Subject Guide: New York City History

I.L. Peretz Yiddish Writers' Union Records (RG 701)

Contains minutes, correspondence and financial records of the I.L. Peretz Yiddish Writers’ Union (YWU) from its founding in 1915 until 1973. The YWU, also sometimes called the Jewish Writers’ Union, was founded in New York in 1915 as a labor and mutual aid organization for Yiddish journalists. IT represented all Yiddish writers and journalists at the three major New York City Yiddish papers, the Tog, Morgn Zhurnal and the Forverts. The Union was a member of the United Hebrew Trades, an association of Jewish labor unions in New York City.

Jewish Telegraphic Agency, New York 1930s-1960s (RG 562) [Digitized]

Agency for the gathering and dissemination of Jewish news, servicing the Jewish and non-Jewish press of various countries. Originally established in 1914 as the Jewish Correspondence Bureau by Jacob Landau in The Hague. In 1919 it was reestablished in London by Landau and Meir Grossman as the Jewish Telegraphic Agency. JTA headquarters were moved to New York in 1922.

Jewish Occupational Council 1939-1965 (RG 460)

Established in 1939 in New York as a national advisory and coordinating agency for Jewish organizations and communities in the U.S. and Canada engaged in educational and vocational programs and job placement. Collection includes correspondence and memoranda with local Jewish vocational service agencies. Reports on occupational trends among the Jewish population. Publications issued by the U.S. Department of Labor and by Jewish vocational and counseling centers.

New School Oral History Collection (RG 2294)

These interviews were compiled as part of a class called "Oral History Workshop: COVID-19 and its Effects on Jewish Ritual Practice." 

The New York Social Club 1885,1953-1954 (RG 955)

Organized in 1883 and incorporated in 1885 for benevolent, literary, dramatic, and musical purposes. Met in Chelsea Hall, New York in the 1960s. Collection includes certificate of incorporation, 1885, financial records, as well as gavels, seal, and pennant.

Records of the Board of Higher Education of the City of New York (RG 1368)

Primarily trial transcripts and other documents related to trials conducted by the Board of Higher Education in 1941-1942, in cases of faculty and staff members who were brought up on charges by the Board's Conduct Committee. It also includes a small amount material (reports, press releases), documenting the work of the Integration Commission of the New York City Board of Education in 1956 to 1957.

Sholem Aleichem Folk Institute (SAFI) Records (RG 659)

A Yiddish educational organization based in New York and established Yiddish-speaking afternoon and Sunday schools on the elementary and junior-high school levels. Owner of Camp Boiberik in Rhinebeck, New York. Maintained the Farlag Matones publishing house.

United States Territorial Collection 1890's-1970's (RG 117)

Collection includes materials on Jewish life in the United States arranged by name or by subject.

Beyond the melting pot; the Negroes, Puerto Ricans, Jews, Italians, and Irish of New York City / Nathan Glazer and Daniel Patrick Moynihan. Cambridge, Mass: M.I.T. Press, 1963.

Capital of Capital: Money, Banking + Power in New York City 1784-2012 / Steven H. Jaffe + Jessica Lautin. New York: Columbia University Press, 2014.

Caring for Others: A History of the New York City Settlement House / LaGuardia and Wagner Archives, Fiorello H. LaGuardia Community College/CUNY, 1997.

Fighting for life / S. Josephine Baker. New York: New York Review Books, 2013.

A History of the Hebrew Tabernacle Congregation of Washington Heights: a German-Jewish community in New York City / Evelyn Ehrlich. New York City?: [publisher not identified], 1985.

NY at Its Core : 400 years of New York City History / New York: Museum of the City of New York, 2017.

Race relations and the New York City Commission on Human Rights / Ithaca, N.Y.: Cornell University Press, 1974.

Radical Gotham: Anarchism in New York City from Schwab's Saloon to Occupy Wall Street / ed. Tom Goyens. Urbana: University of Illinois Press, 2017.

Yiddish Folksongs in New York City / Ruth Rubin. New York: New York Folklore Quarterly, 1946.

The Yiddish Speaking Community in New York City / Itzek Gottesman. New York: Smithsonian Institution, 1987.

The YIVO Institute stewards about 1,400 collections of landsmanshaftn records and receives more every year. Most of these records are from organizations that operated in New York City. About 600 different landsmanshaftn are represented in the Landsmanshaftn Collection (RG 123). Larger landsmanshaftn collections have their own call numbers. You can find a complete list of all landsmanshaftn collections at YIVO on the Jewish Genealogical Society of New York's website here

Landsmanshaftn Collection (RG 123)

The collection contains fragmentary materials pertaining to over 600 landsmanshaftn. These mutual aid societies were established by immigrants usually, but not exclusively, from the same villages, towns and cities in Eastern Europe. Included are: charters, certificates of incorporation, constitutions, minutes, financial records, membership records, burial records, publications, clippings, and more.