By Poorvi Bellur Part 2: Justine Wise Polier Read Introduction; Part 1 on Shad Polier The daughter of AJC founder and prominent rabbi Stephen S Wise, Justine Wise Polier rose to become one of the foremost fighters for social justice and equality in legislation. Justine Wise Polier (American Jewish Historical Society, Shad Polier Papers, Call #P-572) Breaking barriers of religion and gender, Polier became…
By Poorvi Bellur Part 1: Shad Polier Read Introduction “The AJC began developing its program of using legislation and litigation to protect human rights in 1944 and 1945. At that time many respectable “liberal” organizations told us not to get involved in these projects. We ignored them and went ahead. We did so not because we’re a “liberal” organization but because we’re a Jewish…
By Poorvi Bellur Conducted over the course of Black History Month 2017, this research project is structured around primary sources from the archives and the personal collections of each of these individuals and their correspondences with other important leaders of the Civil Rights movement. This study focuses on the umbrella organization of the American Jewish Congress and profiles 3 major voices in the Jewish…
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…