The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS)

08/20/2026

The Jewish Foster Home Society was founded in 1855 in Philadelphia to provide “a home for destitute and unprotected children of Jewish parentage.” This appeal for donations from November 29th, 1866, is addressed to the Board and to Philadelphia’s broader Jewish community. Written by secretary Louisa B. Hart, it asks: “Do you desire to uphold, or to bid the Institution close its doors?” Hart wrote that repeated fundraising campaigns had brought the organization before its fellow Jews “almost as mendicants,” an archaic term for beggars.

The Jewish Foster Home Society was founded by Rebecca Gratz (1781–1869). Gratz was perhaps the most prominent Jewish woman of the Early Republic. Her father, Michael Gratz, and uncle, Barnard Gratz, built a successful mercantile trading business. After an elite education at the Young Ladies Academy in Philadelphia, Gratz became active in a variety of charities.

Throughout the 19th and 20th centuries, the Jewish Foster Home Society evolved and consolidated with other groups, eventually becoming the Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia (JFCS) in 1983. The JFCS provides community aid for Jewish children, families, and the elderly.

A.S.W. Rosenbach Collection (P-748)

08/19/2026

Adele Lewisohn Lehman (1882–1962) and Arthur Lehman (1873–1936) were married in November 1901. Arthur was a senior partner at his family’s preeminent investment firm, Lehman Brothers, and a leading philanthropist who helped found the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies. Adele was the daughter of copper magnate and prison-reform advocate Adolph Lewisohn.

Adele and Arthur enjoyed traveling on the luxury passenger ships of the period. In 1927, they traveled to North Africa and Italy and created a personal scrapbook and photograph album, now in the collection of the AJHS. Included are photographs of the couple visiting the Leaning Tower of Pisa and the Sahara Desert. Along with their philanthropy, the Lehmans were avid collectors of fine European art. They owned notable works by Jean-Baptiste Greuze, Gustave Courbet, Jan van Goyen, and Thomas Lawrence, which now belong in major museum collections, including the Metropolitan Museum of Art.

John Langeloth Loeb and Frances Lehman Loeb Family Papers (P-892)

08/18/2026

Hidden on a gum wrapper.
In March of 1982, Leslie Schaffer went on a trip to Moscow, Leningrad, and Kiev to visit Refuseniks. Jews who had applied to emigrate from the Soviet Union but were refused, were known as Refuseniks, and often faced harassment from the state. In order to protect Refusenik identities, American visitors were cautioned to conceal information in the event they were searched by the KGB. This Juicy Fruit gum wrapper held the contact information of several Refuseniks Leslie would visit on her trip.

08/17/2026

The Handbook for Camp Counselors by Florence Zeldin and Samuel Kaminker was published in 1956 by the Education Department of the Los Angeles College of Jewish Studies. The department supplied Reform religious schools and summer camps with educational resources tailored to Southern California’s rapidly growing network of Jewish institutions.

The handbook offered budding camp counselors practical training materials, activity ideas, and advice on fostering the social and emotional well-being of adolescents. Interspersed throughout the book are quotations from the Torah and Talmud. The final pages share sheet music for traditional Jewish songs, including “Hinei Ma Tov” and “Hava Nagila.”

Judith Endelman Summer Camp Collection (P-987)

08/15/2026

Elena Dubianskaya: "Everyone smokes!"
In March of 1982, Elena was a 35 year old divorcee and mother to a 13 year old daughter named Inna. She had been a history teacher until her application to emigrate was refused by the Soviet Union. Out of work, she remained active by taking Hebrew lessons and participating in a women's group on Soviet Jewry. Leslie Schaffer Papers (P-923)

08/14/2026

Elizabeth (Sherry) Most, a woman in service. These patches for the Red Cross Holiday Camp (Summer Camp), and the United Nations Relief and Rehabilitation Administration (UNRRA), circa 1945-46, were worn by Sherry Most during her World War II and post-war service. Born in Ukraine in 1908, Sherry immigrated to the United States as a baby. When the United States entered WWII she volunteered to be a Red Cross worker and was stationed at French distribution centers and evacuation camps for children. Sherry was taken captive by German Forces and incarcerated in Baden-Baden for over a year. Post-war she became a Welfare Officer for UNRRA at Wiesbaden, a multigenerational displaced persons (DP) camp. Weisbaden housed an estimated 7,500 refugees including Holocaust survivors. Elizabeth (Sherry) Most Bobrick Papers (P-1035)

08/13/2026

Archival footage of the Laurels Hotel and Country Club on Sackett Lake near Monticello, New York, in the historic “Borscht Belt” region of the Catskills. The country club served a predominantly Jewish clientele from the 1920s through the early 1970s. Joyous scenes of biking, dancing, children on swings, and canoeing.

This footage is from the Kurt K. Field Tapes P-805 at the American Jewish Historical Society. The collection documents the leisure activities of an American Jewish family from 1939 to 1966.

08/12/2026

EPISODE 5: IT OUGHT TO BE POSSIBLE out now on Apple, Spotify, and wherever you get your podcasts. Our latest episode of ALL WE HAVE STANDING BETWEEN US focuses on Jewish involvement in the Civil Rights Movement and features historians Andrew Sperling and Britt Tevis. https://ajhs.org/democracy-podcast/it-ought-to-be-possible/

In the summer of 1964, college students from the northern United States bused down to Mississippi to help Black activists with a voter registration drive known as “Freedom Summer.” The drive was meant to combat entrenched voter suppression practices, a hallmark of Jim Crow segregation found throughout the American south. On June 21, 1964, young volunteers James Chaney, Andrew Goodman, and Michael Schwerner arrived in Mississippi. Chaney, who was Black, and Andrew and Michael, who were Jewish, encountered law enforcement and pulled over, allegedly for speeding. Their arrest and later release from the jail was the last time they were seen alive. While many Jewish Americans were already active allies in the Civil Rights Movement, many saw the murders as a clear directive to continue to fight for social justice, and threw their support and activism behind ending voter suppression in the South.

08/11/2026

In 1771, prominent merchants Moore Furman and Isaac Wikoff engaged in a public debate around the alleged sale of adulterated rum. In the pages of "The Pennsylvania Journal" their spat escalated to the point where one man challenged the other to a duel. To read the original statements of accusation and learn more about this tiff, check out our latest blog post from intern Yonni Hirner. https://ajhs.org/read-all-about-it-the-rum-conundrum/

08/10/2026

Why do we root for the young man from Queens? AJHS Trustee and pop culture historian Roy Schwartz recently discussed why Spider-Man’s story feels especially relevant right now with WNYC's Sean Carlson. Check out his segment: https://wnyc.org/browse/shows/episode/simplecast/f8e101ca-9d10-4324-b386-342e888a0643

Want more comics? Roy Schwartz was our guest curator on "The Jack Kirby Way: How a Boy From the Lower East Side Became the King of Comics," now on view at the Center for Jewish History through November 30th.

Spider-Man: Brand New Day has made $1.