MS 207 Hebrew Young Men’s Sick Relief Association

Here is one of our most recent Mansuscript Collections processed in the Spring of 2012.

Hebrew Young Men’s Sick Relief Association Papers

1888-1978

MS 207

The Jewish Museum of Maryland

ACCESS AND PROVENANCE

The Hebrew Young Men’s Sick Relief Association Papers were found in the collection of the Jewish Museum of Maryland and given the accession number 2006.48.001 and 1996.164.028. The collection was processed in May of 2012.

Access to the collection is unrestricted and is available to researchers at the Jewish Museum of Maryland. Researchers must obtain the 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 procedures.

50th Anniversary committee Hebrew Young Men’s Sick Relief Association, 1938. Courtesy of Paul Frankle. 2009.53.1

HISTORICAL NOTE

The Hebrew Young Men’s Sick Relief Association was founded in September 1888 by three recent immigrants; Aaron Grollman, Feivel Kirshner and Samuel Levi. Its main purpose was to assist immigrant Jews from Russia and Lithuania settling in Baltimore. They adopted the slogan: “Love, Brotherhood and Friendship”. Services included: assisting members in time of sickness, aiding widows and orphans, and in times of disaster offering aid to all regardless of faith.

The Association established a Chevra Kadisha to properly attend to deceased members. In 1893 they purchased land and dedicated it for a cemetery. In 1936 a new cemetery was bought on Windsor Mill Road. The organization next established an endowment fund where, upon the death of a member, $200.00 was paid to the widows and orphans to assist them and prevent them from becoming public charges.

In public disasters the Association did its share and offered aid to the suffering regardless of faith; in February 1904 when Baltimore had its Great Fire, during World Wars I and II, and after the Balfour Declaration contributed toward the establishment and development of Israel.

The Hebrew Young Men’s Sick and Relief Association celebrated its fiftieth anniversary in 1938 when it had nearly a thousand members. The Association was still in existence as late as 1978.

SCOPE AND CONTENT

The Hebrew Young Men’s Sick Relief Association collection consists of administrative documents records and programs. Records include constitution and by-laws in English and Yiddish, financial reports, agreements with cemeteries and minutes of meetings.

Minutes include financial statements and rosters with the earliest in Yiddish. There is information regarding programs and events from 1938 to 1978.

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