MS 197 Menasha E. Katz Collection

The JMM is lucky enough to have many small personal collections.  These collections sometimes focus on a single aspect of a person’s life or they might contain fragments of information about their youth and adulthood.  While these small personal collections don’t usually give us a complete picture, they tend to have those little details – a letter or a photo – that make the past come alive or strike a cord with genealogists looking for their ancestors.

Katz family members, in Romania, unidentified female cousin, Dina, Fanny, and mother. JMM 1988.75.9

Menasha E. Katz (b.1902) Collection

1947-1961 (bulk 1947-1953)

MS 197

 Jewish Museum of Maryland

ACCESS AND PROVENANCE

The Menasha E. Katz Collection was donated to the Jewish Museum of Maryland by Mr. Irwin Kramer in 1988 as accession 1988.75. The collection was processed in 2011 by Mary Barthelme.

Access to the collection is unrestricted and available to researchers at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Researchers must obtain written permission of the Jewish Museum of Maryland before publishing quotations from materials in the collection. Papers may be copied in accordance with the library’s usual practices

US Army Patches worn by Katz. JMM 1988.75.14–.19

BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH

Menasha E. Katz was born in 1902 in Romania.  He immigrated toBaltimore with his father, Luzer Katz, mother, Golda Katz, and sister, Rebecca, in 1911.  Five other siblings, Samuel, Benjamin, Jake, Morris and Mary lived in the United Statesalready.  Katz served in the United States Army from 1918 to 1922. He then joined the Maryland Police Department.  He had a wife Fannie and four children, Marlene, Carolyn, Gloria and Benjamin.

In 1953 Menasha E. Katz was selected for the United States Pistol Team in the 4^th World Maccabiah Olympics inIsrael.

Menasha Katz and Ronnie Greenfeld. JMM 1988.75.11

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The Menasha E. Katz Collection consists of personal letters, booklets, yearbooks, and newspaper clippings and addresses related to the 4^th World Maccabiah Olympics, family and the Holocaust, and the Jewish National Workers’ Alliance.  The letters are from family, Avram Pecenick in Romania, and from the Office of the Israeli Prime Minister David Ben-Gurion.  In the collection there are booklets on the Holocaust and the Nazi regime.  The collection also contains clippings and other ephemera related to the 4^th World Maccabiah Olympic Games.  The collection is organized by personal items first and printed texts at the end.  Photographs include family members of Menasha E. Katz in Romania and Menasha E. Katz in various settings.