Digital Collections Highlighting Jewish Social and Associational Life in 19th Century New York City

The Board of Delegates of American Israelites
Kaiser Franz Josef Kr. Unterst. Verein Collection

In the mid- to late 19th century, Jewish immigrants flocked to New York City. Between 1880 and 1910 1.4 million Jews emigrated from Eastern Europe, 1.1 million stayed and by 1910 one quarter of New York City's population was Jewish. Jewish charitable organizations sprung up to assist these immigrants, many whom were poor and had settled on the Lower East Side. One of these organizations was the "Kaiser Franz Joseph Kr[anken] Unterst[ützungs] Verein"- the Emperor Francis Joseph Benevolent Society for the Sick. It was founded in 1882 on the Lower East Side by Jewish immigrants from the Austro-Hungarian Empire. It served not only as a charitable organization, but provided a health insurance plan for its members. The Society was still active in 1932, when it celebrated its 50th anniversary. The digitized collection contains membership lists, a ledger book and a program for the anniversary dinner in 1932.

The Board of Delegates of American Israelites was founded in 1859 in New York City and is one of the earliest Jewish civil rights organizations in the United States. The Board served primarily in a two-fold function: acting as a central organization for American Jews and working on behalf of Jews abroad. It was the first organization to systematically survey synagogues and its members concerning their history and size. Many of its founding members (such as Myer and Samuel Isaac) were active in other charitable organizations as well. Documents include correspondence, minutes, committee reports, memorials, announcements, and surveys. The entire collection is available in digital format.

In addition to each archival folder that is accessible online, there are also finding aids for both collections that link to each digitized folder.

Finding aid for the Emperor Francis Joseph Benevolent Society for the Sick
Finding aid for the Board of Delegates of American Israelites

Digitization of these collections at the Center for Jewish History was supported by funds from the Metropolitan New York Library Council (METRO) through the New York State Regional Bibliographic Databases Program.