Contact
Asher Library
Hours:
Sunday 10 am-4 pm
Monday-Weds.10 am-6 pm
Thursday 10 am-7 pm
Friday 10 am-3 pm
(closed 2:15 Fri. during winter)
asherlib@spertus.edu
312.322.1749
Chicago Jewish Archives
open by appointment only
archives@spertus.edu
312.322.1741
Chicago Jewish Archives
Now open by appointment
The Chicago Jewish Archives is reopening to researchers beginning April 28, 2008. The Archives welcomes historians, scholars, students, and interested members of the public to study our collections at no charge.
The Archives is open by appointment Monday through Friday, 10-12 and 1-4. Appointments can be made with the archivist by calling 312-322-1741 or emailing archives@spertus.edu. We will be happy to answer questions about our holdings, although we cannot undertake extensive research in our collections.
Scope and Size of the Archives
The Chicago Jewish Archives holds the memories of Jewish Chicago. The Archives collects historical material in all formats, including letters, diaries, photographs, memorabilia, audio and video tapes. The Archives currently has about 2500 linear feet of collections, and actively seeks to acquire material in any format that touches on the history of Jewish Chicago.
Types of collections:
Collections at the Chicago Jewish Archives fall into several categories, listed here with a selection of our collections:
Records of Jewish organizations include:
American Jewish Congress (Chicago Office); Anti-Defamation League (Midwest Office); Covenant Club of Illinois, 1917-1985; Jewsh Federation of Metropolitan Chicago, 1865-[ongoing]; Johanna Lodge (United Order of True Sisters); Zionist Organization of Chicago.
Synagogue records include:
Cong. B’nai Emunah; Cong. B’nai Jacob; B’nai Yehuda Beth Sholom (Homewood); Cong. B’nai Zion; Jewish Reconstructionist Congregation; KAM Isaiah Israel; Kehilath Jeshurun; Lawn Manor Beth Jacob; Mikdosh El Hagro Hebrew Center; Cong. Rodfei Zedek; South Shore Temple.
Family papers include:
Robert S. Adler Family Papers; Alfred Alschuler Papers (architect), Judge Abraham Lincoln Marovitz Collection; Gov. Samuel Shapiro Collection, Jerzy Kosinski Papers (author), and others.
Oral history collections include:
Chicago Jewish Historical Society’s Oral History Project (more than 200 interviews); Stanley Rosen’s Chicago Radical Jewish Elders Video History Project (100 interviews); American Jewish Committee oral history project, and others.
Photograph collections include:
the Sentinel Photo Archive, the Weinstein Photo Archive, and the General Photograph Collection. In addition, many collections include photographs as well as documents.
How to donate material to the Archives
The Chicago Jewish Archives welcomes donations of personal papers, photographs, organizational records, and historical material in all formats. Donors are credited in our cataloging records unless they prefer to remain anonymous. Donating archival material is an excellent way to ensure a permanent record of a family or organization; you can be sure that your photographs and documents will be well cared for and available to future historians.
If you have items you wish to give to the archives, please read our mission statement, which explains our scope and purpose. Donors are asked to sign a deed of gift for our records. It is not necessary to organize documents in advance, although it is helpful to identify photographs in pencil or on a separate piece of paper (please don't use ink!). The archivist can sometimes arrange to pick up material if you are unable to bring it to us.
Please call Joy Kingsolver, Archives Director, at 312.322.1741, or email archives@spertus.edu to ask any questions or to arrange a donation.
Mission Statement
The purpose of the Chicago Jewish Archives, a division of the Asher Library of Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies, is to collect, preserve and provide access to archival material and memorabilia relating to Chicago Jewish history. The archives also accepts collections which support the work of other components of the institution, such as the Zell Holocaust Memorial.
To achieve that purpose, the archives seeks to obtain unpublished records such as documents (correspondence, minutes, reports, diaries, family histories, etc.), photographs, audiotapes, videotapes, film, scrapbooks and other selected artifacts as space permits. The archives also collects printed ephemera such as bulletins, pamphlets, and internal publications.
The archives is open to the public at no charge, except for reproduction and publication fees as established by the archives. All visitors must abide by the requirements of the archivist for the protection of archival material. Some collections may be restricted by agreement with the donors. However, the archives is primarily a research facility and therefore does not accept collections which are to be permanently closed to the public either by law or by donor restriction.
The Chicago Jewish Archives seeks to play an active role in the preservation of Chicago Jewish history and in providing access to researchers. To that end it encourages donations of appropriate material; the archives may decline a gift if it seems to fall outside the scope of our collection.
3/97; rev. 1/98, 1/99
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