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Judith Helfer Collection

 Collection
Identifier: AR 25079

Scope and Contents

The Judith Helfer Family Collection covers the years 1891-2001 and consists of correspondence, personal records, printed materials, and photographs that document the life and journalistic activities of Judith Helfer and her immediate family.

Series I consists of Judith Helfer's personal and professional correspondence and includes postcards and letters between Judith Helfer and friends, colleagues, artists and publishers. The postcard albums (1915-1930) were removed from their housing, yet maintained in original order.

In general, the collection contains only a few of Judith Helfer's personal items. These include her birth certificate, educational records, medical records, and files pertaining to her marriage to Simon Helfer.

Of particular note is Series III, Creative Works, which best reflects the breadth of her artistic and literary interests. The series consists of over thirty typewritten manuscripts (1966 and 1985-1987) that are generally short narratives as well as several drafts of articles about Jewish artists and intellectuals, among them Israel Bernbaum, Zvi Lothane, Immanuäl Olsvanger, and Rachel Wischnitzler. Subseries B, Art on Paper, provides a few examples of Judith Helfer's artistic abilities. Of note are several Ex Libris plates that Judith designed for her father's library.

Published articles are located in Series IV (1971-2001). Newspaper and journal articles in Aufbau, Kunstblatt, The New York Jewish Review, New Yorker Staats-Zeitung und Herald, and the West Side Institutional Review, among others, document Judith Helfer's life as a prolific cultural journalist. Her literary impact is further substantiated by the articles about her life and work in other prominent German and American papers, for instance Aufbau, Berliner Morgenpost, and The New York Times.

Series V (1891-1975) contains various records from Judith's immediate family: her father, Arthur Rosenthal; her mother, Ilma Rosenthal; her uncle, Max Rosenthal; and her husband, Simon Helfer. In addition to these individuals, there are also files from Judith's grandfather, Ludwig A. Rosenthal. These records, which consist primarily of correspondence and personal documents, illuminate the life of her family. Her father's letters, papers and a diary/scrapbook (1915) that he made for Judith are particularly interesting, as is a small collection of articles on Jewish topics by Simon Helfer that appeared in Das Jüdische Volk. The photographs in Subseries 5 provide additional visual documentation of the lives and history of the Rosenthal and Helfer families.

The collection is primarily in German and English, although there are a few letters in French, some Hebrew, and a Yiddish manuscript by Immanuäl Olsvanger related to his translation of Dante's Divine Comedy into Hebrew.

Dates

  • Creation: 1891-2002

Creator

Language of Materials

The collection is in German and English.

Access Restrictions

Open to researchers.

Use Restrictions

There may be some restrictions on the use of the collection. For more information, contact:

Leo Baeck Institute, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, NY, 10011

email: lbaeck@lbi.cjh.org

Biographical Note

Judith Helfer (née Rosenthal) was a prolific art critic for the renowned Jewish-German newspaper, Aufbau, as well as a respected artist. She was born on February 15, 1915, to Rabbi Dr. Arthur Rosenthal and his wife, Ilma Rosenthal (née Flanter). Growing up in Berlin, she was exposed to a thriving arts scene, including many artists and musicians in her mother's family. This had an obvious impact on Judith who exhibited both an interest and a talent in sketching. She was sent first to the Georg-Hausdorf-Malschule for private art lessons and later attended the Pestalozzi- Oberlyzeum zu Berlin-Lichtenberg.

Judith came from a prominent family of Rabbis. Her grandfather, Rabbi Dr. Ludwig A. Rosenthal, was born on May 18, 1855 in Putzig. He was the spiritual leader of Jewish communities in Berlin, Coethen (Anhalt) and Rogasen (Posen). In addition to his rabbinical work, Ludwig Rosenthal wrote several books including Bibel trotz Babel!, Die Mischna; Aufbau und Quellenscheidung, Babel und Bibel, oder Babel gegen Bibel? Ein Wort zur Klaerung. He died in Berlin on August 28, 1928.

Arthur Rosenthal was born on October 5, 1885 in Anhalt. He studied in Berlin and Heidelberg, completing the Doctorate of Philosophy in November of 1912 and was ordained in Berlin in August, 1915. After working as a Rabbi for Jewish communities in Rybnik, Berlin-Gesundbrunnen and Beuthen, Rosenthal became the spiritual leader of the Israelitische Gemeinde Lichtenberg from 1925 until Kristallnacht. In 1938, he was abducted from his home by the Sturmabteilung (SA men) and forced to watch as they incinerated the inside of his synagogue. Since the building was located in a dense area, it could not be burned down; however, the furniture, important papers, and perhaps most salient, the Torah Scrolls were completely destroyed.

Devastated by the loss and fearful of the impending war, the Rosenthal family fled to London, England where Judith continued her artistic studies at the Couraudt-Institute. In 1936, she married writer Simon Helfer. Both the Rosenthals and the Helfers immigrated to New York City in 1951. Judith's father Arthur Rosenthal passed away shortly after the transatlantic move. Tragedy struck again in 1967 when her husband, Simon, died unexpectedly.

It was during the late 1960s that Judith took a temporary position at Aufbau. The quality of her writing was such that she was offered permanent employment several weeks later. Her articles covered both Jewish and non-Jewish cultural and artistic life. Judith enjoyed a long career at Aufbau and wrote for them up until several months before she died on April 15, 2002.

Extent

3 Linear Feet

Abstract

This collection details the life of artist and writer Judith Helfer (1915-2002) as well as her immediate family members. The records describe the family's life in Germany and their subsequent moves to first London and then New York City. Since Judith was a writer, her articles figure prominently in the records. Correspondence between family members, friends and colleagues are also well represented. The remainder of the records is mainly personal in nature, such as marriage records, passports, birth certificates, and academic records. Throughout the collection is evidence of Judith Helfer's talent as an artist. Each series contains some example of her artwork, whether it be a sketch on a letter, an ornately drawn present, or simply a positive article from an art critic.

Related Material

Many of Ludwig A. Rosenthal's books and several of his sermons are held in the library of the Leo Baeck Institute. Please consult the library catalogue for specific titles and availability.

Processing Information

Records integrated into the collection and the finding aid encoded for EAD in January 2006 by Lea Osborne.

Title
Guide to the Papers of Judith Helfer (1915-2002), 1891-2002   AR 25079
Author
Processed by Stephen Naron
Date
© 2006
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.

Revision Statements

  • 2010-03-23 : encoding of linking to digital objects from finding aid was changed from <extref> to <dao> through dao_conv.xsl

Repository Details

Part of the Leo Baeck Institute Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States