Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans Records
Scope and Content Note
The records of the Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans focus on the JFSGNO’s work to resettle Jews from the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s, often in cooperation with similar agencies, such as the Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), the United Service for New American, and the United Jewish Fund.
The collection also contains lists of Displaced Persons from Eastern and Western Europe who arrived by ships to the port of New Orleans in the late 1940s and early 1950s. The records also document the resettling of refugees from Southeast Asia in the 1980s.
The materials include ship manifests, memos, agendas, correspondence, clippings, policy statements and procedures, statistics, congressional reports, programs and budgets.
Dates
- Creation: undated, 1949-1952, 1961, 1974-1985
Creator
- Jewish Family Service (Metairie, La.) (Organization)
Language of Materials
The collection is in English and Yiddish.
Access Restrictions
The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society, except items that are restricted due to their fragility.
Use Restrictions
Information concerning the literary rights may be obtained from the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society. Users must apply in writing for permission to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection. For more information contact:
American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, N.Y., 10011 email: reference@ajhs.org
Historical Note
The records of the Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans (JFSGNO) 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 Movement 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.
JFSGNO, a social service agency, was created in 1948 to establish and preserve self-sufficiency of Jewish families. JFSGNO was instrumental in greeting and resettling hundreds of Jews arriving from Europe to Greater New Orleans. During the 1970s and the 1980s the JFSGNO’s clientele primarily consisted of Jews arriving from the Soviet Union. The agency assisted these immigrants with job placement, health care, education, insurance, transportation and emotional well-being. In 1982 the agency widened its scope and opened its doors to people of all faiths.
References
Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans. About us. (n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.jfsneworleans.org/about-us/
Extent
1 Linear Feet (2 manuscript boxes)
Abstract
The Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans (JFSGNO) was a social service agency created in 1948 to establish and preserve the self-sufficiency of Jewish families. The collection focuses on the JFSGNO’s work to resettle Jews from the Soviet Union during the 1970s and 1980s, often in cooperation with similar agencies, such as Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society (HIAS), United Service for New American, and United Jewish Fund. Also included are lists of the Displaced Persons who arrived from Eastern and Western Europe by ships to the port of New Orleans in the late 1940s and early 1950s, and materials on resettling of refugees from Southeast Asia in the 1970s-1980s. The documents include ship manifests, memos, agendas, correspondence, clippings, policy statements and procedures, statistics, congressional reports, programs and budgets.
Arrangement
The collection is arranged into a single series.
Subject
- Jewish Family Service (Metairie, La.) (Organization)
Genre / Form
- Articles
- clippings (information artifacts)
- Correspondence
- Pamphlets
- Press releases
- Reports
- Ships' manifests
Geographic
Topical
- Title
- Guide to the Records of the Jewish Family Service of Greater New Orleans, undated, 1949-1952, 1961, 1974-1985 *I-547
- Status
- Completed
- Author
- Processed by Andrey Filimonov
- Date
- © 2013
- Language of description
- English
- Script of description
- Latin
- Language of description note
- Description is in English.
Repository Details
Part of the American Jewish Historical Society Repository
