Subject: PHILA HIAS CASE FILES

OBJECTIVE:
To find copies of Phila case files on relatives compiled by HIAS

For those of you who don't know what HIAS or case files are, I am
including 2 definitions.

Definition #1: What is HIAS?

     The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society, was started in 1889 by Eastern
European Jews in NY. It was known as the Hebrew Sheltering House, or
 Hachnosas Orchim in hebrew. The Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society began
with a Lower East Side landsmanshaft,the Voliner Aid Shelter, concerned
with a burial in Randall Island's potter's field of a Jewish immigrant,
friendless and without relatives, who died in the Ellis Island hospital.
The men of the landsmanshaft organized a society to oversee burial 
of such persons in Jewish cemeteries.

     HIAS became one of a few groups serving as Ellis Island
representatives, eventually merging with the Hebrew Sheltering House
Association about 1908. It acquired the name HIAS in 1902 
and became known as the UNITED HIAS SERVICE in 1954, when it merged 
with United Services for New Americans. It also 
absorbed the migration services of 
the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee.



    In the 1st decade of this century, HIAS was the prime defender
of the interests of Jewish immigrants en route to America and
upon their arrival here, except the work on behalf of
unaccompanied girls carried on by the Council of Jewish Women.


References:

Ronald Sanders, "Shores of Refuge," Henry Holt:New York, 1988.

Avoyaynu Vol# 2,No# 3, 10/1986


1/10/95 Jewishgen Posting by Norman Greenfeld,
        entitled "HIAS"     ([email protected])


Definition #2: What are case files?

     Case files are compiled notes put together by HIAS volunteers and
caseworkers. These were generally put together at one or more time
 periods. A file was usually opened when the immigrant requested
assistance. This assistance could have been financial, help with
 naturalization paperwork, or perhaps in getting a visa for a family
member in post WWII Europe.  Followups to initial requests may also have
been added to the folders.


Facility history: Physical records were once held by the PJAC at the Balch Institute. 
After the Balch institute closed, the PJAC moved to a separate facility. The PJAC then 
ran out of funds and gave their collections to Temple University, Urban Archives. 
The Urban Archives has recently changed its name to the 
Special Collections Research Center.

Temple University, Special Collections Research Center









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Subject: Re: HIAS in the early 1900s.
From: [email protected]
Date: Fri, 21 May 1999 11:19:16 EDT
X-Message-Number: 5

In light of the recent postings regarding HIAS in Canada, I asked
Janice Rosen, Archivist of the Canadian Jewish Congress National
Archives to comment on the situation regarding Canadian records.
She has replied and has asked me to post the following message on
her behalf.

The original post by Hilary Henkin asked:

> I  have family who were helped in their 1910 immigration by an
> Aid Society -  Could this have been the HIAS?

Ms. Rosen responds:

"HIAS was founded in 1902 in New York but, according to their book
of institutional history, (_Visas To Freedom - The History of HIAS_
M. Wischnitzer, 1956.) they did not begin to operate in Europe
until 1915, after starting out being a sheltering home for
immigrants to NY.  The Canadian branch of JIAS was founded during
the first Plenary of Canadian Jewish Congress in March 1919.

A family that was assisted before that date may have had help from
the Baron de Hirsch Institute, which operated out of Montreal in
Canada and had offices in Paris and London and, as I recall,
other large European cities.

The CJC Baron de Hirsch records are very sketchy for that period
and do not give lists of immigrants helped. In terms of immigration
and genealogy tracing, I think of 1900-1920 as kind of the "Dark
Ages" of Canadian Jewish archival collections.

Janice Rosen ([email protected])
Canadian Jewish Congress Archives/ CJC web site
1590 Ave. Docteur Penfield,
Montreal, Que. H3G 1C5, Canada
Tel:(514)931-7531 fax: (514)931-0548

Posted by Stanley Diamond, Montreal

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