Category. JTS Institutional Records

Scope and Contents Note The JTSA Board of Directors Records consists of correspondence files, 1902-1940s, of members of the Seminary's board of directors, and a group of chronological files, 1927-1972, which contain a mixture of minutes, agendas, meeting notices, correspondence between board members and the Seminary, committee reports, lists of members, lists of committees, by-laws, press releases, speeches, clippings, and other material generated by the work of the board.A small group of files containing...

Scope and Contents Note Records of the Board of Overseers, 1946-1972, mainly consist of administrative files documenting its periodic meetings. Included are: minutes; files pertaining to the pragmatic arrangements for board meetings; by-laws; correspondence; membership and attendance lists; resolutions; agenda; memoranda and correspondence relating to nominations to the Board; and biographical information about members.Of particular note are reports which various departments and programs of the Jewish...

Scope and Contents This collection consists of materials (24 items) documenting the design, construction, and dedication of the Seminary's current building at 3080 Broadway in Manhattan. Included are photographs of architectural models, renderings of interiors and exteriors of the buildings as proposed and completed, copies of the dedication program, 1930; and issues of the United Synagogue Reporter, April 1929, containing an article by architect William Gehron about the...

Scope and Contents Note The JTSA Camp Ramah Records consist primarily of records of the National Ramah Commission, 1951-1989. The Commission is the central office, located in New York, of the Ramah camps. Also included is a smaller group of papers saved by former National Ramah Commission director Burton Cohen, 1946-1991.Series A. Records of the National Ramah Commission, consists of files of the Commission's national director (principally covering the years when David Mogilner held this office),...

Scope and Contents Note This collection consists of annual end-of-summer reports and related institutional records from Camp Ramah in Wisconsin, dating from the Camp's inception in 1947 to 2012, with some gaps. Materials are divided into six series.The General Reports and Evaluations series includes annual reports on the camp's activities, campers, staff, and facilities; meeting minutes, correspondence, and reports from an Evaluation Committee; and reports that combine the Activity and Aidah reports of...

Scope and Contents Note Records of the Cantors Institute/Seminary College of Jewish Music cover five linear feet and date from the Cantors Institute's founding in 1952 through the 1970s. Some material concerns the establishment of the Cantors Institute and dates from the late 1940s.Included are: award, prize, and scholarship files, 1952-1977; communications between the Cantors Assembly and the Cantors Institute, plus some material dating from prior to the foundation of the Cantors Institute concerning...

Scope and Contents Note The JTSA Commission for the Study of the Ordination of Women as Rabbis Records consist of administrative files, 1975-1980, and tapes and transcripts of commission meetings and regional hearings. The administrative files document the commission's activities during the period it was active, 1977-1979. Materials dated before 1977 are background materials gathered for the commission's use, while materials from 1980 are largely letters containing reactions to its decision.The files...

Scope and Contents The records of the Seminary's Communications Department/Office of Public Information date from its beginnings in the 1930s and continue until the 1980s. The files consist of: scrapbooks and clippings; press releases; extensive subject files containing photographs, memoranda, press releases, and other publicity material; biographical files; a group of reel to reel tapes from the early 1950s that record JTS speeches and broadcasts and some 1954 meetings of the Conference on Science,...

Scope and Contents Note

The JTSA Conference on Moral Standards Records, 1952-1954, consist of administrative files, final texts and drafts of papers read at the Conference, transcripts of the proceedings, and a cardfile of participants.

Scope and Contents Note The records of the Conference on Science, Philosophy, and Religion 1939-1977, consists principally of files documenting the administration of each individual conference, 1940-1968, and stenographic reports of the proceedings of conference meetings and sessions, 1940-1968. Also included are administrative records from the period of the conference's creation, 1940-1941; questionnaire responses from conference members, 1942-1943; financial records of the conference, 1940-1957; and the permanent...

Scope and Contents Note

This collection consists of one volume containing the verbatim transcript of the conference. Also included are the annotated typescripts of two lectures delivered at the conference: Herman Hailperin, "The Seminary as Interpreter of Judaism to the World," and Morris Teller, "The Role of the Seminary and the Synagogue in the World Crisis." Both of these are in fragile condition. Please use the photocopies instead of the originals.

Scope and Contents Note

The JTSA Department of Pastoral Psychiatry Dedication Photograph Album consists of photographs showing the dedication of the Morris J. and Ethel Bernstein Pastoral Psychiatry Center on October 3, 1971.

Scope and Contents Note The Endowment Fund Documents consists of four legal documents recording the establishment of the Jewish Theological Seminary's endowment fund in 1901, and additions to it in 1902. The first is an agreement, October 28, 1901, signed by Jacob Schiff, Leonard Lewisohn, Daniel Guggenheim, Simon Guggenheim, Louis Marshall, Mayer Sulzberger, Cyrus Adler, Felix Warburg, and Adolphus Solomons. This document establishes the original $200,000 endowment fund for JTS.The three other...

Scope and Contents The Faculty Files, 1903-1949 (bulk dates - 1930s through the late 1940s) are a small group of files which mainly contain correspondence by or about Seminary faculty members. They were probably maintained by Joseph B. Abrahams who was the faculty secretary during this period. Faculty members represented include Max Arzt, Boaz Cohen, H.L. Ginsberg, Robert Gordis, Simon Greenberg, Abraham Halkin, Moses Hyamson, Mordecai Kaplan, Saul Lieberman, Alexander Marx, Alexander Sperber,...

Scope and Contents Note The bulk of this collection consists of minutes of faculty meetings, 1929-1977, (with gaps). Also included are minutes of the faculty’s committee on appointments, honorary degrees, and promotions, 1966-1971; a manual containing examples of form letters, blank Rabbinical School application forms, examinations, schedules, instructions, information about admission, the chaplaincy, and other relevant matters, 1940s-1950s, and a group of miscellaneous agendas, minutes, memoranda, letters, and...

Scope and Contents Note The Jewish Theological Seminary of America maintained a central filing office, called the General Files, from 1940 to 1990. The office's job was to systematically collect the incoming and outgoing correspondence of the chancellor (the title changed from president to chancellor in 1951) vice-chancellors, and other top administrators.Dr. Louis Finkelstein's tenure as chancellor ended in 1972 so the Ratner Center chose that date as the cutoff point for work done under the NHPRC grant....

Scope and Contents Note Records of the Herbert H. Lehman Institute of Talmudic Ethics, 1955-1966 (the bulk of written material dates from 1958-1959; tapes are from 1962-1966) document the establishment and evolution of the Lehman Institute, including its student programs, dinners, luncheons, conferences, and summer sessions. Included are correspondence and memoranda; reports; minutes and transcripts of meetings; lists of participants; evaluations; application materials; invitations; publicity materials; brochures;...

Scope and Contents Note The JTSA. Jewish Museum Records come from the files of the Jewish Theological Seminary, thus they document JTS's role in the administration of the museum while the museum was physically located at JTS, and for a period afterward. The first set of administrative records, those dating from 1943 to 1946 (Series I), document the administration most thoroughly, since they were accumulated during the years that the museum was located at JTS. After 1947, when the museum moved to the Warburg...

Scope and Contents Note This collection consists of the records of the library and archives staff of the Jewish Theological Seminary, including administration, special collections, rare books, archives, circulation, general collection, conservation, technical services, music library, and music archives. Also included are library cataloging records and worksheets, solicitation files, library committee minutes, friends of the library files, archives accession registers, visitors records, library reports, emails,...

Scope and Contents Note The JTSA. Manpower Study of the Conservative Movement Records consist of Anne Goldin's and Muriel Greenhill's research material; copies and drafts of each of the seven reports; correspondence between Eli Ginzberg, Goldin, Greenhill, and Louis Finkelstein; and the researchers' notes on their conferences with Ginzberg.The research material is a mixture of raw and tabulated data. Included are: notes, tables, and charts; lists of Seminary alumni, Rabbinical Assembly members and...

Scope and Contents Note Records the Provost, 1974-2016, consist primarily of faculty files, as well as administrative files concerning the Joseph and Miriam Ratner Center for the Study of Conservative Judaism Archives, strategic planning, reports, and miscellaneous publications.Faculty files are arranged alphabetically. Materials in these files include course evaluations, tenure review and promotions, letters of recommendation, student evaluations, curriculum vitae, reimbursements, salary discussions,...

Scope and Contents Note

The collection is unprocessed and closed; no further information about it is available at this time.

Scope and Contents Note The JTSA Publications consists of informational publications of the Jewish Theological Seminary, 1892-1952. Included are biennial reports of the Jewish Theological Seminary Association (a precursor of the Jewish Theological Seminary of America), 1892-1904, and one, 1902-1904, of the reorganized Seminary; a chart of seminary departments, ca.1945; a pamphlet, 1903, containing published charter, by-laws, and other legal papers documenting the Seminary's reorganization in 1902; and some early...

Scope and Contents Note The JTSA. Quarterly on Ethics (Proposed) Records document the planning for and editorial work on the proposed ethics quarterly, covering the years 1965 to 1970 and consist of: annotated drafts of articles with related correspondence, 1968-1970 (see the box list for a complete list of authors and article titles); Louis Finkelstein's correspondence, 1965-1970; and a group of administrative files, 1965-1969. Louis Finkelstein's correspondence is with Ann Ash, the person at the Seminary who...

Scope and Contents Note This collection consists of an alphabetical series of files containing correspondence between graduates of the Jewish Theological Seminary’s rabbinical school and faculty, presidents Solomon Schechter, Cyrus Adler, and Louis Finkelstein, and other administrators of JTS. There is a file for nearly every individual ordained as a Conservative rabbi from its first class in 1894 until 1965, the approximate year after which virtually no post-ordination materials were kept in the alumni files. The...

Scope and Contents Note At present the only portion of the Radio and Television Department’s records that is processed and available for research is this group of records of the Directions television program. Series A. Directions, 1963-1985 consists of files documenting the planning, production, and promotion of JTS's television program, Directions. Each file is devoted to a program, and the files are...

Scope and Contents The Philadelphia Branch files, 1935-1983 (the bulk of the material dates from the 1940s) are a small group of files that contain information about much of the fundraising activity for the Seminary conducted in the Philadelphia area. Included are minutes; examples of form letters and other material used during campaigns; reports; administrative documents; scrapbooks; photographs; and publications.The material used during campaigns consists primarily of advertisements for fundraising...

Scope and Contents Note The JTSA Seminary Israel Institute Records, 1947-1969, consist of correspondence and memoranda; typescripts, outlines, and transcripts of Institute lectures; minutes; programs and invitations for Institute lectures, dinners, award ceremonies, and other events; lecture attendance registers; lists of invitees; press releases, circular letters, and other publicity material. This material documents the inauguration of the Institute in 1952 and its yearly administration,...

Scope and Contents Note The Teachers Institute (TI) and its extension division, the Israel Friedlaender Classes are only sparsely documented. So far, records of the Israel Friedlaender Classes, mainly correspondence of its registrar, Israel Chipkin, and a few files of correspondence belonging to Teachers Institute registrar Samuel Dinin, are available for research.The Alumni Association Records consists of correspondence, circular letters to members in both final and draft form, flyers, membership...