Scope and Content Note
The records of the National Council of Jewish Women, Washington, D.C., Office span the years 1924-2018, with the bulk of the material dating from 1944 to 2010. The records principally concern the lobbying activities of the Washington office under the tenures of Olya Margolin (1944-1978) and of Sammie Moshenberg (1987-2014), and supplement the records of the national office, also held by the Library of Congress. The collection consists of correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, legislation, notes, speeches and testimony, publications, newsletters, press releases, photographs, newspaper clippings, and other printed matter. The records are organized into five series: Series I (1940-1949), Series II (1950-1959), Series III (1960-1969), Series IV (1970-1979), and Series V: 2021 Addition. Each series is arranged into office and subject files; Series V also includes oversize.
Hannah G. Solomon organized the Congress of Jewish Women in 1893 to coordinate the participation of Jewish women in the World's Columbian Exposition's Parliament of Religions in Chicago. Following the exposition's close, Solomon oversaw the congress's transformation into the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), a permanent organization engaged in legislative and community action. By the time of its first convention in 1896, the NCJW had over three thousand members and fifty-two local sections. Between 1945 and 1975, the council averaged one hundred thousand members organized into more than two hundred sections. The council has established many local, national, and international programs related to education and social action. National committees assist in the administration of council programs and receive technical support and expertise from professionally staffed departments based at council headquarters. Members vote on council policies and resolutions at national conventions, which were held every three years until 1953 and every two years thereafter.
In 1944 the national council established a Washington, D.C., office. The founding of the Washington office occurred at a time when the United States Congress and government agencies were creating public liaison divisions to solicit more active support from civic organizations. In April, the council hired Olya Margolin as its first full-time Washington representative. Through Margolin's labors, the Washington office became an information clearinghouse on legislation and government programs of interest to the NCJW. She worked with council members and other organizations to shape national legislation of concern to both the Jewish community and the general public.
During the 1950s and most of the 1960s, Margolin's activities were coordinated through the council's Public Affairs Department (later renamed National Affairs Department) in New York. In 1956 the council established a Washington, D.C., subcommittee, whose volunteer members assisted the Washington office by attending hearings, meetings, and conferences. The subcommittee founded the Washington Institute on Public Affairs in 1958 and the Joint Program Institute in 1972, annual workshops at which council members from across the country attended briefings by government officials and conducted interviews with members of Congress. Margolin retired as the NCJW Washington representative in 1978. Miriam ("Micky") Salkind succeeded her in this position.
The collection's first four series correspond to the four decades in which Margolin served as Washington representative. The continuity of her service and the completeness of the records provide insight into the legislative activities of a women's organization in the post-World War II era. Throughout this period, the NCJW maintained an active interest in older adults, child care, consumer issues, education, employment, food and nutrition, foreign assistance, housing, immigration, Israel, Jewish life and culture, minors in the criminal justice system, national health insurance, social welfare, trade, the United Nations, women's rights, and other issues. Special concerns emerged in each decade: atomic warfare, European refugees, postwar price controls, and the establishment of the United Nations during the latter 1940s; the council's Freedom Campaign against McCarthyism in the early 1950s; civil rights and gender-based discrimination during the 1960s; and abortion rights, human rights, and Soviet Jewry during the 1970s. In 1971 the council reversed its long-standing opposition to the Equal Rights Amendment. In 1976 Margolin's decision to meet with representatives from the Palestine Liberation Organization sparked controversy within the council and the international Jewish community.
Each of these first four series is arranged into office and subject files. The office files include material from the national board of directors, committees and departments, conventions, institutes, workshops, programs, and publications. Margolin's role within the NCJW is most directly documented through general correspondence as well as her correspondence with committee chairs, department heads, national officers, and committees and departments. Minutes and reports from the public and national affairs committees and the Washington, D.C., subcommittee also contain useful information about her activities.
The office files provide information on the scope of NCJW activities. Margolin represented the range of council interests and programs and accumulated committee minutes and correspondence, convention and workshop material, bylaws, resolutions, directories, manuals, and council publications within her files. The records include material from local sections. Greater documentation exists from the Washington, D.C., section. The office files also contain official and general correspondence between the national organization and local sections and printed matter from Maryland, Michigan, New York, Ohio, and Virginia sections, among others.
The office files include material from two organizations founded in part by the NCJW. Extensive council involvement in each organization justifies its place in the office files. The Women's Joint Congressional Committee (WJCC) was organized in 1920 to serve as a clearinghouse and information center for legislation pending in Congress. Margolin was an active member and officeholder in the WJCC throughout her tenure as the NCJW Washington representative. In 1964 the NCJW with three other women's organizations founded Women in Community Service (WICS). This volunteer organization sponsored local and national community welfare programs and provided training support for Women's Jobs Corps programs.
The Subject Files subseries for each decade document Margolin's relationship with Congress, government agencies, and various advocacy groups, citizen's organizations, professional associations, and service agencies. Most of these files are arranged by name of organization, conference, government agency, or piece of legislation. Subject groupings of material generally reflect the council's main legislative interests. Margolin either collaborated with or was a member of many of the organizations listed in the subject files. In her capacity as Washington representative, she dealt frequently with the Department of Health, Education and Welfare, Children's Bureau, Equal Employment Opportunity Commission, Housing and Home Finance Agency, Office of Economic Opportunity, Office of Price Administration, and Women's Bureau. She and other council members also participated in numerous White House committees and conferences.
Series V: 2021 Addition primarily contains the records of the Washington, D.C., office under the leadership of Sammie Moshenberg and Jody Rabhan. As with the other series, the addition is similarly arranged into office and subject files that document the Washington office’s involvement in programs, campaigns, task forces, and general advocacy efforts related to reproductive rights, child care, health care, voting rights, domestic violence, the separation of religion and state, and the judicial nomination process, among other issues. Office files also include administrative records, such as board and committee meeting minutes, convention, retreat, and workshop programs and associated materials, NCJW bylaws, resolutions, directories, and staff manuals, as well as a variety of council publications from the Washington office, the national office, and various NCJW sections around the country. A significant portion of the office files relate to the planning and execution of the Washington Institute, and the management of the State Public Affairs committee as well as the Field Services department, which focused on section membership and expansion.
Subject Files primarily comprise reference materials for a wide variety of advocacy efforts that the Washington Office contributed to, consulted on, or kept apprised of, including child care and child welfare, disability, domestic violence, financial equity, gender-based discrimination, health care, Israel, LGBTQIA+ rights, racial justice, religious liberty, reproductive rights, the separation of religion and state, and welfare reform. A significant portion of the Subject files also relate to NCJW’s endorsements of, or objections to, judicial nominees. These files comprise press releases and statements, background materials, and clippings, and they are arranged alphabetically by last name of nominee, or by court name. Other materials include amici curiae on cases primarily related to the separation of religion and state, discrimination, and reproductive rights, as well as letters sent to, or testimonies presented to the United States Congress regarding proposed legislation. Subject files also contain a limited volume of materials from other NCJW sections and are largely program invitations or brochures mailed to the Washington office.