TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Institutional Sketch

Scope and Content Note

Organization

Arrangement

Restrictions

Administrative Information

Series A: General Files. 1963-1989.

A Finding Aid to the 

Combined Generations of the

Holocaust Records

1963 - 1989

Manuscript Collection No. 678

Institutional Sketch

The Jewish New Americans Society formed in 1963 as a complimentary Cincinnati organization to groups like the Polish New Americans or the German New Americans. They were affiliated with the Jewish Community Relations Council who provided meeting space and minimal cost secretarial/mailing services. The group consisted primarily of Holocaust survivors who had emigrated to Cincinnati during or immediately after World War II. In 1966, the group first became involved with plans for Holocaust memorials. Yet despite annual Hanukah and card parties, the group had trouble defining their focus and goals.

On January 26, 1969, the Jewish New Americans voted to reorganize themselves under the new name of the Jewish Survivors of Nazism in Cincinnati. Over 150 families of survivors belonged, although only survivors could hold Board offices. Ray Kantor became the president of the reorganized society, a position he would hold until 1979. Eta Fischer was the first vice-president and Felicia Stammer the first secretary-treasures. Fischer and Stammer had previously been office holders in the Jewish New Americans. Sam Kaltman succeeded Kantor as president from 1980-1984.

Activities of the Jewish Survivors still included a series of parties for Purim and other holidays. But the new group took a more serious focus of support for Holocaust remembrance events and the support of Mogen Dovid Adam in Israel- sponsoring first an ambulance and later a first aid station in Lod. They also became involved with the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors in the early 1980s and the planning and development of the United States Holocaust Memorial Museum in Washington D.C.

In the late 1980s, the group merged and joined with a Children of the Holocaust survivors group as the survivor population slowly dwindled. They renamed the organization the Combined Generations of the Holocaust. The Combined Generations of the Holocaust remain strong supporters of Holocaust education activities.

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Scope and Content Note

The Combined Generations of the Holocaust Records are the records of a Cincinnati, Ohio organization founded as a Holocaust survivors support group that later developed into an organization also for children of survivors. These records contain a complete set of minutes from 1963-1986 and newsletters from 1969-1979 that help to detail the evolution of the organization from a more social Jewish New Americans Society to an activist oriented group called the Jewish Survivors of Nazism in Cincinnati.

Two folders contain material about the Combined Generation's contacts with Mogen Dovid Adam in Israel and the Israeli government. In 1972, the organization donated an ambulance, and then they financed a new first aid station in Lod. There is correspondence, photographs of the plaque and the construction of the first aid station, in addition to official certificates. Also, there are folders of correspondence with the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors and the World Gathering of Holocaust Survivors. Sam Kaltman, president of the organization at the time, was a strong supporter of both organizations and attended.

The correspondence comprises the years of both Ray Kantor and Sam Kaltman's presidency. The correspondence details the common organizational activities. It includes invitations to speakers and announcements of local events. There are also requests for donations, and donation acknowledgments to local organizations such as the Hebrew Day School or national organizations such as the American Gathering of Holocaust Survivors. Finally, there is correspondence which explicates the organization's relationship to the Jewish Community Relations Council and the Bureau of Jewish Education.

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Arrangement

See description of individual series.

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Restrictions

Access Information

The Combined Generations of the Holocaust Records are open to all users and available in the reading room of the American Jewish Archives.

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Administrative Information

Citations

Footnotes and bibliographic references should refer to the Combined Generations of the Holocaust Records and the American Jewish Archives.

Provenance

The Combined Generations of the Holocaust Records were donated by Abraham Peck, Cincinnati, Ohio, in 1989 and Roma Kaltman, Cincinnati, Ohio in 2000.

Processing Information

Processed by Melinda McMartin, March, 2002.

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Box and Folder Listing

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