books, records, ledgers, and miscellaneous material relating to activities of the Congregation, 1873(?)-1933.

Graduate School for Jewish Social Work (New York, N.Y.) Records (I-7)

The bulk of the collection consists of records of the Lower East Side documentation project undertaken as a school-wide project in 1932. This project set out to document Jewish life on the Lower East Side of New York. Between 1932 and 1934, over 300 photographs were taken of the Lower East Side. 

Hebrew Benevolent Society of the City of New York collection (I-258)

Consists of the Society's constitution and a financial statement (1862) containing reference to money spent on a new building for an orphan asylum, and a receipt for an appropriation by the City Council of New York for the erection of the asylum by the Society.

Hebrew Orphan Asylum of the City of New York records (I-42)

Hebrew Orphan Asylum was founded in 1822 as the Hebrew Benevolent Society. It underwent various changes of name until 1906 when it merged into The Jewish Child Care Association of New York in 1940. The collection includes extensive administrative records including financial statements, property records, Board, Committee, and Executive minutes, donation books, publications, and state and government correspondence and reports.

Jewish Community of New York City records (I-274)

The collection includes conventional proceedings, speeches, annual reports, informational pamphlets, and other public documents of the organized Jewish Community of New York City, formed in 1908 and incorporated in 1914.

New York Board of Rabbis Records (I-506)

The New York Board of Rabbis is a cross-denominational Jewish organization for rabbis that seeks to foster fellowship, provide educational enrichment, and rise above theological differences to strengthen and defend the Jewish community advancing its educational, religious, and social values. The collection documents the governance of the Board and its activities in serving the Jewish community of New York and at large.

New York City Committee on Jewish Affairs records undated (I-190)

Contains minutes of meetings (1960-1961), correspondence and reports pertaining to its activities. Among the latter were matters pertaining to open enrollment in the public schools, Negro-Jewish relations, Sabbath legislation and kosher slaughtering.

Records of the Grand Street Boys Association (I-312)

The Grand Street Boys' Association began in 1916 as a reunion of men who had grown up on or near Grand Street in the Lower East Side neighborhood of Manhattan and quickly grew into an active club, open to all men (and eventually women) regardless of religion, ethnicity, or social class. The Association promoted welfare projects, acts of fellowship and tolerance, scholarships, youth employment, war efforts, and the elimination of discrimination in sports, among other projects. 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.

Records of the National Council of Jewish Women, New York Section (I-469)

The records of the National Council of Jewish Women, New York Section document the organization's community service, advocacy, and supportive administrative, fundraising, membership, and public relations activities from the Section's early years to the present. Included is a large amount of material from the National Organization in relation to the New York Section. This material is dated from 1896 to 1999 and consists of administrative, events, and advocacy matters.

Russ & Daughters Business and Family Records (I-605)

Russ & Daughters was founded in 1914 by Jewish entrepreneur of Austrian descent, Joel Russ, as a family-owned fish and appetizing business located on the Lower East Side of Manhattan in New York City. The business may be the first in New York (or the United States) to include “and daughters,”—Hattie, Ida, and Anne—in their business name. The collection contains a snapshot of the Russ business and family including some correspondence, a mortgage and business ledger, partnership agreements, apartment leases, advertising and branding, articles, photographs, and ephemera.

United Jewish Appeal--Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York (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. 

Bayor, R. (1988). Neighbors in conflict : The Irish, Germans, Jews, and Italians of New York City, 1929-1941 (2nd ed., Illini books ed.). Urbana: University of Illinois Press.

Berrol, S. (1986). The Jewish west side of New York City, 1920-1970. Bellingham, Wash.: Western Washington University.

Israelowitz, O. (1983). Oscar Israelowitz's Guide to Jewish New York City. Brooklyn, N.Y.] (P.O. Box 228, Brooklyn 11229): O. Israelowitz.

Kosak, H. (2000). Cultures of opposition : Jewish immigrant workers, New York City, 1881-1905 (SUNY series in American labor history). Albany: State University of New York Press.

Museum of the City of New York. (2017). NY at its core : 400 years of New York City history.

Nahshon, E., Museum of the City of New York, host institution, & Yivo Institute for Jewish Research, collector. (2016). New York's Yiddish theater : From the Bowery to Broadway.

Siegel, S., & Edwards, Laura. (2001). An orphan in New York City : Life with a thousand brothers & sisters.

Soffer, J. (2010). Ed Koch and the rebuilding of New York City (Columbia history of urban life). New York: Columbia University Press.

Solomon, Susan G. Louis I. Kahn's Jewish Architecture : Mikveh Israel and the Midcentury American Synagogue. Waltham, Mass. : Hanover [N.H.]: Brandeis UP ; Published by UP of New England, 2009. Print. Brandeis Ser. in American Jewish History, Culture, and Life.​

In the 1960s, the American Jewish Historical Society microfilmed the "Jewish" incorporation records in New York County for the period from 1848 to 1920. Dr. Nathan M. Kaganoff, librarian of the AJHS at the time, made selection by examining the original records at the New York County Clerk's Office. The AJHS then indexed these microfilmed documents, by first word as well as by town name, on approximately 10,000 cards. These selected incorporation papers at the AJHS comprise the collection New York (County) Hall of Records selected incorporation papers (I-154).

New York (County) Hall of Records selected incorporation papers (I-154)

This collection consists of microfilm, and bound photocopies of incorporation papers for all Jewish or Jewish-related organizations incorporated in New York City, 1848-1920. The types of organizations included are fraternal societies, political clubs, professional associations, synagogues, landsmanshaften, benevolent organizations, and social clubs. The entire collection has been indexed by name of the organization and, in some cases, by the Europeantown from which the incorporators came, or by general type of organizations.

Each certificate of incorporation includes the name of the organization, the purposes or objects for which it was formed, the principal office or territory of principal operation, the names and addresses of the initial directors or trustees or officers, and the names of the incorporators.