MILSTEIN CONFERENCE ON NEW YORK AND THE AMERICAN JEWISH EXPERIENCE
MONDAY, NOVEMBER 2, 2009, 9:30 AM – 7:30 PM. ADVANCE REGISTRATION
REQUIRED:
MILSTEINCONFERENCE@YIVO.CJH.ORG or 212-294-6157
One day public conference celebrating history of Jewish life in New
York, achievements of Jewish communal organizations, treasures of Jewish
archives. Conference marks culmination of 3 years of work on the
Milstein Family Jewish Communal Archive Project. Morning Sessions
feature presentation on Jewish organizational archives and a roundtable
discussion by Jewish agency leaders, Afternoon focuses on papers by
scholars on a wide range of political, social and cultural issues and
the evening session features a discussion by New York area archivists
to discuss the rich resources found in New York and how to preserve them
for the future. Funded by the Milstein Family Foundation and the
Howard and Abby Milstein Foundation. Organized by the YIVO Institute for
Jewish Research in partnership with the 92nd Street Y, the Educational
Alliance, F.E.G.S Health and Human Service System, NYANA and Surprise
Lake Camp. Archival repositories participating: Archives of American
Jewish Committee, Hadassah, HIAS, JDC, Yeshiva University and YIVO.
for Jewish Research, 15 West 16th Street, NY. Full details at
www.yivo.org Upcoming Programs.
ADVANCE REGISTRATON REQUIRED: RSVP: milsteinconference@yivo.cjh.org
milsteinconference@yivo.cjh.org or call 212-294-6157.
3 sessions in the afternoon
1:00-5:30: AFTERNOON PROGRAM
“EXPLORING CULTURAL, SOCIAL AND POLITICAL THEMES IN THE NEW YORK JEWISH
EXPERIENCE: AN ACADEMIC DISCUSSION”
3 sessions in the afternoon
“Overcoming Barriers: Integrating into American Life”
Moderator: Hasia Diner, New York University.
Shira Kohn, “Educated Advocates: Jewish Responses to the Discrimination
Debates at New York Colleges and Universities, 1945-1960”
Kirsten Fermaglich, “From Mordechai to Max: Name-changing in New York
City Landsmanschaft Records, 1875-1975”
Miyuki Kita, “Breaking the ‘Gentleman’s Agreement’: Jews and the 1945
New York Fair Employment Practices Act.”
“Displaced Persons, Social Welfare, and the Role of New York Communal
Agencies at Home and Abroad”
Moderator: Beth S. Wenger, University of Pennsylvania
Rebecca Kobrin, , Columbia University,. “Beyond the Myth of Mobility:
Jewish Social Welfare Agencies, Jewish Immigrant Professionals and the
Challenges of Adaptation to Life in New York City, 1948-1954”
Beth B. Cohen, “Case Closed: Holocaust Survivors in Postwar America”
Heidi Heft LaPorte and David Strug, “The Role of the New York Hebrew
Immigrant Aid Society in the Child Welfare Cuban Refugee Service
Program”
Rebecca Cutler, ” New York and the Transnational Activism of American
Jews in the Post World War II Era.”
“Media, the Arts and the Jewish Communal Agenda.”
Moderator: Hadassah Kosak, Yeshiva University
Marsha A. Dubrow, “Playing Musical Chairs: Lazar Weiner and New York’s
Shifting Jewish Communal Musical Landscape of the 1920s through the 1960s”
Roberta Newman, “Delayed Pilgrims: The Radio Programs of the United
Service for New Americans, 1947-1948”
Ellen Kellman, “Aiding the Immigrant Reader: The Jewish Daily Forward
and its “Gallery of Husbands Who Have Disappeared” (ca. 1909)
6:15 – 7:30 EVENING PROGRAM
“PRESERVING THE TREASURES OF NEW YORK JEWISH ARCHIVES: A ROUNDTABLE
DISCUSSION”
Moderator: Steven Siegel, Archivist, 92nd Street Y Archives. Discussion
by New York area archivists, presentations on the treasures and
collections of local Jewish archives and a public dialogue on the
challenges facing Jewish archives today.
Archives and panelists include: American Jewish Committee Archives,
Charlotte Bonelli, Chief Archivist; Hadassah Archives, Susan Woodland,
Archivist; Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS) Archives, Valery
Bazarov, Director, Location and Family History Service; The JDC
Archives, Linda Levi, Assistant Vice-President and Director of Archives;
Yeshiva University Archives, Shulamit Berger and Deena Schwimmer,
Archivists; YIVO Archives, Ettie Goldwasser, Archives Projects
Coordinator, and Fruma Mohrer, Chief Archivist.