TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Finding Aid to the Murray Saltzman Papers. 1960-2010.
Manuscript Collection No. 305
Funding, in part, for the arrangement and description of this collection
was provided by the National Historical Publications and Records
Commission.
Introduction |
|
| Repository: | The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives |
| Creator: | Saltzman, Murray, 1929-2010 |
| Title: | Murray Saltzman Papers |
| Dates: | 1960-2010 |
| Quantity: | 6.0 linear feet (15 Hollinger boxes) |
| Abstract: | Consists mostly of sermons, writings, and alphabetical subject files. Rabbi Saltzman’s sermons and writings are primarily from his tenure at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and later at Bat Yam Temple of the Islands (Sanibel Island, FL). The alphabetical subject files were compiled by Saltzman during his time on the United States Commission on Civil Rights and after his termination from the Commission. These consist primarily of correspondence, reports, and conference papers on a variety of topics related to civil rights. There are extensive files on school desegregation as well as the United States Supreme Court. Other topics in the alphabetical files include, but are not limited, to voting rights, discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, and discrimination in the administration of justice. |
| Collection Number: | MS-305 |
| Language: | Collection material in English. |
Biographical Sketch
The son of immigrant parents from Russia and Hungary, Murray Saltzman was born in New York City and raised in Brooklyn. After graduating from high school, Saltzman entered Syracuse University with the intention of becoming a writer. While there, he took a religion course that changed the direction of his life. He dropped out of Syracuse and enrolled at the University of Cincinnati, where he earned a bachelor's degree. In 1956, he was ordained at the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, from which he also received a Master's degree in Hebrew Letters.
From 1956 to 1958, he served as assistant rabbi at Congregation Emanu-El B'ne Jeshurun in Milwaukee, WI. He then came to Hagerstown, MD in 1958 to lead Congregation B'nai Abraham. Saltzman left Hagerstown in 1962 to become rabbi at Temple Beth-El in Chappaqua, NY, a position which he held for five years before moving on to become senior rabbi of the Indianapolis Hebrew Congregation. In 1975, he was awarded a Doctor of Divinity degree from the Christian Theological Seminary in Indianapolis, IN.
During the 1960s, he marched across the South with the Rev. Martin Luther King. Due to his outspoken civil rights activism, President Gerald R. Ford appointed him to the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights in 1975, a position he held until 1983. Saltzman, who was the senior-ranking member of the commission, and two other members, were fired in 1983 by President Reagan after they criticized administration policies.
In 1978, he was appointed senior rabbi at the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and led the effort that resulted in the building of the area's only parochial school run by Reform Jews. He was the driving force behind the building of the Early Childhood Center, the Myerberg Library and a Holocaust Memorial in the Congregation's cemetery.
He retired from his post as senior rabbi at the Baltimore Hebrew Congregation in 1996 and moved to Fort Myers, Florida where he was a part-time rabbi at Bat Yam Temple of the Islands Tzedakah, and continued to write widely on various issues that defined his life and work.
--Adapted from “Rabbi Murray Saltzman: A voice for social justice.” Congregation B’nai Abraham, (http://www.bnaiabraham.net/WhatsNew/Rabbi%20Murray%20Saltzman%20Remembered.htm) and “Murray Saltzman” By Frederick N. Rasmussen. Baltimore Sun. (http://articles.baltimoresun.com/2010-01-09/news/bal-md.ob.ci.saltzman09jan09_1_assistant-rabbi-degree-in-hebrew-letters-senior-rabbi). Accessed February 15, 2012.
Scope and Content Note
This collection consists mostly of sermons, writings, and alphabetical subject files. Rabbi Saltzman’s sermons and writings are primarily from his tenure at Baltimore Hebrew Congregation and later at Bat Yam Temple of the Islands (Sanibel Island, FL). The alphabetical subject files were compiled by Saltzman during his time on the United States Commission on Civil Rights and after his termination from the Commission. These consist primarily of correspondence, reports, and conference papers on a variety of topics related to civil rights. There are extensive files on school desegregation as well as the United States Supreme Court. Other topics in the alphabetical files include, but are not limited, to voting rights, discrimination based on race, color, religion, sex, age, disability, or national origin, and discrimination in the administration of justice.
Arrangement Note
This collection is arranged in two (2) series:
Conditions of Access and Use
Terms of Access and Use
This collection is open to all users. The original manuscript collection is available in the Barrows-Loebelson Reading Room of the Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives.
Property and Literary Rights
Murray and Esther Saltzman, by the act of donating this collection to the American Jewish Archives, assigned all property rights to the American Jewish Archives. Literary rights are retained by the heirs of Murray Saltzman. Literary rights may also be retained by specific creators of some materials.
Questions concerning rights should be addressed to the Executive Director of the American Jewish Archives. For more information see the American Jewish Archives copyright information webpage.
Related Material
Related Collections
Saltzman, Murray, 1929-2010. Papers. 1987-2010. SC-15753.
Between you and me: the words and wisdom of Rabbi Murray Saltzman. SC-15769.
Saltzman, Murray, 1929-2010. Address. December 4, 1991. 1 videocassette. VT-804.
Saltzman, Murray, 1929-2010. Nearprint. Nearprint Biographies.
Saltzman, Murray, 1929-2010. Photographs. PC-3905.
Separated Material
Nearprint materials were separated and added to Saltzman, Murray. Nearprint. Nearprint Biographies.
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Footnotes and bibliographic references should refer to the Murray Saltzman Papers and the American Jewish Archives. A suggestion for at least the first citation is as follows:
[Description], [Date], Box #, Folder #. MS-305. Murray Saltzman Papers. American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Provenance
The Murray Saltzman Papers were received from Murray Saltzman, in September, 1992 and Esther Saltzman, Fort Myers, FL, in June, 2010.
Processing Information
Processed by Michelle Wirth Detroit, February, 2012.
This collection was arranged and described according to minimal-processing standards. Funding, in part, for the arrangement and description of this collection was provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Box Folder Listing
Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the AJA Online Catalog.