Research in Jewish Studies: Jewish History: United States
Guide to doing research in various fields of Jewish Studies
Books
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The Jews of the United States 1654 to 2000
by
Call Number: Butler Reserves: E184.35 .D55 2004ISBN: 0520227735Publication Date: 2004-08-23 -
Encyclopedia of American Jewish History
by
Call Number: E184.35 .E53 2008ISBN: 9781851096381Publication Date: 2007-08-28
Columbia Archives
"The son of Russian Jewish immigrants, Schwartz grew up in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. He graduated from Hebrew Technical Institute in 1922 and then attended City College at night while working factory jobs as an engineer during the day. Schwartz joined the Photo League in 1938 and began taking street pictures of New York's immigrant neighborhoods. During World War II he served in the Navy as a SeaBee and continued to take photographs while stationed in Okinawa, Japan. After the war he worked as an assistant for Berenice Abbott. In 1948 or 1949 he completed "Around New York," a documentary film about daily life on the Lower East Side. Schwartz's photographs of New York City street scenes combined elements of photojournalistic and artistic forms. His photographs of the protests against the 1953 execution of Julius and Ethel Rosenberg are especially significant."
Online Resources
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Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American JudaicaThe Arnold and Deanne Kaplan Collection of Early American Judaica, donated to the University of Pennsylvania Libraries in 2012 by the Kaplans, and growing each year, teaches us about the everyday lives, families, businesses, communal institutions, religious organizations, voluntary associations, and political circumstances of Jewish life throughout the western hemisphere over four centuries. It provides a unique window into the changing character of colonial life and culture around the Atlantic world and within the United States. It documents changing perceptions and experiences of new worlds of space and time, not only from the perspective of its Jewish colonists and citizens but also in the context of the larger societies in which they have lived. The collection, in short, is more than the sum of its parts. It is the constellation of unlimited potential connections among its many pieces from the time of colonial settlement in the sixteenth century into the era of mass migration at the end of the 19th century.
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Jewish life in America, c1654-1954 : sources from the American Jewish Historical Society, New York. This link opens in a new window"Jewish Life in America, c1654-1954 is an indispensable resource for scholars and students interested in understanding and exploring the history of Jewish communities in America from their first arrival in New York in 1654 to the integral part that they play today. All of the material has been digitized in colour and typescript and printed material is full-text searchable; it will provide an essential resource for teaching and study, from undergraduate to research students and beyond. The material is based on a rich variety of original manuscript collections from the unique holdings of the American Jewish Historical Society in New York; we provide access to six major organisational collections and twenty-four collections of personal papers; all of which have been digitized in their entirety."--Nature and scope.
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Gershwind-Bennett Isaac Leeser Digitization ProjectThis website provides digital access to the personal papers and publications of Isaac Leeser, widely regarded as the foremost American Jewish leader in antebellum America
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Early New York Synagogue ArchivesNOTE: This site is currently under construction, and so may not be available. The individual digitized archives may be available in other ways in the interim. Contact a subject specialist for more details.
Three significant Manhattan Jewish communities—Shearith Israel, B’nai Jeshrun, and Ansche Chesed—moved from the Lower East Side to Harlem, midtown, and the Upper West Side. The Kane St. Synagogue remained in its original neighborhood in Brooklyn and the Eldridge Street Synagogue stayed at its original location; the latter has been designated a National Historic Site. Each of the five communities was comprised of immigrant populations that arrived from Europe and settled in Manhattan and Brooklyn.
The combined collections of these synagogues, from 1730 until the beginning of the 20th century, document the lives of people and communities that are all still vibrant today. -
Joint Distribution Committee ArchivesThe vast digital collection contains searchable text collections from 1914-1932, a detailed interactive timeline, historically-themed exhibitions, over 45,000 photographs, findings aids, educational resources, relevant archives news and more.
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Shapell Manuscript FoundationThis site includes images of primary sources relating to Jews in the US, as well as the early United States' connection to the Holy Land.
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The Jewish Board: 150 years of CareOnline exhibition tracing the history of The Jewish Board, a welfare organization in NYC.
The site also includes an interactive timeline with links to relevant archival collections for further research.
Newspapers
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Jewish Press in the USAThis section of the Historical Jewish Press site (National Library of Israel) focuses on papers printed in the US. Languages included: English, Yiddish, Ladino, and German.
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Jewish Telegraphic Agency (JTA) ArchivesFounded in 1917, the JTA has been the primary source for specifically Jewish news until the present day. Their archives have been digitized and are completely searchable online.
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ProQuest historical newspapers. The American Hebrew & Jewish Messenger. This link opens in a new windowContains full text of the newspapers American Hebrew and the Jewish messenger from 1857-1922.
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ProQuest historical newspapers. The American Israelite This link opens in a new windowContains full text of the newspaper the Israelite including its title variants, beginning in 1854.
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Jewish Morning Journal (Morgan Zjournal)Daily Yiddish paper, from 1901-1971. Access provided by the Historical Jewish Press for 1906-1922.
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The Occident and American Jewish AdvocateThe Occident and American Jewish Advocate was published from 1843-1869 in Philadelphia. It was edited by Isaac Leeser and Mayer Sulzberger
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B’nai Brith MessengerThe B’nai B’rith Messenger [BBM], named after Los Angeles’s foremost nineteenth-century congregation of the same name, chronicled Jewish life in the city for almost one hundred years (1897-1995).