TABLE OF CONTENTS
A Finding Aid to the Michael A. Meyer Papers. 1967-1985 (bulk 1970-1980).
Manuscript Collection No. 804
Funding, in part, for the arrangement and description of this collection was
provided by the National Historical Publications and Records Commission.
Collection Overview |
|
| Repository: | The Jacob Rader Marcus Center of the American Jewish Archives |
| Creator: | Meyer, Michael Albert, 1937- |
| Title: | Michael A. Meyer Papers |
| Dates: | 1967-1985 |
| Bulk Dates: | 1970-1980 |
| Quantity: | 2.0 linear feet (2 record cartons) |
| Abstract: | Personal papers, including files on the Association for Jewish Studies, Breira, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, and the World Union for Progressive Judaism. |
| Collection Number: | MS-804 |
| Language: | Collection material in English and Hebrew. |
Biographical Sketch
Michael A. Meyer was born in Berlin, Germany and grew up in Los Angeles, where he received his B.A. (with highest honors) from UCLA. His doctorate is from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati.
From 1964 to 1967, he taught at the Los Angeles campus of HUC. Since 1967 he has been on the faculty of HUC, Cincinnati, where he is currently the Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History Emeritus. From 2000 to 2008, he also taught every fourth semester at the Hebrew University of Jerusalem and the Jerusalem campus of HUC.
Professor Meyer's books have won three Jewish Book Awards. They include The Origins of the Modern Jew: Jewish Identity and European Culture in Germany, 1749-1824 (1967); Response to Modernity: A History of the Reform Movement in Judaism (1988); Jewish Identity in the Modern World (1990); and a collection of essays entitled Judaism Within Modernity (2001). Among books he has edited are Ideas of Jewish History (1974); the four-volume German-Jewish History in Modern Times (1996-1998); Volume six of the collected writings of Leo Baeck (2003); and Joachim Prinz, Rebellious Rabbi: An Autobiography--the German and Early American Years (2007). He has published more than two hundred articles and longer reviews.
From 1978 to 1980 Professor Meyer was president of the Association for Jewish Studies (the American professional society of Judaica scholars) and from 2003 to 2006 chaired the Academic Advisory Council of the Center for Jewish History in New York. Since 1991 he has been international president of the Leo Baeck Institute, a scholarly organization devoted to the historical study of German Jewry that has branches in Jerusalem, New York and London. He also chairs the Publications Committee of the Hebrew Union College Press and is a fellow of the American Academy for Jewish Research.
In 1996 Professor Meyer won the National Foundation for Jewish Culture's Scholarship Award in Historical Studies for major influence on colleagues and students in his field. In 1997 he was a fellow at the Institute for Advanced Studies of the Hebrew University in Jerusalem, in the summer of 2000 a guest professor at the Aby Warburg House in Hamburg, and in 2001 received an honorary Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary of America. In 2008 fellow Jewish historians from the United States, Israel, and Europe honored him with a jubilee volume entitled Mediating Modernity: Challenges and Trends in the Jewish Encounter with the Modern World.
Though himself proudly a layperson, his wife, Margaret J. Meyer, is a Reform rabbi as is his oldest son (in Israel) and his son-in-law (in Philadelphia).
Scope and Content Note
The Michael A. Meyer papers document the career of Dr. Meyer during his time as the Adolph S. Ochs Professor of Jewish History at Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in Cincinnati, Ohio. The collection is particularly strong in documenting Dr. Meyer’s scholarly and communal activities in organizations such as the Association for Jewish Studies, World Union for Progressive Judaism, Queens College, and Meyer’s role as editor of the journal of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. The collection also contains correspondence with academic colleagues together with many files on the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion, particularly pertaining to the College-Institute's Jerusalem campus. There are files on the Breira movement, the petition by Congregation Beth Adam (Cincinnati) to enter the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, and the beginnings of the Yavneh Day School in Cincinnati, Ohio. Three files (the Joseph Guttmann case, Jacob Neusner, and Jehuda Reinharz) are restricted. Requests to see these files must be made, in writing, to the Executive Director of the American Jewish Archives.
Arrangement Note
This collection is arranged in a singles series.
Restrictions
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.
The files for the Alexander Guttmann case, Jacob Neusner, and Jehuda Reinharz are restricted. Requests to see these files must be made, in writing, to the Executive Director of the American Jewish Archives.
Property and Literary Rights
Michael A. Meyer, by the act of donating this collection to the American Jewish Archives, assigned all property rights to the American Jewish Archives. Literary rights have been dedicated to the American Jewish Archives. Literary rights may 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 material may be found in the AJA Online Catalog, under Meyer, Michael Albert, 1937-.
Administrative Information
Preferred Citation
Footnotes and bibliographic references should refer to the Michael A. Meyer Papers and the American Jewish Archives. A suggestion for at least the first citation is as follows:
[Description], [Date], Box #, Folder #. MS-804. Michael A. Meyer Papers. American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio.
Provenance
The Michael A. Meyer Papers were received from Michael A. Meyer, Cincinnati, Ohio, June, 2012.
Processing Information
Processed by Kevin Proffitt, June, 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.