Save Search Parameters
Clear All
Manuscripts (84)
SORT BY
Last Added
- Last Added
- Date Written
- A-Z
- Relevance
Warning: Undefined variable $promoted_manuscripts in /nas/content/live/shapell/wp-content/themes/shapell/collection.php on line 620
Chaim Weizmann on the Assassination of Russian Pogrom Organizer Plehve: A Pity He Didn't Die Years Ago
August 4, 1904
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1585
Russian Interior Minister Vyacheslav Plehve, a notorious pogrom organizer and tormentor of the Jews, had been killed the week before by a bomb. Upon hearing of his death, Chaim Weizmann only wished it had happened sooner.
Add to History Board
Share
Young John F. Kennedy Condemns Harry Truman's Reversal to Support the Partition of Palestine
April 4, 1948
Preview
Autograph Manuscript
2 pages
SMC 149
At a dinner of Jewish veterans, John F. Kennedy, then a congressman from Massachusetts, condemns Harry Truman's withdrawal of support for the partition of Palestine as "one of the most unfortunate reversals in American policy. Kennedy also called for the US to lift the arms embargo in order to give Israel a chance to protect herself in the ensuing war.
Add to History Board
Share
Truman on the Recognition of the Jewish State and the "very dark" situation in Palestine
May 17, 1948
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 370
Two days into the Israeli War of Independence, Harry Truman thanks a rabbi for his offer to assist the President, and refers to the fledgling state's situation as "very dark."
Add to History Board
Share
Camille Pissarro's Autographed Letter in Support of Emile Zola Amidst the Dreyfus Affair
March 5, 1898
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 919
Add to History Board
Share
Saul Bellow on Kissinger, Sadat, and Writing "To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account"
October 26, 1975
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1565
In Jerusalem, and writing the journal which was to become "To Jerusalem and Back: A Personal Account," Bellow muses about his experiences in that city: the various and interesting people he is meeting, what he is thinking, and passing along what he has heard about two of great figures of that time and place – Henry Kissinger and Anwar Sadat.
Add to History Board
Share
Typed Letter
1 page
SMC 219
Add to History Board
Share
Palestine, Truman Says, is a “Matter of Considerable Disturbance” to be Determined by U.N.
February 9, 1948
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 686
Add to History Board
Share
Theodore Herzl Writes a Condolence Letter, Seemingly in Connection With Anti-Semitic Attacks
April 17, 1890
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 729
Theodor Herzl writes a condolence letter amidst an outbreak of anti-Semitic attacks beginning in Vienna, and sweeping through Austria.
Add to History Board
Share
Theodor Herzl Sets Out to Establish the First Zionist Congress and Vows "the Jews Will Get Palestine!"
May 4, 1896
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 731
Theodor Herzl tries to garner support for his vision of a Jewish State amongst the Hasidic Jews of Europe. Herzl sets forth his ecumenical vision, where Jews would be free to practise (or to not practise) their religion in their own way, with no "falling out over matters of religion." Herzl mentions the first Zionist Congress, confident that the Jews will obtain their ancestral homeland of Palestine.
Add to History Board
Share
Theodore Herzl Admits to Exhaustion But Swears to Continue "The Great Campaign...As Long as I am Able"
November 10, 1896
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 732
Theodore Herzl admits to exhaustion but vows to continue the "great campaign" for as long as he is able.
Add to History Board
Share
Theodor Herzl Writes of a Matter Unknown, He Says, Even to His Editor, Amidst the Dreyfus Affair
July 27, 1899
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 736
Theodore Herzl writes excitedly about a matter unknown to his editor, Edward Baher. He doesn't want his correspondent to lose one day on this scoop, so Herzl returns his manuscript immediately. Given the date of the letter, it's very likely that it has to do with Dreyfus's having just been brought back from Devil’s Island to face a second trial in Paris.
Add to History Board
Share
Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 739
Theodor Herzl considers, and ultimately rejects, a lecture tour in the United States.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Note
1 page
SMC 744
Max Nordau expresses his gratitude for "an interesting article.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Note
1 page
SMC 745
Max Nordau sends New Year's greetings on his own calling card to the Viennese writer and translator Paul Tausig.
Add to History Board
Share
Signed Portrait
1 page
SMC 752
Max Nordau, co-founder of the World Zionist Congress, psychiatrist, and proponent of the Muskeljudentum, or Muscular Judaism, signs this virile likeness with a self-effacing and vernacular “whatever!"
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 754
Max Nordau agrees to help a Mrs. E. Woodruff with her book, vowing to send his "literary might" shortly.
Add to History Board
Share
Max Nordau Praises the Juvenile Poetry of "E. Babette Deutsch" and Predicts an Exceptional Future
October 22, 1907
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 755
Over a decade before she became famous as a poet, novelist, critic and translator, Babette Deutsch received this letter of praise from Max Nordau.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 759
Max Nordau had put forth the idea of "Muscular Judaism" at the 1898 Zionist Congress. His vision was one of men who were physically and morally fit. Here, he exchanges photographs with Hubert Carleton, the proponent of the Episcopalian version of his vision, called "Men and Religion Forward."
Add to History Board
Share
Ben-Gurion: Had a Jewish State Been Established in 1937, Millions of Jews Would Not Have Died in the Holocaust
January 8, 1956
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 765
Add to History Board
Share
David Ben-Gurion Compares, Favorably, the Fledgling IDF to George Washington's Revolutionary Army
January 27, 1956
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 766
At a critical juncture, when Israel was vastly outnumbered, Ben-Gurion compares the fledgling IDF to "an army that had been established by the owner of an estate in Virginia." Though Ben-Gurion compares the IDF to George Washington's Revolutionary Army and wishes to learn from it, he also claims that the Jewish people's situation is "different from any other nation."
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 769
David Ben Gurion tells his correspondent that Israel was founded by pioneers but now needs immigrants from free countries, most notably the United States, to come and populate it.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 771
David Ben-Gurion encourages Ida Camelhor Silverman, an eighty-six year old Hadassah officer, to visit Israel, citing the Biblical Sarah and Moses Montefiore as examples of people who travelled to Israel at advanced ages. Two years after receiving this letter, Silverman actually settled in Israel, where she would die two years after making Israel her home.
Add to History Board
Share
Fifteen Years as Prime Minister is Enough, David Ben-Gurion Says: Now He's Writing the History of Israel
June 27, 1966
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 772
David Ben-Gurion explains to an admirer that he left politics because no single person should be practically synonymous with a country. He has a different and important task at hand: writing his epic history of Israel from 1870-1965.
Add to History Board
Share
David Ben-Gurion Asks a Manuscript Collector About a 1945 Photograph, At the Start of the Six-Day War
June 6, 1967
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 774
A day into the Six-Day War, David Ben Gurion asks manuscript collector and Lincoln scholar Justin Turner for a photo.
Add to History Board
Share
Chaim N. Bialik on the Jewish Persecutions in the Diaspora and the Determination to Make a Home in Zion
May 19, 1934
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 782
Writing in 1934, Bialik affirms that the latest persecutions of the Jewish people necessitate the creation of a Jewish state.
Add to History Board
Share
Signed Photograph
1 page
SMC 785
Scarce signed photograph of Alfred Dreyfus, from the collection of the actor and Dreyfusard, Constant Coquelin.
Add to History Board
Share
Albert Einstein on the "Bumpy" Creation and Beautiful "Dream" of the Hebrew University
April 8, 1929
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 792
Here, Einstein writes a conciliatory letter, appreciating that Selig Brodetsky is not alienated by his gruff manner in handling and discussing the Hebrew University, a cause so dear to his heart. At the time a mathematician at the University of Leeds, Brodetsky would go on to become the Hebrew University's president twenty years later.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 793
Einstein expresses support for creating a Jewish homeland in Peru, and offers to do what he can to promote the project, cognizant that lending his name to a project concerning Jews will certainly have an impact.
Add to History Board
Share
Einstein, Working to Save Jews from Hitler, Discusses "Brown Book of Hitler Terror" and Personal Risk
July 20, 1933
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 794
Einstein discusses the Brown Book, an expose documenting, amongst other things, the oppression of Jews. The growing momentum of speaking out against Nazism was encouraging for Einstein, but he thought that it would be more impactful if the criticism came from "only foreign non-Jews." Einstein understood that with his high profile, his public condemnation of Germany would have deadly consequences for German Jews.
Add to History Board
Share
Albert Einstein Advises a Young Refugee From Germany, Then Controlled By What He Called "The Hitler Gang"
March 18, 1935
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 796
Einstein encourages a young German immigrant to stay in California, as it offers more opportunities than Palestine; he advises against returning to Europe, from where, as he put it, "no good can come." He especially warns against Germany, controlled by "The Hitler Gang."
Add to History Board
Share
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 797
In his reply to Inge Stern, a German ?migr?e to Los Angeles, Einstein notes that he's pleased she's getting on well, and adds that "Jewish smarts serve one well."
Add to History Board
Share
Albert Einstein Disagrees with Louis Brandeis; Argues that Palestine is Not the Key to Jewish Survival
January 25, 1936
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 798
Writing in 1936, Einstein disagrees with Louis Brandeis that a Jewish state is necessary for Jewish continuity. "The persecutions will never cause us to perish," Einstein argues, and the dispersion of Jews around the globe ensures their survival.
Add to History Board
Share
Einstein Discusses an Understanding With the Arabs and Zionist Politics in 1942
November 13, 1942
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 800
Writing in 1942, Einstein reiterates his support for Judah Magnes's proposal that the Jews and the Arabs of Palestine would come to an arrangement themselves, without the intervention of the British.
Add to History Board
Share
Einstein On His Anti-Nazi Work: "Had Those Fellows" Listened, "These Horrors Would Not Have Existed"
March 15, 1943
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 801
In 1943, Albert Einstein writes to Lionel Ettlinger that had people only listened to the pair of them, the horrors of the Holocaust could have been avoided. Einstein had travelled throughout Belgium and England in 1933 - shortly after Ettlinger had released a documentary about the German aggression against the Jews in Europe - warning anyone who would listen.
Add to History Board
Share
Chaim Weizmann Thanks British Zionist Leader for a Copy of His Book, "The Jews, the War and After"
December 14, 1943
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 829
Weizmann thanks the British Zionist leader, Phineas Horowitz, for a copy of his new book, The Jews, the War and After, which he looks forward to reading "with much pleasure and profit."
Add to History Board
Share
Jerusalem Consul Wallace and Chief Rabbi Salant Solicit American Funds for the City's Institutions
1894
Preview
Document Signed
8 pages
SMC 836
The situation of two of Jerusalem’s loftiest institutions - the Talmud Torah House and the General Hospital - are in dire straights, Rabbi Salant and Consul Wallace attest: this, the unhappy result of the “terrible loss of employment and income of our brothers in Russia who have heretofore been great supporters.” They appeal to American Jews for funding.
Add to History Board
Share
A "Song of Praise" Celebrating the Yishuv's Welcome of U.S. Consul Lew Wallace to Jerusalem
December, 1883
Preview
Ephemera
1 page
SMC 837
Song of Praise written and performed in Hebrew on the occasion of the arrival of the U.S. Consul, General Lew Wallace, to Jerusalem.
Add to History Board
Share
Chaim Weizmann to Orde Wingate's Widow About a Memorial for Wingate at Hebrew University in Jerusalem
October 27, 1944
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 374
Writing to Lorna Wingate, the young widow of Orde Wingate, the British champion of the Jewish Zionist cause, Chaim Weizmann advises her about the political necessities in undertaking a memorial to her late husband at the Hebrew University in Jerusalem.
Add to History Board
Share
Chaim Weizmann to Lorna Wingate on the Jewish Brigade: "There is No Shortcut to Jerusalem"
January 23, 1941
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 375
Chaim Weizmann tells Lorna Wingate that the Jewish Brigade, and future army, is a long game, and will come with hard work and fortitude.
Add to History Board
Share
Chaim Weizmann in 1943: "Nothing Short of a Miracle if We Do Get Something Out of this War"
December 10, 1943
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 376
Writing during World War Two, Chaim Weizmann assures Lorna Wingate that her husband Orde is on the mend after a bout of typhoid. In the interim, he comments that many things are happening in Palestine that would provoke the British, though he hopes they will not allow themselves to be provoked. It would be "nothing short of a miracle if we do get something out of this war," he ruefully remarks.
Add to History Board
Share
Chaim Weizmann Writes to Orde Wingate's Widow About Wingate's Death and Memorial
May 2, 1944
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 377
Chaim Weizmann writes to Orde Wingate's widow, Lorna, about the upcoming dates for a memorial service for her husband in the Great Synagogues in London and Jerusalem.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 378
Chaim Weizmann agrees to stand as Godfather to the son of Major General Orde Wingate, Orde Jonathan Wingate.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 379
Chaim Weizmann writes to Lorna Wingate, the widow of Major-General Orde Wingate, to tell her that the British government finally approved the creation of the Jewish Brigade. Weizmann's feelings are mixed, though, as Wingate - who died five months earlier - would have made this Brigade "a powerful force."
Add to History Board
Share
Chaim Weizmann Analyzes British Partition Plans and Prerequisites for Statehood; Blasts American Jewry
June 20, 1937
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
5 pages
SMC 380
Chaim Weizmann accepts Wingate's offer to organize guerilla night squads to defend against Arab terrorism, analyzes the British Partition Plans, and blasts American Jewry - all in one letter.
Add to History Board
Share
Ben-Gurion Predicts Victory Under Dayan in 6-Day War; Discusses How Many Arabs Equal One Israeli Soldier
June 6, 1967
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 385
Moshe Dayan is appointed minister of defence; Ben Gurion predicts that Israel will triumph over Egypt, Jordan, and Syria in the coming Six Day War.
Add to History Board
Share
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 392
Rather than an independent Jewish state, Einstein would like to see a "secured bi-national status in Palestine with free immigration," adding that it defies common sense to "ask to be given the political rule over Palestine where two thirds of the population are not Jewish."
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 508
David Ben Gurion places responsibility for peace with the Egyptians at their feet, but also remarks that "a great deal depends on Russia."
Add to History Board
Share
Alfred Dreyfus Writes to Emile Zola's Widow to Commemorate the Anniversary of the Publication of "J'Accuse"
January 13, 1910
Preview
Autograph Note Signed
1 page
SMC 510
Eight years after Emile Zola has died, Alfred Dreyfus continues to expresses his gratitude to Alexandrine Zola, Emile Zola's widow, on the twelfth anniversary of the publication of "J'Accuse."
Add to History Board
Share
Alfred Dreyfus Thanks Senator Leopold Thezard Who Challenged the Refusal to Allow His Wife to Join Him in Exile
November 9, 1905
Preview
Autograph Note Signed
1 page
SMC 512
Alfred Dreyfus thanks French Senator, Leopold Thezard, who was also a professor of law at Poitiers University, for his support. Thezard argued against the illegality of the French government to deny Lucie Dreyfus the right to join her husband in exile.
Add to History Board
Share
Calling Card
1 page
SMC 515
A cordial Herzl inscribes his thanks, on his personal calling card, "for the good joke," and apologizes for not answering a friendly letter "in the hustle and bustle of recent days."
Add to History Board
Share
Theodor Herzl Asks Jewish Sculptor Samuel Friedrich Beer to Show "Mr. Simon" His Work
March 22
Preview
Calling Card
1 page
SMC 516
Theodor Herzl asks his friend, the sculptor Samuel Friedrich Beer to show an acquaintance, a Mr. Simon, around his studio.
Add to History Board
Share
Calling Card
2 pages
SMC 540
Here, future Prime Minister Golda Meir, then Labor Minister Golda Myerson, signs her name, in Hebrew, on her Calling Card, sometime between 1949 and 1956 – before, that is, Ben-Gurion ordered her to Hebraicize her name.
Add to History Board
Share
Alfred Dreyfus Reviews Case Against Him, Proclaims His Innocence, and Demands Another Trial
December 26, 1900
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 617
Alfred Dreyfus respectfully demands a retrial for his trumped-up treason charge from the French prime minister, and vows to prove his innocence till his dying day.
Add to History Board
Share
Chaim Weizmann Thanks Clark Clifford for His Help In Getting President Truman to Recognize Israel
February 20, 1949
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 647
Clark Clifford, President Truman's aide, argued against Secretary of State George Marshall "as if it were a case to be presented to the Supreme Court." Truman immediately recognized the Jewish State, and Weizmann, on his first day as President of Israel, thanks him.
Add to History Board
Share
David Ben-Gurion on God’s Promises to His People: Strength and Peace – One Given, the Other, Coming
July 22, 1971
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 664
Two years before the Yom Kippur War, and quoting from Psalms, David Ben Gurion tells a correspondent that there is definitely trouble brewing with Egypt, yet God promises his people two things: strength and peace. The former is obtained, and the latter, Ben-Gurion has faith, is coming.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 235
Max Nordau co-founded the World Zionist Congress with Theodor Herzl, and was his psychiatrist and friend. Here, still reeling from Herzl's death, thanks an American journalist for not only writing an article about Herzl, but also for his kind depiction of Nordau in the article.
Add to History Board
Share
Mordecai Manuel Noah and Isaac Leeser Propose Relief for the Poor Jews of Palestine
August 21, 1849
Preview
Autograph Document Signed
1 page
SMC 237
Mordecai Manuel Noah and Isaac Leeser propose relief for the poor Jews of Palestine, albeit through different channels. This typifies their differences of opinion and approach where the restoration of the Jews to the Holy Land was concerned.
Add to History Board
Share
Praising the United Jewish Appeal, FDR Mentions Suffering Brought on by the Nazis
March 13, 1944
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 249
President Franklin D. Roosevelt writes a bland letter to the chairmen of the United Jewish Appeal, in which he scratches the surface of the Holocaust and rather hollowly endorses the UJA.
Add to History Board
Share
From Prison, a Defiant Alfred Dreyfus Writes to his Family Swearing to Clear His Name
January 14, 1895
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
3 pages
SMC 295
Alfred Dreyfus writes to his family from prison, and attempts to lead his family by example by keeping his head held high and not weakening in the fight to clear his name from the stain of treason.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 302
Ben-Gurion claims that as long as the USA and the USSR fight the Cold War by proxy in the Middle East - by arming Arab countries - there will be no peace in the region, and Israel will have to continuously fight for its survival.
Add to History Board
Share
Einstein on the Tragedy of Herzl's Son: "A Warning to All Jews Against Defection From Their People"
September 8, 1932
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 311
Albert Einstein comments that the tragic story of Theodor Herzl's children "constitutes a warning to all Jews against defection from their people," and gives permission to the author of a forthcoming book about Herzl to use Einstein's remark for PR.
Add to History Board
Share
In 1936, As Hitler Closes In, Freud Acts to Help a Colleague's Son Who Has Been Charged With High Treason
November 8, 1936
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 314
Sigmund Freud writes to support his friend Paul Federn, whose anti-fascist son has been arrested for the second time for high treason in Austria. Freud had previously lent his friend 3000 francs and insists that he accept the additional 2000 enclosed in the letter.
Add to History Board
Share
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 330
Writing to a minister's wife who was horrified by the 1929 anti-Jewish Hebron massacre in Palestine, President Herbert Hoover responds coolly to her "interesting observations."
Add to History Board
Share
Beset By an Ally-Turned-Detractor, Theodor Herzl Says It's a "Miracle" He Hasn't Become an Antisemite
March 6, 1899
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 331
Theodor Herzl asks Ulla Wolff how much she wishes to be paid for her article in his newspaper Die Welt, insisting that frankness is the best way to avoid awkwardness between friends. He goes on to be even more candid, and describes his acrimonious split with one-time editor of the newspaper, Saul Raphael Landau, writing that it is a "miracle from God" that Herzl himself hasn't become an antisemite.
Add to History Board
Share
Herzl Signed Photo Commemorating His Visit in Jerusalem With Kaiser Wilhelm II
November 3, 1898
Preview
Signed Photograph
2 pages
SMC 332
Photo of Herzl signed on the verso with a reference to the day he spent in Jerusalem.
Add to History Board
Share
Signed Photograph
2 pages
SMC 335
A rare signed photograph of Theodore Herzl, addressed to Fraulein Fini Ungar of Vienna.
Add to History Board
Share
Simon Wolf's Original Contract For the Book "The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier, and Citizen"
May 22, 1895
Preview
Document Signed
3 pages
SMC 109
This contract between author and scholar Simon Wolf, and publisher and editor Louis E. Levy, is a seminal document of a seminal work, The American Jew as Patriot, Soldier and Citizen, first published in 1895 and still in print, and use, over one hundred years later.
Add to History Board
Share
T.E. Lawrence Wants to "Clear Up" The "Jewish Section" of Palestine in 1917
September 7, 1917
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 111
T.E. Lawrence writes to his superior at the Arab Bureau, General Clayton, to ask if he should send a letter he wrote to Sir Mark Sykes, the man responsible for divvying up the Middle East between the English and the French. Here, Lawrence mentions to Clayton that the "Jewish section" should be cleared up, and when they fight the French, the French section will fall into English hands, as well.
Add to History Board
Share
In 1851, Rabbi Gotthelf's Louisville Congregation Votes to Send $100 Per Year for Jerusalem's Poor
July 17, 1851
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
4 pages
SMC 137
Rabbi Gotthelf, the first spiritual leader of the Louisville synagogue of Adas Israel, tells Isaac Leeser, the editor of The Occident, that his congregation has pledged to donate $100 a year to Jerusalem's poor.
Add to History Board
Share
Signature
1 page
SMC 155
Rare Hebrew University postcard signed by Chaim Weizmann and Albert Einstein, who, as much as anyone, made the dream of a Hebrew University in Jerusalem a reality.
Add to History Board
Share
Rabbi Arnold Fischel Writes to Rabbi Sabato Morais About a Lecture on International Jewry
June, 1860
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 170
Rabbi Arnold Fischer, the Dutch Ashkenazi leader of the Portuguese Sephardi synagogue in New York writes to the Italian rabbi of the Sephardi synagogue in Philadelphia, Rabbi Sabato Morais to ask him for information about Jewish life in Italy for his colleague, Raphael de Cordova, a Jew from Jamaica, who was preparing a lecture about Jewish life around the world.
Add to History Board
Share
Calling Himself a "Wandering Jew" Chaim Weizmann Dreams of a Jewish University "Of Our Own" In Jerusalem
July 18, 1906
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 178
Chaim Weizmann, who was instrumental in establishing the Hebrew University, writes here of how it would be a "dream" to receive a degree from a Jewish University "of our own," imagining a graduation ceremony atop Mt. Zion.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 189
David Ben-Gurion recalls Dwight D. Eisenhower as a "lovely person," who wanted to help the Jews immediately after World War II, but was prevented from doing so by the British Foreign Office and the American State Department.
Add to History Board
Share
Theodor Herzl, Hurt and Frustrated, Considers Quitting-in 1896, the First Year of the Zionist Movement
October 19, 1896
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 195
Herzl requests from the Lemberg Zionists a copy of a letter in which he reputedly said that an English millionaire was willing to sacrifice 150 million guilders – a "gross distortion or silly misunderstanding" of what he actually said. He is also hurt by the tone in which he was discussed in this connection - so much so, in fact, that he is considering resigning from the Zionist movement.
Add to History Board
Share
Theodor Herzl Sends Postcard From Jerusalem to Menachem Ussishkin Ahead of Meeting With Kaiser Wilhelm
October 31, 1898
Preview
Card Signed
2 pages
SMC 207
In 1898, Theodor Herzl came to Jerusalem to ask Kaiser Wilhelm to appeal to the Turks for the creation of a Jewish state under a German protectorate. He sent Menachem Ussishkin a postcard from the Holy City.
Add to History Board
Share
Secretary of Interior on Campaign to Stop German Annihilation of Jews -The Holocaust- During WWII
October 18, 1943
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1616
Letter from the Secretary of the Interior of the United States, inviting friends to join a campaign to end the German annihilation of the Jews of Europe.
Add to History Board
Share
Herzl Directs U.S. Zionists to Force McKinley to Protest Turkish Discrimination of Jews in Palestine
February 25, 1901
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1680
In 1900, the Ottoman Empire officially barred Jews from visiting the Holy Land. The Italian government immediately protested this violation of human rights, which distinguished between Jewish and Gentile Italian citizens. Here, Theodor Herzl aims to introduce the debate to Congress or Senate so that a country as powerful as the United States would emulate Italy's example, inspiring other countries to follow suit.
Add to History Board
Share
Albert Einstein Tells Cyril Clemens He Consents to Having a Street Named After Him - But That's All
March 25, 1939
Preview
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1781
Here Einstein responds to Mark Twain’s third cousin once removed, that he is willing to have a street named for him in Webster Groves, Missouri, but his health won't allow for him to attend the ceremony in order to deliver a speech.
Add to History Board
Share
Typed Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1782
Einstein declines an invitation to join Weltstaatliga (World State League), explaining that he can no longer participate in German public endeavors after the genocide of the Jews.
Add to History Board
Share
Albert Einstein Renounces German Citizenship;"I Will Not Be Returning to Germany, Perhaps Never Again"
March 28, 1933
Preview
Autograph Letter Signed
2 pages
SMC 1792
Albert Einstein writes to his son from aboard the Belgenland, where he has learned that Hitler had given orders to ransack not only his Berlin apartment, but also his summer cottage. He decides whilst onboard to renounce his German citizenship, and tells his son that he will likely never return to Germany again.
Add to History Board
Share
At the End of His Life, Albert Einstein Writes Check to His Beloved Hebrew University
January 13, 1955
Preview
Check Signed
1 page
SMC 1814
The Hebrew University was a dream towards which Einstein devoted a considerable amount of time, including serving on its board, speaking at its inauguration, and bequeathing all of his papers to it. Nearing the end of his life, he wrote this check, in 1955 for $10 (equivalent to $90 in today's money) to the American Friends of the Hebrew University.
Add to History Board
Share
Autograph Letter Signed
1 page
SMC 1895
Just five days after Zola published “J’accuse!” in the French newspaper L’Aurore, Pissarro writes to say that he wishes his name added to “the protestation against the awful judgment of the court-martial” to be published, apparently, in that crusading paper.
Add to History Board
Share
Check of Jewish-Owned Cochise County Bank in Tombstone Sends Money to and from Jewish Merchants
March 14, 1885
Preview
Check Signed
1 page
SMC 1924
Interesting artifact of Jewish life in the American West: a transaction from a Jewish owned bank in Tombstone to a Jewish tobacconists in San Francisco.
Add to History Board
Share
Signed Photograph
1 page
SMC 2316
Perhaps the most iconic photo of Theodor Herzl, taken on the balcony of the Three Kings Hotel in Basel, Switzerland, in December of 1901. Signed.
Add to History Board
Share
More Results