16thstreet: Israel. Black and white photograph. Albert Salomon Collection, Leo Baeck Institute. In celebration of Yom Ha’atzmaut (Israel Independence Day): two books and an archival collection, relating to Israel, from each of our five partners. compiled by David P. Rosenberg, M.P.A., Senior Reference Librarian – Collections, Center for Jewish History American Jewish Historical Society: Attitudes of American Jews toward Israel and Israelis :…
An Introduction to Researching the First Zionist Congress at the Center for Jewish History 120 years ago, on August 29, 1987, Theodor Herzl convened the first Zionist Congress in the city of Basel with 200 participants from 17 countries. “If I were to sum up the Basel Congress in a single phrase—which I would not dare to make public—I would say: In Basel I…
By Emily Burack, Research Intern Seventy years ago, on July 22, 1946, the bombing of the King David Hotel occurred in Mandatory Palestine. The Irgun Zvai Leumi (Irgun), a group that played a key role in the Jewish underground, orchestrated the attack in response to a day known as “Black Sabbath,” June 29, 1946, when British officials arrested nearly 3,000 Zionist officials and raided…
By Emily Burack, Research Intern Bruce Hoffman’s Anonymous Soldiers is a comprehensive study of the Jewish underground during Mandatory Palestine. The book won the National Jewish Book Award Prize for Jewish Book of the Year, and it is well deserving of that title. Hoffman, a professor whose expertise is rooted in terrorism studies, approaches the story of the Jewish underground with a fine analytical…
by Ilana Rossoff, Reference Services Research Intern, Center for Jewish History This post is part of the Jews and Social Justice Series. To view all posts in the series, click here. Since Israel’s emergence as an independent Jewish state, there have been few organizations to come out of Jewish communities in the United States that openly challenge Zionism or modern-day Jewish nationalism. Some ultra-Orthodox Jews, such…
In Memory of Rabbi Ovadia Yosefby David P. Rosenberg, M.P.A., Reference Services Research Coordinator, Center for Jewish History Above image: President Reagan with Ovadia Yosef, Sephardi Chief Rabbi of Israel. Early 1980s. AMIT records, I-521, from the collections of the American Jewish Historical Society. The partner organizations of the Center for Jewish History have many works penned by Rabbi Ovadia Yosef, including: Sefer Ḥazon ʻOvadyah : Yom ṭov. Yerushalayim : Mekhon “Maʼor…
by Ilana Rossoff, Reference Services Research Intern, Center for Jewish History This post is part of the Jews and Social Justice Series. To view all posts in the series, click here. At the same time that they were coordinating post-war refugee relief in Europe, Jewish Labor Committee members began to take an active role in supporting African-American-led efforts to advocate for civil rights legislation. According to…
by J.D. Arden, M.L.I.S. candidate, Genealogy & Reference Services Assistant Librarian and Research Intern, Center for Jewish History On Thursday, the 16th Street Book Club met at the Center for Jewish History in Manhattan to welcome the author Matti Friedman and talk to him about his book, The Aleppo Codex. If there is one thing to take for certain while sitting around the table at a book club discussion, it…
Meet the author: The Aleppo CodexThursday, June 27th at 7pmCenter for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, NYC Author Matti Friedman will join the Center for Jewish History’s 16th Street book club for a discussion of his book The Aleppo Codex: In Pursuit of One of the World’s Most Coveted, Sacred, and Mysterious Books. All 16th Street book club sessions are free and open…
In Memory of Frank Lautenbergby David P. Rosenberg, M.P.A., Reference Services Research Coordinator, Center for Jewish History Frank Lautenberg, the last World War II veteran in the United States Senate (he served from 1982-2001 and 2003-his death, today June 3, 2013), played an important role in allowing many Soviet Jews to come to America. His “Lautenberg Amendment” in 1990 relaxed certain standards for “refugee…
Happy Tu B’Shevat! It is the 15th of Shevat, the “New Year for Trees”—a holiday during which Jews reflect on the importance of respecting and preserving the environment. Pictured above: Tree Planting circa 1934Subjects: Israel; agriculture; children For more, visit the Center for Jewish History’s Flickr photostream.Click here to connect with the Center for Jewish History on Facebook.
