Date: Thu, 28 Aug 1997 14:33:11 -0400 From: Marge SoloffSubject: resource info - Orphanage records - Burial soc. A few months ago, I was searching for information on my husband's father and siblings who were placed in some of the Jewish Orphanages in the New York City area. After many weeks of letters, FAXes and emails, and with the help of a wonderful gentleman in the state of Oregon , I met through the JewishGen Postings,who kept my faith up, I finally succeeded and found the resource I was looking for. In the past couple of months, I have helped a few others with this fantastic resource and since I believe there are many others that might be searching for family members that were placed in these orphanages, I would like to give this info to the JewishGen list. The JEWISH CHILD CARE ASSOCIATION also known as JCCA has been serving children and families since 1822, so states their letterhead. The following are the places that they are the successor to and still might hold records for: Hebrew Orphan Asylum Hebrew Benevolent & Orphan Asylum Society Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society Hartman-Homecrest (Opened abt. 1919 in Yonkers, NY) Home for Hebrew Infants Fellowship House Jewish Children's Clearing Bureau Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum Girls Club of Brooklyn Children's Day & Night Shelter Wayside Day Nursery Childville Children's Service Bureau Jewish Youth Services of Brooklyn Hebrew National Orphan Home Israel Orphan Asylum Gustave Hartman Home Daughters of Zion Hebrew Day Nursery They are affiliated with UJA-Federation of NY, United Way of New York City, Council of Family and Child Caring Agencies, Council on Accreditation of Services for Families and Children and are located at: Jewish Child Care Association of New York 575 Lexington Avenue New York, NY 10022 (212)371-1313 FAX: (212)371-1275 Contact: Ms. Leona M. Ferrer, Coordinator, Quality Assurance They were very cooperative in searching information for me and after a few weeks were able to send me a small file of what they found in their records. We did find information that we never knew before, ie. (names and addresses of people who placed the children there and name and maiden name of parents and address of last place of residence and the exact location of the town and country they came from) so in a way it was successful, even though it left us with many new unanswered questions. If you have a FAX machine, I might suggest you FAX them all the information that you can gather on the individual you are searching, names, dates, etc., and your relationship to the individual. However, their first letter back to me stated: ("It is against agency policy to provide the kind of information you are asking for to anyone but the former client himself: or, if the client is deceased, certain basic facts may be given to the client's children or grandchildren.") We then sent a second FAX with my husband's signature, as he was the son of "their client". In other words, they would not honor my request, being the daughter-in-law. After we received the information, we did call Ms. Ferrer on the phone to ask her some additional information that was not clear to us and she was most helpful. There is also a wonderful alumni association of "Brothers" from the Hebrew National Orphan Home also known as HNOH, that is still going strong, and have been very supportive in my search. Also another helpful resource if anyone cannot find where a relative might be buried if they died in the New York City area is: their address is: Hebrew Free Burial Association 224 West 35th Street Room 300 New York, NY 10001 http://www.hebrewfreeburial.org Phone: (212) 239-1662 Fax: (212) 239-1981 They hold records going back many years of any Jewish Person whose families might not have had monies for burial with chronological records and alphabetical files. They helped to bury all the victims who died in the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 that are buried in Mt. Richmond Cemetery in Staten Island, NY. I found my husband's grandmother's burial place and quite a bit of other personal information about her from their records. If I can answer any further questions, I would be glad to help and would also be able to get you in contact with the Alumni of HNOH. Hope this helps someone! Marge Spears-Soloff Orlando, FL [email protected] --------------------- Date: Fri, 31 Oct 1997 09:47:41 -0600 From: Irene Newhouse Subject: Hebrew Orphan Asylum Soc. & other Jewish Organizations The Jewish organizations of almost all major cities prublished annual reports that listed donors & described their activities. Major collections of SOME of these reports can be found at Jewish institutions of higher learning; for example, Hebrew Union College's Klau Library [Cincinnati, OH] contains many of them. I've gotten the impression that the collections reflect donations, so aren't complete or systematic, but they do contain lots of information. I know that HUC is very good about interlibrary loan & replying to mail requests. Unfortunately, their catalog is still on cards, so you have to ask them about the organization you're interested in. I'm sure other libraries have similar collections. Irene Newhouse Springfield OH
--------------------------- Date: Sat, 1 Nov 1997 14:25:37 -0500 From: EricM18047Subject: Re: Hebrew Orphan Asylum Soc. & other Jewish Organizations A valuable bibliography for information about organizations for public health, the care of children, and the history of Jewish welfare organizations is vailable in a history of the Hebrew Orphan Asylum of NY "The Luckiest Orphans" (C) 1992 by Hyman Bogen University of Illinois Press ISBN 0-252-01887-7(cl) I've read this book and found it most helpful in my research. Both my parents were in the HOA in New York during the early to mid-1930s. Eric Marks [email protected] New Jersey