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Constance S. Kreshtool Papers

 Collection — Container: Consolidated Box P27, Folder: P-935
Identifier: P-935

Scope and Content Note

The papers of Constance S. Kreshtool contain her correspondence with the Refuseniks in the Soviet Union and postal return receipts, a newspaper article describing her trip to the USSR, and a letter to the Jewish Family Services on behalf of a Soviet Jewish family.

The collection consists of one folder.

Dates

  • Creation: 1978-1988

Creator

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers, except items that may be restricted due to their fragility, or privacy.

Use Restrictions

No permission is required to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection, as long as the usage is scholarly, educational, and non-commercial. For inquiries about other usage, please contact the Director of Collections and Engagement at mmeyers@ajhs.org.

For reference questions, please email: inquiries@cjh.org

Historical Note

The Papers of Constance S. Kreshtool represent one collection housed within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM). These papers reflect the effort, beginning in the 1960s through the late 1980s, of thousands of American Jews of all denominations and political orientations to stop the persecution and discrimination of Jews in the Soviet Union. The American Soviet Jewry Movement (ASJM) is considered to be the most influential Movements of the American Jewish community in the 20th century. The beginnings of the organized American Soviet Jewry Movement became a model for efforts to aid Soviet Jews in other countries, among them Great Britain, Canada, and France. The movement can be traced to the early 1960s, when the first organizations were created to address the specific problem of the persecution and isolation of Soviet Jews by the government of the Soviet Union.

The papers of Constance S. Kreshtool reflect her work on behalf of Jews in the Soviet Union. Active in the Temple Beth Emeth of Wilmington, DE and the Jewish Community Relations Council of the Jewish Federation of Delaware, Mrs. Kreshtool was involved in interfaith programs such as the Delaware Interreligious Committee on Social Justice and participated in the Delaware Committee on Soviet Jewry. In 1978, Constance S. Kreshtool and her husband, Dr. Barnard Kreshtool, took a trip to the Soviet Union and made contact with Refuseniks in Kiev, Moscow and Leningrad. Mrs. Kreshtool corresponded with the families her husband and she had met on that trip throughout the 1980s, and made efforts to help them emigrate from the Soviet Union and resettle in the United States. After the collapse of the Soviet Union Mrs. Kreshtool maintained her connections with the Russian Jewish community through her congregation Beth Emeth in Wilmington, DE, which supported a progressive congregation in Russia.

Extent

1 Folders

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

The papers of the Soviet Jewry movement activist Constance S. Kreshtool of Wilmington, DE, who was active in the Delaware Committee on Soviet Jewry contain her correspondence with the Refuseniks in the Soviet Union and postal return receipts, a newspaper article describing her trip to the USSR in 1978, and a letter to the Jewish Family Services on behalf of a Soviet Jewish family.

Arrangement

The collection consists of one folder.

Physical Location

Collection is located in Consolidated Box P27.

Acquisition Information

Donated by Constance S. Kreshtool in 2007.

Related Material

The Papers of Constance S. Kreshtool is one individual collection within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM) located at the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS). Other Soviet Jewry Movement collections at AJHS include the records of Action for Soviet Jewry (I-487), the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ; I-181 and I-181A), the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (I-410, I-410A), Houston Action for Soviet Jewry (I-500), Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews (I-505), Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry (I-507), The Jewish Chronicle Soviet Jewry Collection, the papers of Joel Ackerman (P-787), Julia Mates Cheney (P-806), Jerry Goodman (P-863), Laurel and Alan J. Gould (P-866), Carolyn W. Sanger (P-870), Leah Lieberman (P-869), Si Frumkin (P-871), Elaine Pittell (P-873), Sanford A. Gradinger (P-880), Shaul Osadchey (P-882), Leonard S. Cahan (P-883), Doris H. Goldstein (P-887), David H. Hill (P-888), Margery Sanford (P-889), Pinchas Mordechai Teitz (P-891), David Waksberg (P-895), Pamela B. Cohen (P-897), Moshe Decter (P-899), William Korey (P-903), Morey Schapira (P-906), Charlotte Gerper Turner (P-907), Myrtle Sitowitz (P-908), Kathleen M. Hyman (P-911), Babette Wampold (P-912), Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein (P-918), Leslie Schaffer (P-923), Arthur Bernstein (P-925), Dolores Wilkenfeld (P-927), Sylvia Weinberg (P-928) and Irwin H. Krasna (P-934) .

Additional materials from other collections include records dealing with the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) located within the North American Jewish Students Appeal (NAJSA, I-338) and the records of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC, I-172). Related records are also located at the AJHS in Newton Centre, MA including memorabilia and ephemera of the New England Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (I-237) and the Records of the Student Coalition for Soviet Jewry – Brandeis University (I-493).

Title
Guide to the Constance S. Kreshtool Papers, 1978-1988 *P-935
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Andrey Filimonov
Date
© 2012
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.

Revision Statements

  • November 2020: RJohnstone: post-ASpace migration cleanup.

Repository Details

Part of the American Jewish Historical Society Repository

Contact:
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