By Moriah Amit, Senior Reference Services Librarian, Genealogy Coordinator Although the notion that our immigrant ancestors’ names were changed by clerks at Ellis Island has been debunked time and again by noted scholars in Jewish genealogy (see References below), this myth remains pervasive in the stories that American Jews tell about their family history. The truth, that most of our immigrant ancestors chose to…
By Andrey Filimonov Audio recording: Public Service Announcements urging support for Soviet Jewry by Rita Moreno, Bayard Rustin, Sam Levenson and Alan King, recently digitized at the Center for Jewish History. Link to digital audio file: http://digital.cjh.org/4552838 Originally found on an open-reel tape, in the Records of National Conference on Soviet Jewry, I-181A, Box 369, Tape number M15. Bayard Rustin. Original photograph found in…
Image: Courtesy of Leo Baeck Institute By James Benjamin Nadel, Communications Outreach Associate As the summer ends, and opportunities to explore the great outdoors grow fewer, I wanted to draw attention to the little discussed history of Jewish hiking organizations. Several of these youth groups existed in pre-World War II Europe, but one stands out in particular for its unique engagement with various cultural…
By James Benjamin Nadel, Research Intern You might not expect a 95 year old literature professor to emphasize youth when discussing his life. But that is exactly how Justus Rosenberg described his upcoming talk at the Center for Jewish History to me. “I will do it from the perspective of a teenager…it is for someone like you.” Next Wednesday, Justus will be discussing his…
