by Alyssa Carver, Project Archivist, Center for Jewish History
The Leo Baeck Institute’s newly processed Florence Mendheim Collection of Anti-Semitic Propaganda (AR 25441) contains a variety of American-made, pro-Nazi material from the 1930s, and even among such unpleasant company this publication stands out. On the cover of each issue of the National American Bulletin stands this figure: a muscular, loincloth-clad Native American…
The Breakers, Atlantic City. Postcard c. 1940. Yeshiva University Museum.
The Breakers was one of many grand hotels lining the Atlantic City coast in the 1940s. The area became a top vacation destination for East Coasters in the 20th century, perhaps propelled by increasing disposable income among the middle class and the adoption of proper swimming outfits by men and women. You can…
Synagogue on Frankfurt am Main. 1938. Leo Baeck Institute. Link.
Sundown this Saturday marks the beginning of Tisha B’Av (the ninth of Av). Traditionally commemorating the destruction of the first and second temples of Jerusalem; in recent decades the day has been used to remember other Jewish tragedies, such as the 1492 expulsion of the Jews from Spain (which fell around Tisha…
American Jewish Congress member holds sign at Montgomery March, 1965.
Photograph, American Jewish Historical Society, 1965. Source.
by Anna Khomina, Research and Special Projects Intern, Center for Jewish History
In 1918, the American Jewish Congress was established by several prominent Jewish leaders, including rabbi Stephen S. Wise, Hadassah founder Henrietta Szold, and U.S. Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis, in order to ease…