Individual and Community Memorabilia Collection

Collection — Multiple Containers

Identifier: MS-0200-0033

Staff Only

Scope and Contents

This artificial collection is composed of family materials and ephemera that provide an insight into aspects of professional lives, volunteer lay leadership and participation in a range of roles within larger institutions including B’nai B’rith Anti-Defamation League, Hillel of Buffalo, Jewish Federation of Greater Buffalo, Jewish Community Center and Temple Beth Zion, and smaller organizations and groups including Jewish War Veterans, Knights of Pythias, Pi Upsilon Phi, Montefiore Lodge, Jewish Mother’s Club, and Jewish Family Group, Buffalo, and Temple Beth El, Niagara Falls. The varied records range across synagogue life, special group activities, organizations, business life and theatre arts. They also highlight specific areas such as the role of the Jewish Community Building as a site of immigrant integration, the move to professional roles (pharmacy) and family life. The provenance for specific items is noted on individual folders. The collection consists of artifacts, correspondence, diaries, photographs, speeches, clippings, writings, administrative documents, sketch map, minutes, printed materials, ephemera, cassettes, DVDs and other materials.

Dates

1890s-2016
Majority of material found within 1942-1987

Creator

Kotzin, Chana Revell (Person)

Language of Materials

Collection material in English.

Terms of Access

The personal papers of Individual and Community Memorabilia Collection, 1890s-2016 (bulk 1942-1987) are open for research. There are no restrictions regarding access to or use of this collection.

Copyright

Copyright of papers in the collection may be held by their authors, or the authors' heirs or assigns. Researchers must obtain the written permission of the holder(s) of copyright and the University Archives before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Most papers may be copied in accordance with the library's usual procedures unless otherwise specified.

Historical and Biographical Note

The Individual and Community Memorabilia Collection, is an artificial collection composed of various aspects of Jewish life in Buffalo and Niagara Falls from the 1890s to 2016. The majority of this collection is comprised of primary documents created by participants, members, lay leaders, volunteers and family members. The items within the Individual and Community Memorabilia Collection were gradually brought together from a variety of sources over several years an includes donations from Joan Alexander, Florette Brown, Phyllis Steinhart Butin, Carol Davis, Robert Deull, Dyan Ensenat, Judith Epstein, Catherine Goldman, Richard Goldman, Esther Green, Gordon Gross, Jordana Halpern, Michelle Hope, Leonard Katz, Morton Merowitz, Selma Morris, Lillie Stein Popper, Janet Presser, Lauren Rachlin, Alice Rosenthal, Arlene and Nathan Steinhart, Ruth Kahn Stovroff, Irving Sultz, Donald and Sharon Wander, Barry Weinstein and Karla Wiseman. The documents were donated to the Jewish Buffalo Archives Project by themselves as participants, or collected by them as members of organizations, or as family relatives and inheritors. Some items are included within NY Heritage Digital online collection. This collection includes materials from Buffalo and Niagara Falls nearly 130 years with a concentration on the later part of the twentieth century.

Extent

2.75 Linear Feet (3 manuscript boxes, 1 multi-item enclosure)

Additional Description

Abstract

Papers documenting aspects of the Jewish community in Buffalo and Niagara Falls through family and organizational donations.

Arrangement

This collection is arranged in one series as follows:

Individual Collections

Acquisition Information

Jewish community members gave individual, family and organizational materials from 2007 to 2016 relating to their personal and family associations within Buffalo and Niagara Falls. The papers were arranged in June 2016 and it was deposited at the University Archives by the Jewish Buffalo Archives Project in June 2016. The Jewish Buffalo Archives Project was founded in late 2007 under the auspices of the Bureau of Jewish Education of Greater Buffalo with a seed grant from the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies. The Archives Project collects mainly 20th century documentation relating to the diverse histories, religious traditions and cultures of Jewish communities within the Greater Buffalo area of Western New York, encompassing the geographic areas of Erie and Niagara Counties and partners with the University Archives at the University at Buffalo to make these records accessible. The arrangement and description of the Individual and Community Memorabilia Collection, 1890s-2006 (bulk 1942-1987) papers was made possible by funding obtained through the Foundation for Jewish Philanthropies.