Collection Overwiew

Chronology of the National Council of Jewish Women

Series I: Administrative Records, 1923-1966. Box 1

The Annual Reports provide a broad overview of the work of the Service for Foreign Born and changes in its concerns and mandate over the years, which varied in accordance with world conditions, U.S. immigration laws, and cooperative agreements with other social service agencies serving immigrants.

The Advisory Committee consisted of Council members and the Director of the SFB, who was a paid professional. The chairwoman of the Committee and the director worked closely together to coordinate the efforts of the professional staff and the volunteers. The Advisory Council held monthly meetings to discuss current and potential projects, review policy, and keep track of relevant legislation and the work of other organizations in the field. The minutes of the Advisory Committee meetings reveal how the lay leaders ran the Service and their views of the immigrants and their mission towards them. They are also a social document which describes the milieu of the women who were the lay leaders and how they recruited other like-minded women as leaders or volunteers for the Service.

Series II: Case files, 1920-1968. Boxes 2-324

The New York Section serviced Manhattan, the Bronx, and some portions of Queens. The exact areas of Queens serviced varied over time. In 1956, the New York Section took over the SFB work of the Brooklyn section after its reorganization. The agency basically served what it termed "unattached" women, although it did extend its services to men and families at some points in its history, particularly after 1946 at the request of other social service organizations.

The case files have a uniform setup. Each one has an information sheet on the client, summaries of the case and the client's interviews with the caseworker, correspondence with or about the client. and legal documents about the client's visa or status in the United States. In some of the files there are articles or artwork produced by the client which were included as samples to illustrate the client's profession or skills. The files document the client's adjustment to life in the U.S. and the NCJW's role in providing clients with the appropriate social, vocational, educational, financial, psychological, medical and legal services as needed. Two exceptional cases files are those of Reuven Rubin, an Israeli artist, whom the NCJW helped with a visa extension during a visit to the U.S. in 1941; and Dr. Gisella Perl, a physician in Auschwitz, who was aided by the NCJW during her stay in the U.S. in 1947.

The clients serviced were mainly from Central and Eastern Europe, but the files also include cases from Western Europe, Israel, and other Middle Eastern countries. The national origins of the majority of the clientele in a given time period generally depended on the world situation at the time, e.g. most clients in the 1930s were of German origin, most clients in the late 1950s were of Hungarian origin.

Series III: Search Files, 1945-1959. Boxes 325-339

The files consist of searches that were initiated through NCJW's New York and Brooklyn sections, as well as searches that were referred to NCJW by other agencies. generally the United HIAS Location Service or the United Service for New Americans.

Each file of the searches initiated by the NCJW includes a "history sheet" which is a brief record of inquiries undertaken in the case, and correspondence, memos, reports from other social service agencies such as USNA and HIAS, and legal papers generated by the inquiry.

New York search files are for 1945-1959; Brooklyn search files are for 1947-1955, and only for the letter "Z".

Search files referred to NCJW by other agencies consist of NCR (NYANA Clearance Reports), 1949-1959, generally referred by the United HIAS Location Service, and No. Loc. (Numbered Locations), 1950-1958, referred generally by the United Service for New Americans.