Scope and Content Note
The records of the National Council of Jewish Women span the years 1893-2019, with the bulk of the material dating from 1940 to 1993. The collection consists of three parts each arranged according to the same series and containing similar and overlapping material but with different span dates; Part III includes a fourth series of oversize material. Part I: Administrative File, 1914-1978; National Conventions File, 1893-1963; and Subject File, 1896-1981. Part II: Administrative File, 1946-1981; National Conventions File, 1896-2005; and Subject File, 1893-1989. Part III: Administrative File, 1966-2006; National Conventions File, 1896-2005; Subject File, 1893-2020; and Oversize, 1900-1989.
The National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW) grew out of the 1893 World's Columbian Exposition in Chicago. In 1890 the fair's planners decided that a parliament of religions would be one of the international congresses held during the exposition. Chicago clubwoman and reformer Hannah Greenebaum Solomon was appointed head of the Congress of Jewish Women, which sought to use the congress to educate Christians about Judaism and to promote international unity and tolerance. At the close of the congress, Solomon and her committee resolved that they would form a permanent organization, known as the National Council of Jewish Women (NCJW), with two purposes. First, this new organization would keep Judaism alive by informing women of their religious duties and their role in rearing Jewish children. Secondly, its members would "take part as a large group in all that concerns the welfare of mankind," solving together growing social problems that were impossible for the individual to combat alone.
In three short years, by the time of its first triennial convention in 1896, the NCJW had more than four thousand members and fifty local sections. In the over one hundred years since its creation, the NCJW has grown to approximately one hundred and eighty thousand members, actively involved in a wide variety of social justice concerns: immigrant aid, educational opportunities and vocational training for the blind and visually impaired, maternal and infant health care, establishment of child labor laws, religious education, reproductive justice, opposition to antisemitism, international relief work, racial and gender equity, and peace initiatives, among others.
Although there are few records extant for the council's early years, the NCJW records richly document the organization's activities from the 1920s onward, particularly since World War II. Throughout this period, the NCJW maintained an active interest in abortion, aging and 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 1940s; the council's Freedom Campaign against McCarthyism in the 1950s; civil rights and gender discrimination during the 1960s; and abortion rights, human rights, and the plight of Soviet Jews during the 1970s. By the 1980s through the first two decades of the 21st century, NCJW's core advocacy concerns focused on child care, support to victims of domestic violence, education in Israel, the expansion of reproductive rights, and the promotion of progressive judges on federal courts.
A board of directors and an executive committee govern the NCJW and a wide array of national committees and departments assist in the administration of council programs. Local sections focus state and local issues, in addition to their work galvanizing support for projects of national concern. Members vote on council policies and resolutions at national conventions, which have been held every two years since 1953 and every three years before then.
The three Administrative File series contain minutes of meetings of the organization's national board of directors and executive board (later executive committee). The National Convention Files include transcripts of proceedings, memoranda, and reports for many of the council's national conferences. These records reveal the aims of the council and its efforts to sponsor programs in education, social action, and community service for youth, the elderly, and women. Information on regional conferences and district conventions may be found in the Subject File series under the heading "National Council of Jewish Women."
The three series of subject files document the council's advocacy of legislative initiatives affecting social welfare, constitutional rights, civil liberties, and gender equity. Significant files include those on labor, international relations and peace, assistance to war refugees, NCJW's work with the Hebrew University of Jerusalem, child care, and the United Nations. Subject Files also include the official statements and policies of the council, programmatic materials from both the Washington Institute and the Joint Program Institute, press releases, and various council publications, including newsletters, program monographs, catalogs, brochures, training manuals, and handbooks.