JEWISH ORPHANAGES
in the
UNITED STATES
UNITED STATES
MAP
LISTING
OF JEWISH ORPHANAGES
by STATE, CITY and Earliest DATES Founded
HISTORIES
INFORMATION FOR ACCESSING RECORDS
ALUMNI INFORMATION (If Known)
Many cities in the United States had Jewish Orphanages. Information
on many of these Orphanages are contained in ARCHIVES at universities and
historical societies. An attempt is being made to locate as many as can
be found and as more information is collected, it will be added to this
page. Known US cities with Jewish Orphanages are listed below, with as much
information that has thus been accessed.
In some City listings, names of orphanages were changed over the years.
NOTE: Other Jewish children might have
been placed in Orphanages under the auspices of County and State Governments,
Fraternal Organizations (i.e. Masons, Knights of Pythias, etc.) or Private
and Nonsectarian Orphanages. These institutions are NOT listed here.
If anyone has anything to contribute to this page, or can make any
corrections, please send to the email address at bottom of this page.
All BOOKS referenced on this page and through out this website may be
ordred on the
STATE/CITY TABLE
Click on City Link to Access Information
CALIFORNIA
LOS ANGELES,
CALIFORNIA [1908]
JEWISH ORPHAN'S HOME OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA
VISTA DEL MAR
HAMBURGER HOME FOR YOUNG WOMEN
Founded as the JEWISH ORPHAN'S HOME OF SOUTHERN
CALIFORNIA in 1908, it served children in that capacity for many
years. With the breakdown of the family unit and other changes in society,
the agency modified its programs to respond to the growing demands in the
community. Now called VISTA DEL MAR CHILD AND FAMILY
SERVICES, it provides a wide range of social services to children,
many of whom have been abused, neglected or abandoned.
The following is a history time line of the institution:
1908 - VISTA DEL MAR founded as the JEWISH
ORPHAN'S HOME OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA by a Chapter of B'nai B'rith Women
and other interested members of the Jewish community. The first location
was on Mission Road, in east Los Angeles, housing five children initially,
moved to Huntington Park and then West Adams, before settling in 1928 at
its current site on a former West Los Angeles ranch. Ages 0-16.
1921 - Foster Home Department was started.
1923 - Current property purchased. It was a
ranch called VISTA DEL MAR and the current commonly used name was adapted.
1925 - Construction was begun on five two-story
"cottages" each of which housed twenty children. This living arrangement
was the first west of the Mississippi )as opposed to dormitory style "
Orphanages.)" The cottages were opened in 1925. Jacoby cottage, originally
for asthmatic children, was built subsequently.
1935-1945 - Many refugee children from Europe
aided.
1950 - Adoption Department opened.
1970 - Girls school opened.
1971 - Country school and Handler cottages.
1973 - Taper cottage and Parvin cottage
1975 - Moss-Price Shore cottage, Honor cottage
and Pre-Vocational School
1976 - Affiliation with Reiss-Davis Child Study
Center
1979 - Valley Group home for as many as six
boys. Home-SAFE Child Care affiliated with VISTA DEL MAR.
1980 - DaySchool/Day Treatment Program established.
1982 - Julia Ann Singer Center came on campus.
1983 - Valley Group Home opened for up to six
girls. Reiss-Davis Louis B. Mayer Building dedicated. Mark and Esther Schulman
Art and Dance Therapy Building completed.
1984 - Neil Konheim Recreation Center completed.
After Care Services implemented.
1986 - Home Based Services implemented.
1990 - First accreditation for Vista Del Mar
by the Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations.
1995 - Family Preservation Program implemented.
Non-Public School opened.
1997 - VISTA DEL MAR officially changed name
to VISTA DEL MAR CHILD and FAMILY SERVICES also known as JEWISH ORPHAN'S
HOME OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA. Internal merger of VISTA DEL MAR, Reiss-Davis,
Julia Ann Singer effective. Classroom opened serving autistic children.
(Other locations at Huntington Park and Palms)
For further information, please contact:
VISTA DEL MAR CHILD AND FAMILY SERVICES
3200 Motor Avenue
Los Angeles, CA 90034
Phone: (310)836-1223
1-888-22-VISTA
Fax: (310)204-04134
**********
HAMBURGER HOME FOR YOUNG WOMEN founded
in 1909, is presently known as AVIVA Center.
For further information, please contact:
AVIVA Center
1701 Camino Palmero
Los Angeles, CA 90046
Phone: (323)876-0550
Fax: (323)876-0439
Email: lamerala@spintmail.com
Report on HAMBURGER HOME for young women plus admission policy and financial
statements. 1934; 1945-1946. Small Collections
Information is archived at:
JACOB RADER MARCUS CENTER
of the
AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
3101 Clifton Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45220-2488
Email: Aja@cn.huc.edu
OAKLAND, CALIFORNIA
[1871]
LADIES RELIEF SOCIETY OF OAKLAND
(HOME FOR AGED WOMEN AND CHILDREN
1923 Census: HOME
FOR AGED WOMEN AND CHILDREN; No address; dependent
white children under auspices of the LADIES
RELIEF SOCIETY OF OAKLAND.
1933 Census: Same name, no address; Private society
for care of children ages 0-12.
SAN FRANCISCO,
CALIFORNIA [1871]
PACIFIC HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM AND HOME SOCIETY
NEW PACIFIC HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM
EUREKA BENEVOLENT SOCIETY
HOMEWOOD TERRACE
In 1871, the PACIFIC HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM and
HOME SOCIETY, under the leadership of Rabbi Elkan Cohn, from Temple
Emanu-El was founded to house "orphan Children, and to establish and
support a homed for aged and infirm Israelites." Within a year, enough
money, $20,000 , was raised to buy 12 acres at Mission Street and Silver
Avenue. But without funds to erect a building, the agency continued to support
its clients in their own homes.
Finally, in 1891, a rambling, wooden Victorian structure was built on
the site for under $57,000. Twelve people took up residence. The 1905 census
listed over 200 children and 40 aged persons. In 1919, the PACIFIC HEBREW
ORPHAN ASYLUM and HOME SOCIETY and the HEBREW HOME for the AGED DISABLED
consolidated under the latter's name and one roof. It was located at 436
O'Farrell with 190 children and 34 aged persons.
DEATH CERTIFICATE
LANGER, Bernard
Death cert #455853, died 04/20/1883 at 419 E. 4th St., New York, N.Y.,
age 42 years, born Krakow, Austria, married, occupation tailor, New York
18 years, father Mottel Langer, mother Bertha Langer, both parents born
Austria buried 04/23/1883, undertaker Jacob Dryfus, 344 E. 53rd St., New
York, N.Y. (grandson, Bernard F. Langer and Ruth Milsner in San Francisco,
Calif. 415-474-2108)
Note: Married to Anna Milsner Langer who died young. She had 2 brothers
and 1 sister. One brother lived in San Francisco, the others in New York.
Children, Samuel, Jennie and others. SAMUEL LANGER
ran the HEBREW ORPHAN
ASYLUM in San Francisco. A grandson died in Fort Lauderdale in 1981.
Note 2: In 1880 census, his occupation is listed as tailor
[Submitted by Florence Mamor ] |
On June 17, 1921, the NEW PACIFIC HEBREW ORPHAN
ASYLUM, in San Francisco's Westwood Park, was dedicated during a
ceremony celebrating the newly erected building and the asylum's 50th anniversary.
The Orphan Asylum was described by one of it's residents as an "easy
place to live and everything was nice."
HISTORICAL AND ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS JUST FOUND!!!
PACIFIC HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM
Jewish Family and Children's Services:
TREASURE TROVE OF CITY HISTORY UNEARTHED DURING NONPROFIT'S RELOCATION
(Historical Documents Found in Vaults) by Edith Alderett, Staff Reporter,
The Independent, January 12, 1999.
Officials with Jewish Family and Children's Services had no idea they
would find buried treasures i the cellar of their aging facility when they
started packing for a move from their old headquarters to new offices down
the street.
JFCS, the oldest charitable organization west of the Mississippi River,
had operated from its headquarters at 1600 Scott Street for more that 70
years. Last month, when workers began to undertake the process of vacating
the building to make way for renovation of the old facility, they discovered
a number of safes and vaults that had not been opened in decades.
Inside the vaults lay piles of books, ledgers, and records containing
personal and historical information some dating back to the 1870s.
"We had to start packing, and we opened up vaults and safes in
various nooks and crannies in the building that hadn't been opened in decades,"
said Dr. Anita Friedman, executive director of JFCS. "We found all
these fabulous records and historical documents, articles of incorporation,
original documents, some in German, all handwritten."
Documenting the city's history: The documents, tucked away
from dampness and light for so many years, stayed in surprisingly good condition,
and their pages tell not only the history of the JFCS, but also chronicle
a piece of San Francisco history.
"Notwithstanding the terrible calamity that has visited our city,
the frightful shock to all of us from the earthquake, and the dread of fire,m
the general health of our wards during the past month has bee excellent,"
reads minutes of a meeting penned on May 1, 1906. "Many of the unfortunates
fleeing from the destructive flames of our city sought shelter in our institution,
which in no case was denied to anyone, irrespective of creed or nationality,
though it taxed our resources to the utmost," the passage continues.
JFCS dates its roots back to 1850, when a group of 13 Jewish men who
had come to California in search of gold created the Eureka Benevolent Society
to "aid, widows and orphans." Eventually the Eureka Benevolent
Society gave rise to a number of branch organizations, including an orphanage,
the Pacific Hebrew Orphan Asylum.
Of particular historical importance in last month's find, Friedman
said, was the discovery of admission records for the orphanage, which operated
at various locations throughout the city and under different names from
1871 well into the 1980s
"There were thousands of orphaned children because this was a
time when there was no [Aid to Families with Dependent Children], there
was no welfare, many parents died early--average life expectancy at the
turn of the century was about 42--so a lot of children were placed for adoption
or in an orphanage,: explained Friedman.
"They don't know how they got there, where they came from, when
they were placed, why they were placed, who took them out of the orphanage--so
we have a lot of information that will be very helpful for people who are
tracing their roots," she said.
Many of the orphanage records show entire families of children placed
in the institution by a single parent after the other parent's death, only
to be retrieved after a remarriage.
One 10-year-old girl name Ernestine was admitted in 1893 by her father
after her mother died had died. The records show she was discharged in 1885
back to her father who had since found a new wife to care for the tot.
Some children were never retrieved and spent the rest of their childhood
in the orphanage. A 12-year-old, blue-eyed, brown-haired boy named Maurice,
the records show, was admitted in 1882 after his father died. He was discharge
in June, 1887, after he turned 17 years old and was "now earning $8
a week in printing."
Sad Stories: Other stories the records tell are not so happy.
Another boy, named Eddie, was 5 years old when he was brought to the orphanage
by his uncle in 1875, He had been abandoned by his mother, and "his
father confined in the lunatic asylum."
"Eddie died July 2, 1875,m at 10 p.m., after an illness of four
weeks with typhoid fever," the record solemnly reads.
Friedman say that, though all the newly found documents are of great
historical importance, the records of the orphanages, which contain a brief
glance at the history of thousands of children that came through the door
of the Pacific Hebrew Orphans Asylum, are particularly precious.
"It's a very painful, personal struggle for a lot of people who
were adopted as orphans who don't know what their history is, so this is
very helpful to them," she said.
For JFCS, Friedman said, the find also gives a greater depth of understanding
to what the groups founders had in mind for their organization, which began
serving 13 men in San Francisco and today serves more than 40,000 people
annually at its 16 locations in the Bay area.
"When you read these documents, you see that the community, as
small as it was, they were having similar debates." Friedman told the
Independent. "Should we take care of children first and start
an orphanage or should we start an old-age home? This is a similar debate
that we have now in this country. Do we give more money to take care of
children's services and education or do we give more money for services
to the elderly? How do we strike a balance between taking care of two vulnerable
populations?"
Plans for conversion: Currently, the JFCS is planning to convert
its old facility at 1600 Scott Street into housing for the elderly, including
offices, clinical and AIDS services, a geriatric program, a health center,
rehabilitation center, and apartments. It also continues to work with children,
providing most of its assistance through outpatient care.
Though the JFCS is holding on to the approximately 60 books for the
time being, they eventually will be handed over to the WESTERN REGIONAL
JEWISH HISTORICAL CENTER on the campus of the UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA,
BERKELEY for research and preservation.
For further information:
JEWISH FAMILY & CHILDREN'S SERVICES
Main Office
The Miriam Schultz Grunfeld Professional Building
2150 Post Street
San Francisco, CA 94115
Phone: (415)567-8860
Fax: (415)922-5938
Email: admin@jfcs.org
Website: Jewish Family & Children's Services
Cynthia Cox
Development Department (and unofficial JFCS historian)
(415) 449-1261
A very special thank you to MARIAN RUBIN, Secretary of the JGS
of San Francisco Bay Area, for supplying this article. |
Recently, someone was looking for information on her Grandmother and
her sibling who were residents of the Pacific Hebrew Orphanage in the 1890's.
Not only did she receive information on them, but was delighted when she
also received a photograph of her grandmother at the age of 13.
EUREKA BENEVOLENT SOCIETY & Association (1850)
1919: Located at 4436 O'Farrell Street, EUREKA BENEVOLENT SOCIETY & Association was founded in 1850 by August Helbing and Israel Solomon.
It is distinctive from the "First Hebrew Benevolent Association"
founded by the same men.
1923 Census: Same Name, no address: 48 children
in boarding homes, under auspices of Jewish Charities.
"EUREKA" is the motto of California
and is attributed to Archimedes. It means: "I have found (it)."
**********
HOMEWOOD TERRACE
1956-1963: HOMEWOOD
TERRACE was located at 11 Homewood Terrace,
San Francisco, and was an Adoption Agency for Jewish children in San Francisco
and the Bay Area.
1968: Address was 2255 Post St; Adoption Agency
1972: There were eight homes, two of the homes were for girls and
the rest for boys.
1979: Located at 549 Arguello Blvd., San Francisco,
CA 94118; Residential Care for children and Foster placement.
Records were found at Jewish Family and
Childrens Services in the 80's by someone who resided there in the early
70's.
NEW INFORMATION:
Your dates are incorrect. Homewood Terrace was built and started around
1926 and my father was the Asist. Director there from 1945 to 1953. Herbert
Leebhoff. The Director was Mr. Boneparte. It was a place of Peace and Love
for all the Jewish Children. The Great Founders are listed in a booklet
that I have. They were Jewish Business Men and Women who cared about our
People.
I was 2 years old when my mother, and father and grandmother
moved into the House for the Assist. Director. The address was 41 Homewood
Terrace. It was 1945. So many Jewish children, so many memories. Each place
where the Children lived were called: Cottages. Each had a live in "House
Mother".All meals were cooked in the Cottages for the Children. The
Children did the cooking with the House Mother. Just after the war ended
hundreds of Jewish Children came from Europe to Homewood Terrace. I remember
at age 4, I tried to speak to them and they couldn't speak english. Just
Polish and Russian. My father, Herbert Leebhoff, (I had my name changed
to David Lee) was on duty 24hrs a day a the Home. He passed away, in 1993.
He was 87 years old. The Orphanage was the pride of San Francisco and the
Jewish Community. In 1949, my father and other good due'ers thought up a
plan to give Orphans homes. It was called: "Foster-Homes" Little
did they know that their idea would spell the dome of Orphanages....and
Homewood Terrace. The program was given a name: "Jackie". Its
seems that this child was the "First" to be placed in a "Trial
Foster Home". Little known fact. Lost Fact. But True. My Father, Herbert
Leebhoff came up with the idea for "Foster Homes in the United States
of America. Never got any credit for it. Again, I will search for the booklet
and send you information. David Lee, Fire Fighter, Ret.
UPDATE:
I just thought I might make an update to your information on Homewood
Terrace in San Francisco. When I was 10 years old (1966) I was placed in
Homewood Terrace At that time they were in a group home setting with 8 homes
in the Richmond district. I was one of only two non Jewish kids to live
there at the time. I also went to their private school which at the time
was on the old grounds on Ocean Ave. I look back on those days with great
warmth. though we all thought it was the worst place in the world at the
time. Of course we were just dumb kids what did we know. I am so thankful
that I was at Homewood we were really loved. Yes even us non Jewish kids.
My thanks to all in the Jewish community of San Francisco who made Homewood
Terrace a true home for so many for so long. I was so sorry to hear of it's
closing after over one hundred years.
Thanks again
Dennis Lehman
I lived at Homewood Terrace on their grounds at Ocean Ave. from 1952,
when I was 6 years old until 1963. In 1963, I moved into the first group
home for youngsters who were in their last year of high school or who were
attending San Francisco City College. That group home was in the Geneva
Terrace housing development in Visitacion Valley, but we later moved to
850 32nd Ave in the Richmond District. I left that home in the Spring of
1965. I remember Mr. Herbert Leebhoff very well. He was a great man. A few
years after being the Assistant Director, Herbert Leebhoff came back to
Homewood Terrace to be the Religious Director. I remember him preparing
me for and conducting my Bar Mitzvah. I also vaugely remember his son David,
when he lived at Homewood Terrace. I did not know that it was Herbert Leebhoff
who came up with the idea of foster homes. I will have some comments on
foster homes later.
Homewood Terrace was managed very well during the years that Mr. Benjamin
Boneparte was the Director. Unfortunately, the Board of Directors terminated
Mr. Boneparte in 1958 and replaced him with Dr. Jack Regal. Before Dr. Regal's
administration, more of the the youngsters at Homewood Terrace were either
orphans or came from families who simply could not raise their children.
Under Dr. Regal delinquents and children who had severe emotional problems
were admitted into Homewood Terrace to live with the other youngsters. This
was not a good mix. I recall one incident where one of those delinquents
assualted a house parent. Dr. Regal ran the home almost like a juvenile
hall. Parents, in order to have visits with their children on weekends,
had to notify the Homewood Terrace administration by the preceding Wednesday.
Some parents who really wanted to have their kids on the weekends, unfortunately
forgot to make the call. My father on occasion was one of those. Those of
us who attended Abraham Lincoln High School, who wanted to go out with friends
whom we met at school, on a Friday evening or on the weekend, also had to
notify our house parents by the preceding Wednesday. As someone who later
raised a teenager, I can say that a teenager doesn't usually know what they
want to do 3 or 4 days ahead of time. Often, youngsters would run away,
later to be found. Dr. Regal's response was to put bars on the windows.
Around 1961 or 1962, the Board of Directors made a correction and terminated
Dr. Regal, and replaced him with Mr. Ralph Ross. Under Mr. Ross conditions
greatly improved. The harsh rules imposed by Dr. Regal were lifted. With
the exception of what I mentioned about Dr. Regal, I am grateful that I
was provided a home by Homewood Terrace. We were fed excellent meals. We
were taken on many outings. A few of us, like myself, who enjoyed classical
music were sometimes taken to synphony and opera performances at the San
Francisco Opera House. The tickets were donated by board or womens auxiliary
members. One thing that I must say however, is that while I made a decent
life for myself, I wasn't given enough encouragement to get better grades
in high school and to go to college.
There is a strong need today for the government to re-establish homes
like Homewood Terrace. We constantly see on the news stories about delinquent
children getting into trouble. Many end up becoming criminals. I personally
saw a home where drug dealing parents had a toddler in their home. We badly
need more youth programs. Issues like poverty must be addressed. Parents
must be given all of the help necessary for raising their children. However,
when parents simply refuse to do a better job, then the children must be
taken away and placed into decent homes. Depending on the individual children,
some could be placed into group homes in the neighborhoods. Those with more
serious problems would be placed into institutions. The house parents in
either of those settings must be well paid and compensated, and also be
well trained. I am not sure about foster home programs. While there definetely
are wonderful foster parents, there are many youngsters who are moved constantly
from one home to another. My brother and I were in a foster home for a few
months in 1959. The couple whom we were sent to were absolutely not qualified
to raise foster children. It seemed that they wanted some youngsters around
to pull weeds, mow their lawn, and perform heavy tasks around their home.
Needless to say, it didn't work out and we were moved back to Homewood Terrace.
The group home arrangement that I mentioned, would be a better solution.
Walter Ballin
Chico, CA
Check out a new book on Homewood Terrace:
COLORADO
DENVER, COLORADO
[1907[
DENVER SHELTERING HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN
NATIONAL HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN IN DENVER
The DENVER SHELTERING HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN
established in 1907, eventually evolved into the NATIONAL
HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN IN DENVER.
The DENVER SHELTERING HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN, was founded in response
to a rather unusual set of specific local circumstances. In the late 1800s
tuberculosis was one of the leading causes of death in America. Because
of the lure of fresh air in the treatment of respiratory ailments, and Colorado,
with its dry and sunny climate, many tuberculosis victims were drawn there
like a magnet. Colorado earned a reputation as "The World's Sanatorium,"
as more and more people flocked to the state to "chase a cure."
A large proportion of the health-seeking migrants were Jewish, drawn by
two Jewish tuberculosis hospitals in Denver. As a result, Denver's Jewish
population drew a large indigent, Eastern European immigrant tuberculars,
whose presence placed an added strain on the charity structure of the small
established local Jewish community. But most, if not all of these new Denver
Jewish residents had contracted the disease outside of Colorado, most often
in New York City and other large eastern urban centers.
Many Jewish children became neglected, abandoned or ultimately orphaned
or half-orphaned because of their parents' illness. These incidents raised
concern for the Denver Jewish community in 1907 and efforts were initiated
to create an institution to provide them with temporary shelter, although
many children eventually stayed for long periods of time. The DENVER SHELTERING
HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN thus opened it's doors in 1908 in an 11-room frame
house on the west side. Before this, most Jewish orphans in Denver had been
sent to the CLEVELAND JEWISH ORPHAN ASYLUM, by the local chapter of B'nai
B'rith. The Denver Lodge 171 were concerned that placement of the orphans
in the Cleveland Asylum was considered unwise to send younger dependent
children so far away. Another reason for the establishment of the Sheltering
Home was that those who had remained in Denver were either sent to non-Jewish
local orphanages or became permanent wards of the state.
Following a fire in 1914, the original crowded small frame house,was
rebuilt into considerably larger facilities with a separate dormitory for
boys and girls, and provided children with their own rooms. In 1916 a new
building was erected. The Home expanded its base and became a national organization
in the early 1920s, when it adopted the popular cottage plan, where children
were housed in small group homes, with their own live-in matron, in an attempt
to recreate a more family-like structure.
Despite the early concern of the founders about tuberculosis and other
illnesses, only six of the approximately 1,000 children who passed through
the Home's doors from 1908 to 1929 developed any form of tuberculosis and
only three children died at the Home.
The primary purpose of the DENVER SHELTERING HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN
was to rescue young people from a life of poverty, ill health and neglect.
As years passed, the Home's service was extended to include orphans and
other needy children from throughout the United States and the institutions's
name was changed in 1928 to the NATIONAL HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN IN DENVER.
Medical advances in tuberculosis treatment and increasing demand for Jewish
adoptive children decreased the need for a Jewish orphanage in Denver, and
in the 1950s the Home changed its mission to the challenge of childhood
asthma.
The above information was taken from the following magazine article:
"For A Child's Sake: Denver Sheltering Home for Jewish Children
in the Progressive Era", by Dr. Jeanne Abrams, University of Denver,
AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORY, Winter 1989-90, Volume LXXIX, No. 2.
Some records are maintained at:
JACOB RADER MARCUS CENTER
of the
AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
3101 Clifton Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45220-2488
Email: Aja@cn.huc.edu
DENVER SHELTERING HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN can be accessed in the RECORDS
of TRINIDAD, COLORADO - TRINIDAD LODGE #293 and were donated to the American
Jewish Archives by Mr. Gilbert H. Sanders, the Trinidad Lodge #293, and
Congregation Aaron, all of Trinidad, Colorado; and by Mr. Leon Rubin of
Raton, New Mexico. The several shipments of materials were received by the
Archives during the period 1957-1991.
NATIONAL HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN IN DENVER can be accessed in the RECORDS
of the B'NAI B'RITH, DISTRICT #2, and were received as a gift from the B'nai
B'rith Lodge #2 (Cincinnati, Ohio) beginning in 1962. The collection has
come in numerous accessions and is considered to be an "open-ended"
collection in that the Archives will continue to receive accessions on a
regular basis, which reflects the on-going existence and activities of the
organization. The collection is available to all users in the reading room
of the American Jewish Archives.
CONNECTICUT
BRIDGEPORT,
CONNECTICUT [1915]
BRIDGEPORT HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM
JEWISH CHILDREN'S SOCIETY
The BRIDGEPORT HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM SOCIETY organized in 1915, opened
its doors in 1919 as the BRIDGEPORT HEBREW ORPHAN
ASYLUM at 36 Court Street in Bridgeport which is located in Fairfield
County. It was a residential care facility for Jewish children.
In 1933 the JEWISH CHILDREN'S SOCIETY,
no address given, was a residential care facility for 11 dependent children.
HARTFORD,
CONNECTICUT [1910]
HEBREW WOMEN'S HOME FOR CHILDREN
HARTFORD ORPHAN ASYLUM (CHILDREN'S VILLAGE)
In 1910, the HEBREW WOMEN'S HOME FOR CHILDREN,
a residential care for dependent children was established. The last address
noted was located at 185 Westbourne, Parkway, Hartford, CT.
The HARTFORD ORPHAN ASYLUM, established
in 1883 as a residential care facility was POSSIBLY under Jewish
auspices. Later called CHILDREN'S VILLAGE OF HARTFORD ORPHAN ASYLUM, their
last address noted in 1948 was: 1660 Albany Avenue in Hartford, CT.
NEW HAVEN,
CONNECTICUT [1905]
HEBREW LADIES ORPHAN SOCIETY
JEWISH HOME FOR CHILDREN
The home was founded in 1905 as the HEBREW LADIES
ORPHAN SOCIETY. Shortly after their founding they occupied the house
(which is still standing) at 441 Orange Street in New Haven.
In 1920, the name was officially changed to the JEWISH
HOME FOR CHILDREN, and they built a new, larger brick building at
701 Sherman Avenue. The children remained there until 1955, when the State
of Connecticut took over the functions of all orphanages.
It should be noted that many of the children at the Home were not really
orphans, but came from families who could not support them properly or were
single parent homes. The children who lived at the Home attended public
schools and went to Hebrew school at the Jewish Community Center. Additionally,
the children received some religious education at the Home which also maintained
a synagogue. Many Bar Mitzvahs were held there, both for residents and for
non-residents.
During the period from 1920 to 1955, the number of children at the Home
ranged from 10 to 55. The building on Sherman Avenue was sold in 1955 and
subsequently razed.
In 1955, they continued operations at 54 Carmel Street for a few children
who were in dire need of additional support. They never had more than 10
children at this location at any one time. This continued for a few years
until they ceased operations altogether.
In 1969, the remaining officers and directors of the organization began
using the remaining monies for a scholarship fund for children of the greater
New Haven Area. Still in existence, they are now officially called the JEWISH
HOME FOR CHILDREN FOUNDATION. Their current President is Mr. Burton Slossberg,
and their Vice-President is Mr. Sydney Gimple.
Correspondence can be addressed to the organization at:
JEWISH HOME FOR CHILDREN FOUNDATION
Mr. Sydney Gimple
129 Church Street
New Haven, CT 06510
Phone: (203)776-8100
ALUMNI INFORMATION:
Former residents of the Home get together about once every year for
a dinner, although there does not seem to be a formal alumni organization.
For further information, please contact:
Mrs. Lois Buslowitz
76 Worth Avenue
Hamden, CT 06518
(203)288-1901
RECORDS:
There are still some records extant, but it is not known how complete
they are or what period of time they cover. These records are kept in CLOSED
FILES in the ARCHIVES of the:
JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GREATER
NEW HAVEN
PO Box 3251
New Haven, CT 06515-0351
Phone: (203)392-6125
NOTE: The Historical Society is located on the campus of SOUTHERN CONNECTICUT
STATE UNIVERSITY in New Haven BUT should not be contacted for information
about these files. Any questions concerning information about records may
be sent to the JEWISH HOME FOR CHILDREN FOUNDATION.....address above.
PICTURES of the TWO ORPHANAGE BUILDINGS of the JEWISH HOME FOR CHILDREN
may be seen on the website of the JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF GREATER NEW
HAVEN at:
The history of the JEWISH HOME FOR CHILDREN IN NEW HAVEN (CT) which
appears on this website is a brief excerpt from a longer article which was
published in 1988. The entire article is now posted (with photos) thanks
to Werner Hirsch, Curator, JHS of Greater New Haven (CT). The page can be
found at: JHS of Greater
New Haven -Jewish Home for Children
DISTRICT OF COLUMBIA
WASHINGTON D.C.
[1911]
JEWISH FOSTER HOME
The JEWISH FOSTER HOME was a residential
care facility for dependent children. In 1919 it was located at 3213 O Street,
NW in Washington DC with 29 inmates in residence.
GEORGIA
ATLANTA, GEORGIA
[1889]
HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM
HEBREW ORPHAN HOME See Census Information
on Federal
and State Census Page
Above is a photo postcard from 1906 courtesy of Howard
Margol
(Although caption on card reads The Jewish Orphans Home, it IS
the Hebrew Orphan Home of Atlanta)
(The Winter 2002 Issue of "Chai," an Atlanta Jewish
Magazine, has a wonderful article about the Hebrew Orphan Home of Atlanta,
including some photographs)...Information courtesy of Howard Margol.
The orphan home was established in 1889 as the
HEBREW ORPHAN'S ASYLUM. Although the suggestion to establish a Jewish
orphanage was first discussed at the 1870 convention of the B'nai B'rith
Lodge No. 5, little was accomplished until 1886 when the communities of
Atlanta, Richmond, VA and the District of Columbia organized a fund raising
campaign. It was decided to locate the home in the city which raised the
most money. Within two years, Atlantans collected more than half the money
needed, and the Home was built in Atlanta on Washington Street between Love
and Little Streets near what was then the southern border of town. The Home
as of a Venetian style, built of brick and trimmed in terra cotta. The central
building, clinic, dairy, servant's cottage and playground occupied an entire
square block.
The children attended Fraser Street Public School and religious instruction
was given at the Temple or Avhavath Achim. They were trained to be typists,
stenographers, plumbers and printers. Shortly after 1900, uniforms and military
discipline was abolished, and the orphans fared very well, by the standard
of the day.
Officially changing its name from the HEBREW ORPHAN'S ASYLUM to the
HEBREW ORPHAN'S HOME in 1901, the facility
was home to hundreds of Jewish children from the Southeast between the years
1889-1930, when it closed as a resident facility and supplanted by the Jewish
Children's Service. Nearly 400 children passed through the home between
1889 and 1915,with approximately two-thirds of these coming from outside
Atlanta and most of East European parentage.
The 1902 Census listed 68 inmates. From 1919 to 1925, it was located
at 478 Washington Street, Atlanta with 111 inmates.
In Steven Hertzberg's 1978 book, Strangers Within The Gate City:
The Jews of Atlanta 1845-1915, he mentions in one of his footnotes,
the following:
Hebrew Orphan's Home Records of Admission, 1889-1921, in the office
of Jewish Children's Service, Atlanta. The location of the Home in Atlanta
incidentally made the Gate City the logical place for the annual grand lodge
conventions.
Most of the inventory collection consists of closed case files of residents.
A complete set of minutes, annual reports and the records of the HEBREW
ORPHAN'S HOME, a collection consisting of 33 cubic feet of material are
housed at:
IDA PEARLE and JOSEPH CUBA COMMUNITY
ARCHIVES and GENEALOGY CENTER
at the
WILLIAM BREMAN JEWISH HERITAGE MUSEUM
ATLANTA JEWISH FEDERATION, COMMUNITY ARCHIVES
1440 Spring Street
Atlanta, GA 30309
Phone: (404) 873-1661
Fax: (404) 874-7043
This is the largest repository of its type in the Southeast and more
information about the Museum and its Archives may be accessed at the following
URL:
NOTE: In 1984, Brad Trevathan wrote a history
honor's thesis under the direction of Professor Dan T. Carter at Emory University
"The Hebrew Orphans' Home of Atlanta, 1889-1930."
This thesis is available through the Woodruff Library at Emory. The bulk
of his research was based on the records of the Home, which were still in
a rather raw state stored away in the offices of Jewish charitible agency.
.
The incorporation papers for the Alumnal Association of
the Atlanta Hebrew Orphans Home, can be found at the American
Jewish Historical Society.
File number: 1914-945.
Microfilm reel number: XXXVI, 443-448.
There is a fee for the service.
Information provided by Ada Greenblatt
Book about Hebrew Orphanage, Atlanta,
GA
Louis D. Rubin, Jr. wrote MY FATHER'S PEOPLE
about his father Louis D. Rubin, Sr. and his siblings including 2 brothers
who were with him in the Hebrew Orphanage in Atlanta in the very early 1900's.
Louis D. Rubin, Jr., is Distinguished Professor of English Emeritus
at the University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill, founder of Algonquin
Books, and the author or editor of over fifty titles.
To order a copy of this book, please go to our Online
Bookstore.
ILLINOIS
CHICAGO, ILLINOIS
[1872]
DEBORAH HOME FOR JEWISH BOYS - (1872)
The DEBORAH HOME FOR JEWISH BOYS was a
residential care facility for Jewish boys and founded in 1872. [Source,
Adoption Agencies, Orphanages and Maternity Homes, Reg Niles, 1980 ]
The following information supplied by Rachel Baron Heimovics, author
of The Chicago Jewish Source Book, 1981, Follett Publishing Co.,
Chicago:
According to Hyman Meites, History of the Jews of Chicago -
The Deborah as an organization was founded in 1872, but its boy's club was
founded in 1907. So far nothing has been found about a home for boys - only
a boy's club.
Deborah Verein, formed in 1872, named after Isaac Mayer Wise's paper
for the Jewish home, Die Deborah. Later became known as the Deborah. The
Deborah was founded by German Jewish women (one of several such groups -
also the Ruth Club, the Johannah, Miriam, etc.) that became a fund-raising,
volunteering organization that assisted the work of the United Hebrew Relief
Association, forerunner of the Associated Jewish Charities (f. c. 1900,)
now the Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago.
The Deborah Boy's Club may have been absorbed by the later, still
existing, Young Men's Jewish Council.
This is from another source: The YMJC, f. 1906, incorp 1907, sponsored
many clubs and camp. This source, a social service directory of 1961, states
that its club, Deborah Boys' Club, at 3401 W. Ainslie St. was established
in 1930. So I am not sure about the history, whether this was an entirely
new club, a new location, or the year that the YMJC took over for the Deborah
women. In any case it was a club - and not a home.
***************
CHICAGO HOME FOR JEWISH ORPHANS - (1893) a/k/a
CHICAGO INDUSTRIAL TRAINING SCHOOL FOR JEWISH GIRLS
CHICAGO MANUAL TRAINING SCHOOL FOR JEWISH BOYS
Courtesy of The Jewish Federation of Metropolitan Chicago
and a special thank you to Rachel Heimovics
The above building of the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans, was dedicated
on July 24, 1898. Later known as "Woodlawn Hall" it sheltered
113 children and included three dormitories, doctor's and dentist's offices,
dispensary, assembly hall, kindergarten, chapel, manual training shop, gymnasium
and swimming pool. The Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans was supported by
the United Hebrew Charities of Chicago. The program of the Home is now incorporated
in the work of the Jewish Children's Bureau, an agency of the Jewish Federation
of Metropolitan Chicago. Federation, a successor agency of the United Hebrew
Charities, had an even earlier predecessor, the Hebrew Relief Association,
chartered in 1867. The building of the Home was later taken over by the
University of Chicago as a laboratory and demolished in 1965; the site will
be occupied by a YMCA building.
(Date of photo and caption unknown).
The CHICAGO HOME for JEWISH ORPHANS dates
back to the year 1893. It opened its doors at 3601 Vernon Avenue on October
7, 1894 on the southside of Chicago. It was a residential care facility
for dependent children ages 5 - 18. In 1924 they were located at 6208 Drexel
and 63rd Street for both boys and girls and was certified as an orphanage.
From 1919-1925, 200 children were in residence.
ORIGINAL building of Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans,
which was located at
3601 S. Vernon Ave., Chicago.
This photo was taken in 1909, by the Chicago Daily News.
Courtesy of Mimi Katz
Records for CHICAGO HOME FOR JEWISH ORPHANS
might be available at:
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
618 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60605
Library information or reference
312 / 922-8248
Fax 312 / 922-6406
e-mail sijs@spertus.edu
and/or
Jewish Children's Bureau
Dr. Robert B. Bloom, Phd., Executive Director
1 S. Franklin St
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 444-2090
email: director@jcbchicago.org
JCB, an agency of Jewish Federation
***************
MARKS NATHAN ORPHAN HOME (ORTHODOX)- (1906)
The MARKS NATHAN JEWISH ORPHAN HOME established
in 1906 on the Northwest side of Chicago*,
moved to Albany Avenue in 1912. In 1919 with 265 inmates, it was located
at 1550 S Albany in Chicago. The location in 1925 was 1556 S Albany and
then located at 1546-1558 S. Albany in 1926.
The above source can be found in "Adoption Agencies, Orphanages
and Maternity Homes-An Historical Directory", [2 Volumes in One],
by Reg Niles, published by Phileas Deigh Corp., Garden City,
NY 1981.
*Note from Mimi Katz who has been researching
Marks Nathan and looking for the original address. She states: In
1907, on the copy of an admissions record that I received from The Jewish
Children's Bureau in Chicago, it states that Marks Nathan was at 592-598
N. Wood St. Though I've been able to find this address, I'm not able to
locate this address in the 1910 Federal Census - very frustrating! The addresses
on N. Wood St. seem to end at the 540's even though ED 687 should extend
to 599.
Building Finally Located: (New Information
from Mimi Katz, February 2004)
I'm jumping for joy! I finally found the original "Marks
Nathan Jewish Orphan Home",
in Chicago (actual name from the inscription over the doors).The building
still exists on the corner of Wood St. and Potomac St. (formerly Blucher
St.), but it is a sculpture gallery today. However, the building looks very
much the same as it did in its heyday.
This building was the original site of Marks Nathan. In 1907, the
address was 592-598 Wood St. In the 1910 census, the address was 1741 Blucher
St. Today, the address is 1243 N. Wood St. The system of numbering homes
and businesses in Chicago changed between 1909-1911.
I believe the orphanange moved to it's more well-known address on
South Albany Ave. about 1915. That building
is about twice the size of this one.
Photographs below, courtesy of Mimi Katz
MARKS NATHANN ORPHAN HOME
Inscription over door of Marks Nathan Orphan Home============ Marks
Nathan Corner Stone
Wood Street Corner Stone====================== Blucher
Street Corner Stone
Photographs below, courtesy of Bill Neuendorf
The above are photographs of the second location of Marks Nathan
Orphanage in Chicago. The buildings are still in use as a nursing home.
The N. Lawndale neighborhood still has many vacant properties, but several
groups have recently come together to revitalize the neighborhood. The
block-long building was built in 1906 and allowed the orphanage to meet
the increasing demand of the rapidly growing Jewish immigrant population
in the North Lawndale neighborhood of Chicago. This site is directly across
the street from Douglas Park, one of the jewels of Chicago's park system.
This location also featured a large synagogue building for the residents.
Bibliography Sources:
H. L. Meites, "History of the Jews of Chicago", facsimile
of the original 1924 edition with a new introduction by James R. Grosman,
published by the Chicago Jewish Historical Society and Wellington Publishers,
Inc. Chicago 1990. (Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans)
Irv Cutler, "Jews of Chicago" (Marks Nathan Orphan Home)
In Mr. Cutler's book, information can be found on Pages 220-221 and
includes a photograph of the home. The home closed in 1948. Cutler attributes
his material to the Annual Report of 1920 of the Marks Nathan Home. If the
1920 Annual Report exists, then there is an excellent chance other information
exists. There is a conflict on addresses on Albany Ave., between Mr. Cutler
and Mr. Niles information.
Records for MARKS NATHAN JEWISH ORPHAN HOME might
be available at:
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
618 South Michigan Avenue
Chicago, Illinois 60605
Library information or reference
312 / 922-8248
Fax 312 / 922-6406
e-mail sijs@spertus.edu
and/or
Jewish Children's Bureau
Dr. Robert B. Bloom, Phd., Executive Director
1 S. Franklin St
Chicago, IL 60606
(312) 444-2090
email: director@jcbchicago.org
JCB, an agency of Jewish Federation\
***********
Updated Information for MARKS NATHAN and the
CHICAGO HOME FOR JEWISH ORPHANS
as of August 31, 2001
courtesy of
Joy Kingsolver, C.A.
Director
Chicago Jewish Archives
Spertus Institute of Jewish Studies
618 South Michigan Ave.
Chicago IL 60605
312/322-1741
archives@spertus.edu
There are actual case files from Marks Nathan
and the Chicago Home for Jewish Orphans. They
are held here in the Chicago Jewish Archives, which is part of Spertus.
But permission to see them must come from the Jewish Children's Bureau,
so people shouldcheck there first. Even if we have a file, I can do nothing
until I receive a request from the JCB, so it would save people a step if
they knew to contact them first.
People are welcome to contact Joy Kingsolver, for more general information
on these homes or with other questions. The archives can be reached at 312/322-1741,
or archives@spertus.edu
There is also information on the Jewish Training
School, the Daughters of Zion Nursery and
other organizations, but we have no files on students or residents.
***************
JEWISH HOME FINDING SOCIETY - (1907)
IN 1907 the JEWISH HOME FINDING SOCIETY
was established as a residential care facility for dependent children. In
1923, they had 318 children in its care, mostly in boarding homes. Located
at 1800 Selden St., Chicago in 1926, it was also certified as an orphanage.
***************
HOME FOR JEWISH FRIENDLESS AND WORKING GIRLS -
(1909)
There was a Home for Jewish Friendless and Working Girls, the main
building dedicated and opened in 1909. In 1905, the Helen Day Nursery, a
child care center in the Maxwell Street neighborhood. Helen was the daughter
of HannahGreenebaum Salomon, founder of the National Council of Jewish Women
- and part of a strongly philanthropic German Jewish family in Chicago.
In the 1910 Federal Census, the
Home for Jewish Friendless was located at 5226 Ellis Avenue, Chicago,
IL and also now included boys. The 1910 Federal Census is included on the
Federal Census Page of this web site.
***************
DAUGHTERS OF ZION - (1917)
The DAUGHTERS OF ZION was a Jewish Day
Nursery and Infants' Home, certified as an orphanage. The 1926 address was
at 1441 Wicker Park Avenue, Chicago.
INDIANA
FORT WAYNE,
INDIANA [1865]
CONGREGATION ACHDUTH VESHOLOM
Records consisting of Israel Aaron resolution, Apr 10, 1887;
-cashbooks, 1900-1937;
-dues books, 1905-1915, 1919;
-membership books, 1892-1918;
-minute books, 1848-1883 and 1914-1918;
-orphan asylum fund book, 1865-1881;
-treasurer's account book, 1892-1895;
-cash account book, 1915-1918;
-temple fund book, 1916-1918;
and records of the Ladies Hebrew Benevolent Society, including:
-minute book, 1861-1894;
-ledger, 1874-1892;
-cashbooks, 1881-1916;
-membership book, 1917-1919
All above are archived at:
JACOB RADER MARCUS CENTER
of the
AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
3101 Clifton Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45220-2488
Email: Aja@cn.huc.edu
**********
FORT WAYNE JEWISH FEDERATION {1919)
1919: Federation of Jewish Charities organized
i 1919
1955: Jewish Federation; no address, licensed
for adoption
1979: Located at 227 E. Washington Blvd; Adoptions
INDIANAPOLIS,
INDIANA [1900]
In 1900, a Jewish Shelter house was established in Indianapolis, for
all ages and the Nathan Morris House provided social services to Jewish
people.
( MORE INFORMATION COMING)
KENTUCKY
LOUISVILLE,
KENTUCKY [1908]
JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME OF LOUISVILLE
The JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME of LOUISVILLE
was founded in 1908 and was located at 223 E. Jacob, moved to the1100 block
of Garvin Place and after 1921 moved to its last location at 1135 S. First
Street. In 1933, needs having changed, the home became the JEWISH HOME for
CONVALESCENT CHILDREN, managed by Jewish Family Service (now Jewish Family
and Vocational Service). Other facilities in the city having become adequate,
the home was closed in 1975.
Federal census data should be available with names of the children in
the 1910 and 1920 census. To help locate census tracts refer to the addresses
of the home's location and dates up above.
There are no other records of the home available as the records have
been destroyed.
(The above information, is from Herman Landau, author of "Adath
Louisville: the Story of a Jewish Community." )
LOUISIANA
NEW ORLEANS,
LOUISIANA [1855]
Photo Courtesy of Joel Levy
JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME
The Tulane Manuscript Department is one of the world's larger archives
of the American Southern Jewish experience. They have a particular emphasis
on preserving the contributions of Jewish institutions and individuals to
the cultural development of New Orleans.
--------------------------------
(A Special Thank You to Ellen Barnett Cleary for the following:)
A Brief History of the Jewish Childrens Home of
New Orleans by Ellen Barnett Cleary
On January 8, 1856, the first Jewish Orphans Home in the United States
was dedicated in New Orleans. The Asylum for the relief of Hebrew Widows
and Orphans opened in a three story stuccoed brick building at the corner
of Jackson and Chippewa Streets, capable of accomodating about 150 inmates.
It was built to address the need created by the yellow fever epidemics in
New Orleans.
According to the Report of the State Board of Health that appeared
in the New Orleans Picayune on September 15, 1897, there were 283 deaths
from the yellow fever epidemic reported on August 22, 1853. From June 1-October
7, 1853 there were 849 interments in all New Orleans cemeteries.
The Hebrew Benevolent Society of New Orleans, created in 1844 to provide
medical care and medicine for the sick, help the immigrants who were without
a means of earning a living, take care of the fatherless and motherless,
and relieve the distressed and the widow, found themselves by the end of
the 1853 yellow fever epidemic caring for seven widows and about twenty
orphans Joseph Simon, president of the Hebrew Benevolent Society, called
a mass meeting of the Jewish community of New Orleans at the old Masonic
Hall on November 25, 1854 to address the need to create a home for them.
On March 14, 1855 the Association for the Relief of Jewish Widows
and Orphans was chartered and on August 7, 1855, the cornerstone of the
Jewish Widows and Orphans Home was laid at the corner of Jackson and Chippewa
Streets. On February 1, 1856 the building opened its doors to one widow
and her five children and seven other children who had neither father nor
mother.
In 1869 and again in 1876, it was necessary to enlarge the Home. By
1885, the needs of the Jewish population had increased to the point that
the building on Jackson and Chippewa was no longer sufficient to serve them.
To meet the increased need, a new site on St. Charles Avenue at the corner
of Peters Avenue (now Jefferson Avenue) was secured and a new building for
the Jewish Orphans Home was erected. On September 1, 1887, the 150 orphans
in its care moved into the new structure at 5342 St. Charles Avenue. By
1894, the widows were being cared for at Touro Infirmary, where they remained
until The Julius Weis Home for the Aged and Infirm, which served both men
and women, was opened in 1899. In 1896, the Jewish Orphans' Asylum was caring
for 126 children. In 1902, the Home served 135 children from seven Southern
states who had lost at least one of their parents. By 1930, The Jewish Widows
and Orphans Home was serving 151 children.
There was no rule for how long the children could stay in the home.
Some were adopted into good families; others remained until they reached
adulthood and were able to provide for themselves. Dowries were provided
for the girls when they married. Isidore Newman provided the money to build
a school to provide the children with a good education and manual training
so they would be equipped to provide for themselves and their families when
they matured. It was built at the corner of Peters Avenue (now Jefferson
Avenue) and S. Rampart Street, within easy walking distance of the Home.
The Jewish Children's Home closed after the death of its last superintendent,
Harry Ginsburg, who died June 25, 1946.
SOURCES:
Heller, Max. Jubilee Souvenir of Temple Sinai 1872-1922. [New Orleans]:
Congregation Temple Sinai, 1922.
Magner, Joseph. The Story of the Jewish Orphans Home of New Orleans. New
Orleans: J. G. Hauser, 1906.
Myers, W. E. The Israelites of Louisiana: Their Religious, Civic, Charitable
and Patriotic Life. New Orleans, W. E. Myers, 1902.
New Orleans Daily Picayune, January 8, 1856, pg. 2, col. 1.
New Orleans Daily Crescent, November 24, 1854, pg. 2, col. 3.
New Orleans Daily Picayune, September 5, 1887, pg. 2, col. 3-5.
New Orleans Daily Item, August 26, 1894, pg. 4, col. 5-6.
New Orleans States, January 12, 1896, pg. 6, col. 4-5.
New Orleans Daily Picayune, September 23, 1899, pg. 7, col. 1-7.
New Orleans Times Picayune, June 26, 1946, pg. 3, col. 6.
Correspondence with Ned Goldberg, Jewish Regional Children's Service.
------------------------------------
The JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME, Collection:
(1870-1967)
Institution established on Chippewah Street in 1855 by the HEBREW BENEVOLENT
SOCIETY to provide for widows and children made destitute by The yellow
fever epidemics and then by the casualties of the Civil War. Facility relocated
in 1877 to:
5342 St. Charles Avenue, the future site of the Jewish Community Center.
NOTE: In Howard Simons, "Jewish Times: Voices of the American
Jewish Experience," Houghton Mifflin, 1988, on pages 172-175 there
is an oral history of a lady named Freda Hyde Lowenthal. It tells of her
experiences, mostly quite pleasant, in the Jewish Orphan's Home in New Orleans,
at 5342 St Charles Avenue. It was run by the Jewish Federation.
(A special thank you to Naomi Fatouros for this information).
Archives and collections found at:
Special Collections Division
HOWARD-TILTON LIBRARY
TULANE UNIVERSITY
6823 St. Charles Avenue
New Orleans, LA 70118
Phone: (504)865-5685
Fax: (504)865-6773
NEWMAN SCHOOL: Originally established in 1903 as the Isidore Newman
Manual Training School, to educate the residents of the Jewish Children's
Home, located at St. Charles and Jefferson Avenues (1877-1948). The Home
became the site of the Jewish Community Center. (See New Orleans Art Schools
Records, Collection #522, and the Jewish Children's Home Records, Collection
#180).
***AND***
ASSOCIATION FOR THE RELIEF OF JEWISH WIDOWS AND ORPHANS OF NEW
ORLEANS
Records, 1854-1938. The Association was founded
in 1854 to establish and maintain an asylum for underprivileged widows and
orphans of the Jewish faith. The records consist of Board of Officer minute
books (1855-1938), minutes of annual meetings (1854-1913), and microfilm
copy of anniversary addresses and annual reports (1855-1861) and may be
found at the following location:
JACOB RADER MARCUS CENTER
of the
AMERICAN JEWISH ARCHIVES
Hebrew Union College - Jewish Institute of Religion
3101 Clifton Avenue
Cincinnati, OH 45220-2488
Email: Aja@cn.huc.edu
1915 Band Photograph of Moses "Mosie" Lew (center)
at the Jewish Children's Home, New Orleans, LA
from a book found at theTulane Archives
Courtesy of Bernie Hirsch, his cousin
*****The 1930 Federal
Census for the Jewish Widows & Orphans
Home may be accessed on the Federal and State Census Page of this
web site. Courtesy of Ellen Barnett Cleary
*****The 1900 Federal
Census for the Jewish Widows & Orphans
Home in New Orleans, Louisiana may be
accessed at: Jewish
Widows and Orphans Home, Orleans County
CHECK OUT ONLINE BOOKSTORE for Volume 8 of Southern Jewish History
(Includes Story of Jewish Children's Home of New Orleans:
"The 'Typical Home Kid Overachievers' Instilling a Success Ethic in
the Jewish Children's Home of New Orleans" by Wendy Besmann covers
the home since its inception in 1855 through its closing in 1946. Included
among sixteen archival photos is the first Jewish orphanage in the United
States.)
MARYLAND
BALTIMORE,
MARYLAND [1873]
HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM - (1873-1921)
HEBREW CHILDREN SHELTERING and PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION
(BETSY LEVY MEMORIAL HOME) - (1900-1921)
DAUGHTERS OF HANNAH - (1913)
Photo Rayner Sreet...taken June 2002 by Linda Kern
RECORDS for the HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM are
housed at the JEWISH MUSEUM. Call or write to Diane Feldman.
Some information about the HEBREW CHILDREN SHELTERING
and PROTECTIVE ASSOCIATION (BETSY LEVY MEMORIAL HOME) can also be
found at the JEWISH MUSEUM, but there are NO RECORDS available.
JEWISH MUSEUM
15 Lloyd Street
Baltimore, Maryland 21202
There is no information about any Alumni Association for either organization.
"The Making of An AmericanJewish Community" by Isaac Fine....P.155
The Jews of Baltimore.
**********
The DAUGHTERS OF HANNAH was an orphanage
and day nursery founded in 1913. In 1929 it was located at 1734 E. Baltimore
St., with 50 children in residence, ages 2-11. In the 1933 census, 10 children
were listed. Also know as DAUGHTERS OF HANNAH HOME FOR ORPHANS.
Photograph Courtesy of Steve Franklin
[From a photograph taken by his uncle,
Harry Abraham Franklin (or Abraham Hersh Franklin) who was the assistant
to his wife Rose (the superintendent, standing in back row) at the Daughters
of Hannah Orphanage in Baltimore in the 1920s and 1930s.]
Photograph dated Oct. 16, 1928
MASSACHUSETTS
BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS
[1822]
HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM - 1822*
BOSTON JEWISH ORPHANAGE - 1890 ? (No information)
HECHT NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE -
(Founded 1889 as HEBREW INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL)
JEWISH CHILDRENS BUREAU OF BOSTON
JEWISH CHILDRENS WELFARE ASSOCIATION
HEBREW HOME FOR DESTITUTE CHILDREN
See Census Information on Federal and
State Census Page
HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN
*HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM (founded 1822) as
HEBREW BENEVOLENT SOCIETY, various name changes until 1906. Merged 1940
into Jewish Child Care Center.
ARCHIVES consisting of an incomplete set of annual reports 1863-1926;
-copies of the charter and by-laws of 1867 and 1924;
-correspondence, 1884-1934, dealing with general matters, the Ladies Sewing
Circle, the Hebrew Sheltering Guardian Society and the Federation for support
of Jewish Philanthropies;
-includes files on bequests to the Asylum arranged alphabetically;
-a collection of unidentified photographs; a memorial to Emanuel Lehman;
-testimonials from the Brooklyn Hebrew Orphan Asylum Society and United
Hebrew Benevolent Association of Boston;
-applications for admission, 1864-1915;
-discharges, 1899-1940;
-admitting physician's reports, 1895-1903;
-list of children, 1874, 1876;
-medical records, 1935-1940;
-daily records of admissions and discharges, 1900-1927;
-school record, 1884-1892;
-conduct books, 1862-1884;
-statistical data for the years, 1862-1884;
-a register of visitors to children, 1902-1906;
-minutes of the Boards:
-membership books, 1881-1929;
-relief books, 1905-1907;
-a memorial book;
-a listing of orphans' estates and life insurance, 1874-1904;
-records relating to Edenwald and Friendly Home, 1916-1941;
-records for the Emanuel Lehman Provident and Industrial Trust Fund;
-membership lists of the Ladies Sewing Circle, 1876-1882;
-donations;
-student savings accounts.
**********
The HECHT NEIGHBORHOOD HOUSE was founded
in 1889 as the HEBREW INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL; it
changed its name in 1922; merged with YMHA of Boston in 1958/59 to become
YMHA-HECHT HOUSE.
Archives consist of 27 boxes of information:
Constitution, Minutes of Board of Trustees, Budgets, Financial Reports,
Materials on Membership, and Numerous Activities, Extensive Material on
Camping, Clubs, The Nursery School.
Includes Publications and Memorabilia and Similar Materials for the YMHA
(1933-1958), and for the merged organization from 1959-1970. Contains some
material of the HEBREW INDUSTRIAL SCHOOL.
ALL of the above Archives are held by:
AMERICAN JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY
BRANDEIS UNIVERSITY
2 Thornton Road
Waltham, MA 02154
The JEWISH CHILDRENS BUREAU OF BOSTON,
established in 1918 was involved in placing children in boarding homes.
In 1923, placed 105 children.
The JEWISH CHILD WELFARE ASSOCIATION was
a residential care facility for dependent children.
**********
HEBREW HOME FOR DESTITUTE CHILDREN (No other information is know
as this time, except for Census Information on Federal
and State Census Page)
**********
In the 1933 and 1923 Censuses, the HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN was
a residential care facility for white dependent children, under the auspices
of Jewish Charities, established in 1900, no address given.
In 1925, it was located at 160 Canterbury St.in Dorcester with 160 beds
and this location was established in 1897. With the same name and located
on Canterbury and Austin Sts., the facility contained 225 inmates.
It was organized in 1909.
BROOKLINE,
MASSACHUSETTS [1977?]
LEDGEWOOD HOME FOR JEWISH CHILDREN
In 1979, it was located at 316 Harvard St.,
02146
In 1977, it was located at 1000 Harvard St., Dorcester, MA 02122 and was
a facility for emotionally
disturbed boys.
(No further information is known at this time)
WORCESTER,
MASSACHUSETTS [1916]
JEWISH HOME FOR AGED AND ORPHANS
The JEWISH HOME FOR AGED AND ORPHANS open
in 1916 with residential care for 17 children. There is no address given.
Perhaps akin to Jewish Service Center for older Adults, whose last known
address was 270 Park Avenue, Worcester, MA 01609.
MICHIGAN
DETROIT, MICHIGAN
[1918]
DETROIT HEBREW ORPHAN HOME
DETROIT HEBREW INFANTS ORPHANS HOME
JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME
In its 25 years of existence, the JEWISH CHILDREN'S
HOME or its predecessors, the DETROIT HEBREW
ORPHAN HOME and the DETROIT HEBREW INFANT ORPHAN
HOME, served hundreds of Jewish Children.
The following history was taken from "THE DETROIT JEWISH NEWS,"
courtesy of :
JEWISH FEDERATION of METROPOLITAN
DETROIT
6735 Telegraph, Suite 30
P O Box 2030
Bloomfield Hills, MI 48303-2030
"History Recalls 25 Years of Service to Jewish Children"
,by Jill Davidson Sklar, Staff Writer, The Detroit Jewish News. This is
a side bar from her article "A Long Way From Home", an article
recalling memories of people who once lived in the Jewish Children's Home,
March 10, 1995.
From a disagreement about boarding Jewish children in Christian homes
to an abandoned field in a deteriorating neighborhood, the Jewish orphanages
of Detroit took a long time to become operational and a short time to dismantle.
It all started in turn-of-the-century Detroit, when there was no facility
in the area to care for Jewish children. Jewish orphans, children without
either parent alive, were sent by United Jewish Charities (UJC) to a regional
orphanage in Cleveland. The children were then adopted by Jewish families
or raised by caretakers.
Detroit's UJC also acted as a social placement agency for children who
had only one parent to care for them because of divorce, death or illness.
To make it easier to reunite the families when the situations improved,
those children were placed in boarding homes or foster care until the family
could find better accommodations.
But boarding homes would not take in a child under the age of 5, who
required special care. Jewish adoptive and foster homes were few.
Because no formal Jewish child-care facility was located in Detroit
until 1918, UJC placed the children in any available home, Jewish or gentile.
This angered community members who felt the children should be in a Jewish
environment.
"The late Fred Butzel told the author that prior to the formation
of the Infants' Home, Jewish infants were boarded out to non-Jewish families,
where boys were not circumcised according to the halachically prescribed
time," wrote Allen Warsen in a 1985 publication of the Jewish Historical
Society of Michigan.
The alarm prompted action. A group of Jewish citizens formed the DETROIT HEBREW ORPHAN HOME in 1918. A fund-raising
plan was formulated and bylaws passed.
The group decided that the purpose of the home was "to bring up
and educate orphans of Jewish parentage who have remained alone, friendless
and helpless. All children shall be trained and educated in the Orthodox
belief and faith and according to Jewish National traditions, Jewish, Hebrew
and English languages shall be taught."
Members of the founding group recruited friends and family to join the
roster of supporters. Eight hundred people contributed $3 each and many
more attended social functions that served as fund-raisers.
In 1920, the group secured the first home, located near the corner of
Rowena and Woodward. It was an area once lined with grand homes built at
the turn of the century that has since become a run-down stretch of Mack
Avenue.
The group also organized the DETROIT HEBREW INFANT'S
ORPHAN HOME for children under age 5. The home was first located
at Canfield and Woodward, but later moved to 262 Rowena, two blocks from
the home for the older children.
DETROIT'S JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME was born
when the two local homes were combined in 1930 at the recommendation of
the Jewish Child Care Council, a Jewish Welfare Federation committee comprising
members of the boards of both homes. Under the council's direction, a new
facility was built at Petoskey and Burlingame and the two other buildings
were vacated.
In 1931, a year after the home opened, the Jewish Welfare Federation
commissioned a study of child-care institutions. Jacob Kepecs, an expert
in such matters, informed the Federation that placing infants and young
children in the home was "contrary to the best thought and practice
in the field."
Mr. Kepecs said that young children and infants should be placed in
private foster homes instead of institutional settings.
The advice was ignored.
The population of the home steadily climbed through the 1930's until
it peaked in 1937 at 57 children. Then it fell to 24 in 1940.
The reason for the decline, wrote the late Jewish community historian
Anne Chapin in her comprehensive History of Jewish Welfare Federation
of Detroit 1926-1949 , was the improved ability to keep families together
through the Jewish Social Services Bureau, and the greater availability
of public assistance.
A survey conducted in mid-1940 at the request of home president Herman
Cohen recommended that no more children be placed in institutional care.
By late 1940, the rest of the children were reunited with their parents
and the smaller children were placed in foster care.
During World War II, the home was converted to a day-care center for
children of parents involved in the war effort.
When the war ended in 1945, the board of the Jewish Children's Bureau
voted to deed the property to the adjacent Jewish Home for the Aged.
The building was demolished by the city in 1987.
ARCHIVE INFORMATION:
The remainder of the physical evidence lies in a lonely file in the
basement of the Detroit Public Library. A part of the Jewish Welfare Federation
archives in the Burton Historical Collection, the manila folder contains
thin onion-skin paper copies of correspondence about the building or the
children: a report on an epidemic of chickenpox that swept through the home,
a 1938 census of the inhabitants, a slim report on the home's demise.
{The following reference information is gathered from "HARMONY
& DISSONANCE: Voices of Jewish Identity in Detroit, 1914-1967",
by Sidney M. Bolkosky, Pub. Wayne State University Press, Detroit, MI, 1991}
In July 1931 the two orphan institutions (HEBREW
ORPHANS HOME and INFANTS ORPHANS HOME) had merged to form the JEWISH CHILDREN'S
HOME, which assumed new lodgings in the United Jewish Charities Building
on Petoskey and Burlingame in December 1932. the new institution served
children from infancy to sixteen years of age. By 1935 it house thirty-eight
children and by 1936, fifty-three. Its funding came from the Detroit Community
Fund, personal donations, membership dues, and allocations from the Jewish
Welfare Federation.
There are some records archived for the HEBREW ORPHANS HOME at:
YIVO INSTITUTE FOR JEWISH RESEARCH
555 West 57th Street
New York, NY 10019
(212)246-6080
Fax: (212)292-1892
MINNESOTA
MINNEAPOLIS,
MINNESOTA [1918]
JEWISH FAMILY WELFARE ASSOCIATION
SHELTERING HOME FOR HOMELESS JEWISH CHILDREN
JEWISH SHELTER HOME FOR CHILDREN
In 1918, the JEWISH FAMILY WELFARE ASSOCIATION,
was a residence care facility for 30 dependent children. In 1979, there
address was listed as 811 La Salle Ct., Minneapolis, MN.
The SHELTERING HOME FOR HOMELESS JEWISH CHILDREN
was established in 1919 and located at 1704 10th Avenue North. In 1933 name
was JEWISH SHELTER HOME FOR CHILDREN with 15
dependent children.
SAINT PAUL,
MINNESOTA [1911]
JEWISH WELFARE ASSOCIATION
The JEWISH WELFARE ASSOCIATION, was a residential
care facility for about 6 dependent children and was established in 1911.
Possible records are held at the Jewish Family Services, whose 1978 address
was 1546 Saint Clair Ave, Saint Paul, MN 55105.
MISSOURI
KANSAS CITY,
MISSOURI [1919]
SISTERS' AID SOCIETY AND ORPHANS' HOME
SISTERS' AID JEWISH ORPHANS' HOME
GUARDIAN SOCIETY FOR JEWISH CHILDREN
JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME
One of the last of the Orthodox-sponsored charities to be organized
in Kansas City, was the SISTERS' AID SOCIETY and ORPHANS'
HOME. The society originated in 1917 when Mrs. Ethel Katz called
together a group of ten women who elected officers and began to meet regularly
with the purpose of establishing an orphanage in Kansas City. Till then,
all Jewish orphans had been sent to the CLEVELAND orphanage or were placed
in non-Jewish homes in Kansas City. But a strong sentiment arose to provide
a Jewish framework for the local care of both orphaned children or those
from broken homes.
In 1919 as the question of purchasing the David Travis home was discussed,
the latter decided to donate his home and promised $1,000 a year to maintain
it. With such auspicious beginnings, the organization adopted a new charter,
elected officers, and called for a census to determine the number of Jewish
children needing a home. Through donations and dues (fifty cents a month),
the society by 1921 h ad $5,000 in its treasury, and its membership had
grown to over 900. Apparently, the Travis home did not prove adequate, and
the SISTERS' AID SOCIETY purchased the former estate of Mr. Hathaway for
$11,000 at 3224 East 9th Street. The home was remodeled and then dedicated
as the SISTERS' AID JEWISH ORPHANS' HOME on
July 3-4, 1921 with Mrs. Ida Netia Brenner appointed as superintendent and
close to 25 children in her charge. By the fall of that year, with 33 children,
the United Synagogues (Orthodox group) engaged a Hebrew teacher for the
Home to give daily instructions for two hours a day following the full program
of the Orthodox Hebrew schools.
Financial aid for the Home was provided not only by the women of the
Sisters' Aid Society, but also by the men who were involved from the society's
reorganization in 1919 when their separate board of directors seems to have
combined with the ladies' group. In 1927, the expenses were estimated at
about $500 per year per child, with forty children ranging in age from three
to sixteen years. The children attended the local public school or high
school, the synagogue and the synagogue Sunday school to become better integrated
with the community. Though many of the children had one parent, by the accepted
standard of that day, the Home was felt to offer better opportunities for
individual growth and citizenship training than one parent could provide.
The Home prided itself on its homelike atmosphere and its observance of
Jewish traditions.
In 1931, the society decided to change its name to the GUARDIAN
SOCIETY FOR JEWISH CHILDREN. The name of the Home was changed to
JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME, an obvious indication
of the change of sentiment associated with the word orphan, although the
official justification was that the Home served not only orphans but cared
for all dependent children whether orphans, or children from broken homes,
or problem children.
In 1941, as the need for a home gradually diminished, a community study
of 1939 urged its closing. By the end of 1941 it was depopulated.
Throughout these years and continuing to the present day, the Society
has generously used the interest income from a $40,000 trust fund originally
intended to be used for the purchase of a new building, to grant scholarships
to deserving young people, chiefly for Jewish camps, the annual Israel pilgrimage
and for pursuing a Jewish studies program at college.
(The above are excerpts are from a book entitled: "Mid-America's
Promise", edited by Dr. Joseph Schultz and published in conjunction
with the American Jewish Historical Society in 1982)
ST LOUIS, MISSOURI
[1909]
JEWISH ORPHAN'S HOME - (1909)
JEWISH SHELTER HOME - (1910)
JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME - (1920's)
The JEWISH ORPHAN'S HOME, established in
1909, a/k/a JEWISH ORPHAN'S HOME OF ST LOUIS, was located at 6630 Oakland
in 1937. In residence were 72 children ages 6 plus. (No connection to the
JEWISH SHELTER HOME)
The JEWISH SHELTER HOME, founded in 1910
was a resident care facility for dependent children under the auspices of
Jewish Charities. Between 1910 and 1919, it served over 100 children. In
1919, it was located at 2236 Tower Grove Avenue in St. Louis.
Known as the JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME for
most of its existence, it was founded in the 1920's and disbanded in 1963.
Before the establishment of this orphanage many of the children from St.
Louis were sent to the Cleveland Jewish Orphan Asylum. In 1910, there was
a movement to establish an Orthodox orphanage in St. Louis, as CJOA in Cleveland
housed 70 children from St. Louis. The JEWISH CHILDREN'S HOME was located
on Forest Park Boulevard adjacent to Highway 40.
Their records are archived at:
THE JEWISH FAMILY AND CHILDREN'S
SERVICE
Attn: Rochelle Novak
9385 Olive Boulevard
St. Louis, Missouri 63132
There is no alumni association, although they did have a successful
reunion several years ago.
NEBRASKA
OMAHA, NEBRASKA
[1919]
JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER AND WELFARE FEDERATION
Established in 1919 the JEWISH COMMUNITY CENTER
AND WELFARE FEDERATION was a residential care facility for 19 dependent
children. There is no known address. In 1903, the Jewish Welfare Federation
of Omaha was founded and located at 748 Brandeis Building, Omaha, NE.
No other information known.
NEW JERSEY
CLIFTON, NEW
JERSEY [1921]
(PATTERSON, NEW JERSEY)
DAUGHTERS OF MIRIAM HOME for the AGED and ORPHANS
The DAUGHTERS OF MIRIAM HOME for the AGED and
ORPHANS was founded in 1921 in a building at 469 River Street, Paterson,
New Jersey. In 1921, Nathan Barnert, a prominent Jewish citizen and Mayor
of Paterson, purchased the property know as Ashley Homestead on River Street
and started this organization, which was name after his late wife Miriam.
They moved to 155 Hazel Street, Clifton, New Jersey in 1927.
The orphanage was phased out around in 1948. It sill operates its Home
for the Aged at the Clifton Address. There is no alumni association and
information on where records are archived is unknown at this time.
For further information:
DAUGHTERS OF MIRIAM HOME FOR THE
AGED
155 Hazel Street
Clifton, New Jersy 07015
(973)772-3700
JERSEY CITY,
NEW JERSEY [1915]
HEBREW ORPHANS ASYLUM
HEBREW ORPHANS HOME
HEBREW ORPHANS HOME OF HUDSON COUNTY
HEBREW HOME FOR ORPHANS AND AGED OF HUDSON COUNTY
The HEBREW ORPHANS ASYLUM opened in 1915
and in 1917 changed its name to the HEBREW ORPHANS
HOME. In 1919, it was called the HEBREW ORPHANS
HOME OF HUDSON COUNTY and was located on Herns Ave, Jersey City,
NJ. In 1933 was called the HEBREW HOME FOR ORPHANS
AND AGED OF HUDSON COUNTY and was located on Boulevard and Van Nostrand
Ave in Jersey City. In residence were 58 Hebrew dependent and orhaned children
ages 5-16.
NEWARK, NEW
JERSEY [1861]
HEBREW BENEVOLENT AND ORPHAN ASYLUM SOCIETY
BET YETOMIN
HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM*
[With./1905 NJ State Census List of Names]
HEBREW ORPHANAGE AND SHELTERING HOME
January 1861 - 14 Newark Jews created an orphanage named in German,
later changed to the HEBREW BENEVOLENT SOCIETY.
Orphans were boarded with private families.
1886 - BET YETOMIN, a three story orphan's
home was purchased at 232 Mulberry St., Newark, and was non-observant in
traditions.
1887 - The HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM is opened
at 232 Mulberry Street
1905 - They moved to 534 Clinton Avenue, Newark.
1911 - There were 67 children at the Home.
1948 - Children's Home merged with other child care organizations into
one agency _ JEWISH CHILD CARE ASSOCIATION. Serviced troubled as well as
parentless children.
*NOTE: 1905
New Jersey State Census Information for the
HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM,
NEWARK, NJ
may be accessed on the FEDERAL
and STATE CENSUS Page on this site.
******
1923 - Orthodox women established the very observant HEBREW
ORPHANAGE AND SHELTERING HOME. It was first located at Homestead
Park, and later moved to 141 Lincoln Avenue, Newark.
Neither home currently exists. JEWISH FAMILY SERVICE absorbed JEWISH
CHILD CARE ASSOCIATION and is a deficit financed agency of the UNITED JEWISH
FEDERATION OF METROWEST.
The JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF METROWEST does have an anniversary
pamphlet in its archives, which gives the history of the non-orthodox home
in greater detail, entitled:
"One Hundred Years of Service" by Jane Wallerstein
Whatever records exist are in the JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY Archives,
but there would not be much. For additional information:
JEWISH HISTORICAL SOCIETY OF METROWEST
Joseph Settanni, Archivist
901 Route 10 E
Whippany, New Jersey 07981
(973)884-4800 Ext. 565
Photocopying can be provided at a nominal charge per page. There is
no charge for research done at the JHS Headquarters, but suggest making
an appointment in advance.
There is no known Orphan's Alumni Association.
NEW YORK
BRONX, NEW YORK
[1903]
HEBREW CHILDREN'S HOME (Bronx and Rockaway
Beach, NY)
In 1900, an institution called HEBREW CHILDREN'S
HOME was located on Fulton Corner -Eastern
Ave, Oceanus (Rockaway Beach) Queens. It possibly opened before 1900, but
was incorporated in 1903.
In 1935, it was located at 201 Mount Eden Avenue
in the Bronx as a temporary shelter for 26 children, ages 2 - 12. Between
1940 and 1946, at the same address it was still a shelter for 50/100 children,
ages 3-10. It was still a shelter and became an Emergency Reception Center
in 1954 for 50 boys and girls; location was, 1683 Monroe.
Same name and address in 1954, it was now an interracial
temporary shelter for 50 normal children, ages 3-11, from all the 5 Boroughs
of New York. In 1977, it closed its doors.
SHIELD OF DAVID HOME FOR ORPHAN GIRLS
The SHIELD OF DAVID HOME FOR ORPHAN GIRLS
first opened as a school and services for retarded Jewish Children. In 1933,
it operated as a resident home for 65 orphaned and dependent girls. From
1935 through 1946 it was located at 718 Bryant Avenue and later moved to
Andrews Avenue.
There were two affiliated organizations, known as the Mother's Organization
and the Men's Organization that engaged in fund raising activities. Rose
and Ellis P. Levy were benefactors of the Shield. The director's name from
the late 1920's to at least 1937 was Isadore Rees.
Last known address in 1977 was The Shield Institute, 1800 Andrews Ave.,
Bronx, NY 10453.
BROOKLYN,
NEW YORK [1878]
BROOKLYN HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM
For Information on BHOA's Alumni Association and History........
1906 Post Card
(Please go to: JCCA PAGE)
COUNCIL HOME FOR JEWISH
GIRLS (Brooklyn and Jamaica, NY)
Established in 1914, the COUNCIL HOME FOR JEWISH
GIRLS, was located at Rockaway Blvd and Dains
Avenue, Jamaica, Queens. In 1921, it was located at 8220 12th Avenue in
Brooklyn. The 1933 State Census, listed it as an institution for delinquent
and problem Jewish girls, ages 12-16. Under the auspices of the National
Council of Jewish Women, Brooklyn Section, only 2 dependent girls were reported.
INDEPENDENT DAUGHTERS
OF ISRAEL ORPHAN ASYLUM OF BROOKLYN
A listing found for 1917-1919, of the INDEPENDENT DAUGHTER OF ISRAEL ORPHAN ASYLUM OF BROOKLYN, gave an address location at 617 Willoughby Avenue. No
further information was given.
INFANTS HOME OF BROOKLYN
For Information on INFANTS HOME OF BROOKLYN
(Please go to: JCCA PAGE)
OHEL CHILDREN'S HOME
The OHEL CHILDREN'S HOME, office location in 1977 at 407 16th Avenue,
Brooklyn, places Jewish children in Orthodox Jewish adoptive and foster
homes in the NYC area. It operated the OHEL residence at 1523 58th St.,
Brooklyn for 20 dependent and disturbed Orthodox Jewish boys and girls,
ages 6-15. Also operated 2 small group homes. The address of the office
location in 1979 was at 4423 16th Avenue, Brooklyn. Note: "OHEL"
is Hebrew for "TENT".
PRIDE OF JUDEA
ISRAEL ORPHAN ASYLUM OF BROWNSVILLE and EAST NEW YORK
In 1919, the building at 992 Dumont Avenue, was under construction for
the ISRAEL ORPHAN ASYLUM OF BROWNSVILLE and EAST NEW
YORK. It was organized in 1916.
Established in 1923, PRIDE OF JUDEA was
a small Jewish Orphanage with at one time an average population of 250 boys
and girls. It was located at 992 Dumont Avenue in the East New York section
of Brooklyn, NY in the former building of the Israel Orphan Asylum.
The 1933 State Census showed a residential care facility under religious
auspices for 176 dependent white children. The PRIDE OF JUDEA in 1935, showed
it to be a home and congregate care facility for 210 Orthodox Jewish children,
ages 5-18. The same name and address posted for 1946, for Orthodox Jewish
Children, ages 6-16.
In 1954, PRIDE OF JUDEA was located at 1000 Dumont Ave., and listed
as a congregate care facility for 175 dependent Jewish children, referred
by the Dept. of Welfare, children's court, etc.
In 1959, PRIDE OF JUDEA became the Pride of Judea - Mental Health Center
and in 1972 moved to Douglaston, NY in Queens County. It is now regarded
as one of the finest mental health centers in the State of New York.
At the same address in 1965, it became Pride of Judea Children's Services
and in 1979 was listed as Pride of Judea Treatment Center, at 243-02 Northern
Blvd., Douglaston, Queens, NY, with non-sectarian psychiatric services.
The Pride of Judea MentalHealth Center recently joined with, and is
now a part of, the the JEWISH BOARD FOR FAMILY and CHILDREN'S SERVICES.
PRIDE OF JUDEA - MENTAL HEALTH CENTER
243-02 Northern Boulevard
Douglaston, NY 11362-1199
There is still an active Alumni Association and an Alumni Newsletter.
For any information for joining or subscribing to the newsletter, please
write:
ROSE NADLER SCHEFER ALUMNI CHAPTER
of the
PRIDE OF JUDEA CHILDREN'S HOME
Stan Friedland
10 Circle Drive
Syosset, NY 11791
The Pride of Judea was regarded quite highly by their Alumni as they
look back at it. Thus two of its alumni have authored a wonderful book about
the Pride of Judea, called:
"AN ORPHAN HAS MANY PARENTS"
by Phil Craft and Stan Friedland
Published in 1998 by KTAV Publishers, Hoboken, NJ.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON THE PR IDE OF JUDEA CHILDRENS' HOME,
please access the
There you will find more history, alumni information, book reviews for
"An Orhan Has Many Parents' as well as a Photo Album.
BUFFALO, NEW
YORK [1879]
JEWISH ORPHANS ASYLUM SOCIETY
JEWISH ORPHANS ASYLUM OF WESTERN NEW YORK
JEWISH MOTHERS' CLUB NURSERY AND TEMPORARY HOME
JEWISH MOTHERS' CLUB
JEWISH WELFARE SERVICE
Organized in 1879, the JEWISH ORPHANS ASYLUM SOCIETY
was affiliated with the JEWISH ORPHANS ASYLUM OF WESTERN
NEW YORK at Rochester.
In 1920, The JEWISH MOTHERS' CLUB NURSERY AND
TEMPORARY HOME was established. In 1927, called the JEWISH
MOTHER'S CLUB, residential care for 26 dependent children, ages 1-13
and was located at 252 Adams St. From 1934 through 1942 it was located at
56 Johnson St in Buffalo with 36 beds for temporary overnight care.
The JEWISH WELFARE SERVICE located at 398
Jefferson St, Buffalo, was established in 1934 as a residential care home
for 69 dependent children.
FAR ROCKAWAY,
NEW YORK [1914]
CHILDREN'S HAVEN
Established in 1914, the CHILDREN'S HAVEN
was under the auspices of Jewish Charities. In 1919, it was located on Hollywood
Avenue, Far Rockaway, Queens. The 1923 State Census shows 29 white children,
whose Mother's were ill.
In 1933 State Census, the address was listed as 234 Broadway, Far Rockaway,
as a residential care facility for 75 dependent Jewish children, ages 3-14.
HAWTHORNE,
NEW YORK [1906]
HAWTHORNE-CEDAR KNOLLS SCHOOL
HAWTHORNE-CEDAR KNOLLS SCHOOL in Westchester
County was a residence school for delinquent Jewish Boys and Girls, committed
by Juvenile Court, under the auspices of the Jewish Protectory and Aid Society.
HAWTHORNE for boys opened in 1906 and CEDAR KNOLLS for girls opened in 1912. The children
came from New York City, Nassau and Westchester Counties.
Last known address in 1980 was 226 Linda Ave, Hawthorne, NY 10532.
For more Information on this institution......
(Please go to: JCCA PAGE)
LAWRENCE,
NEW YORK [1919]
FRIENDLY HOME FOR GIRLS
Established in 1919, the FRIENDLY HOME FOR GIRLS,
was an auxiliary of the HEBREW ORPHANS ASYLUM of NEW YORK (HOA). See HOA
on JCCA Page for more information.
For more Information on this institution.......
(Please go to: JCCA PAGE)
NEW YORK, NEW
YORK [1822]
JCCA is Successor to the following orphanages, societies and others
in the New York area:
BROOKLYN HEBREW ORPHAN ASYLUM (BHOA)
CENTRAL COMMITTEE FOR FRIENDLY AID TO JEWISH GIRLS
CHILDRENS SERVICE BUREAU
CHILDREN'S DAY & NIGHT SHELTER
CHILDVILLE
CORNER HOUSE
DAUGHTERS OF ZION, HEBREW DAY & NIGHT NURSERY (DZHD&NN)
EDENWALD SCHOOL (auxiliary of HOA)
***EDENWALD SCHOOL FOR BOYS
***EDENWALD SCHOOL FOR GIRLS
FELLOWSHIP HOUSE FOR BOYS
FREE SYNAGOGUE CHILD ADOPTION COMMITTEE
FRIENDLY HOME FOR GIRLS (auxiliary of HOA) [see
LAWRENCE, NY]
GELLER HOUSE
GIRLS CLUB OF BROOKLYN
GUSTAVE HARTMAN HOME FOR CHILDREN
HARTMAN-HOMECREST
HARTMAN H