Guide to the Coordinating Committee for the Religious Needs of Children Immigrating to Israel Records
| ||||||||||||||||||
Collection Overview | |
| Creator: | Coordinating Committee for the Religious Needs of Children Emigrating to Israel |
| Title: | Coordinating Committee for the Religious Needs of Children Emigrating to Israel Records |
| Dates: | 1948-1951 |
| Size: | 2 Folder(s) |
| Abstract: | The Coordinating Committee for the Religious Needs of Children Emigrating to Israel was a coalition of Orthodox Jewish rabbis and laymen formed in New York in 1949 to stop the placement of children from religious backgrounds, including Holocaust orphans and others, into “non-religious or anti-religious” housing in Israel. The collection consists of a meeting agenda, minutes, correspondence, memos, and other supporting materials. |
| Languages: | Materials are in English with a small amount of German. |
| Call No: | 2018.009 |
About This Guide
Finding aid encoded December, 2018
Finding aid encoded in English.
Historical Note
The Coordinating Committee for the Religious Needs of Children Emigrating to Israel was formed in September 1949. Its mission was to stop the prevailing practice of placing Holocaust orphans and other children, who arrived in Israel with a religious upbringing, into housing under “non-religious or anti-religious” auspices. It mobilized to pressure the Jewish Agency, both directly and through the United Jewish Appeal (UJA), to allocate funding for religious housing and education of these children.
The Coordinating Committee was founded at a meeting at the home of then Lubavitcher Rebbe Yosef Yitzchak Schneerson, but included representatives of multiple Orthodox Jewish groups. According to a document in the Archives' Vaad Hatzala collection, founding members were Irving M. Bunim, Abraham Cohen, Moses I. Feuerstein, Dr. Jacob Griffel, [Rabbi Chaim Mordechai Aizik] Hodakovs, Jacob Kestenbaum, Hon. Philip M. Kleinfeld, Samuel Kramer, Rabbi M. S. Penkower, J. A. Samuel, Hon. Edward Silver, Elijah Stein, Max Stern, and Herbert Tenzer. A Rabbinical advisory committee was also formed, with founding members Rabbi Oscar Z. Fasman, Rabbi Herbert S. Goldstein, Rabbi Dr. Leo Jung, future Lubavitcher Rebbe [Menachem] Mendel Schneerson, and Rabbi Dr. Samson R. Weiss.
Scope and Contents
The collection consists of what appears to be the agenda for the Coordinating Committee's first meeting in September 1949; minutes of subsequent meetings; and correspondence, memos, and other materials documenting the issue that led to the founding of the Committee, mostly dated in the months before it was established. The majority of the documents are typed carbon copies, however there are some handwritten drafts and notes. The full name of the Committee does not appear in the collection, but was found in a document in the Archives' Vaad Hatzala Collection. It is not clear from the materials whether the Committee remained active after 1951.
The correspondence includes letters from Moshe Kolodny of the Jewish Agency to the Continental office of Youth Immigration (Aliyath Hanoar); Dr. Jacob Griffel to Rabbi [Manuel] Laderman of the Central Orthodox Committee; Rabbi Solomon P. Wohlgelernter to former U.S. Treasury Secretary Henry Morgenthau, Jr., then chairman of the UJA; and Rabbi A. M. Herschberg to Brigadier General Julius Klein. An unsigned memo is addressed to the attention of Prime Minister David Ben Gurion.
Index Terms
This collection has been indexed under the following terms:
Persons:
Subjects:
Places:
Document Types:
Related Material
Vaad Hatzala Collection, Box 46, Folder 23 contains a publication issued by the Coordinating Committee, including a brief overview of its history and activities.
Provenance
Acquisition Information
The materials were preserved by Eliazer Davids, who acted as recording secretary for the Coordinating Committee. His son Rabbi Dr. Leo Davids donated the materials to Yeshiva University in 2018.
Conditions Governing Access and Use
Conditions Governing Access
Collection is available to researchers deemed to be qualified by the Archivist.
Conditions Governing Use
Restrictions may apply concerning the use, photoduplication, or publication of materials in this collection. Please contact the Curator of Special Collections for information regarding Yeshiva University's reproduction policies and fees.