170

Papers of Meyer Mintz, a New Jersey campaigner for Jewish refugees and Zionist causes

Various places, circa 1910-1948
Approximately 1500 items (1.3 linear feet); mostly mounted on brittle unbound scrapbook leaves, otherwise generally minor to moderate wear.

  • Notes: Meyer S. Mintz (1893-1973) emigrated from Lithuania, and in Newark, NJ became a regional leader of the United Jewish Appeal and related groups, generally as a fundraising campaign chair. The 1930 census gave his occupation as "director, Zionist organization." This lot consists mostly of files from his career as an activist, mounted on loose scrapbook leaves. It also includes some personal correspondence.  

    The lot includes thick files for the Emergency Fund for Jewish Refugees, 1925; United Jewish Appeal of Newark, 1926 and 1936-1938; Newark Beth Israel Hospital, 1934. Each of these files contains a mixture of retained outgoing correspondence, letters received, and event ephemera. The 1925 Emergency Fund For Jewish Refugees file's correspondence is addressed to or from chairman Michael Hollander, although Mintz is listed on the letterhead as campaign director. It relates to the "Newark $150,000 Campaign" fundraising efforts. Similarly, the 1926 and 1936-1938 United Jewish Appeal files consists mostly of outgoing chairman's fundraising letters, with Mintz listed as campaign director. The 1934 Newark Beth Israel Hospital fundraising file also contains outgoing letters from a variety of executives, plus tickets, pledge cards, and pamphlets. 

    Another file from the 1938 Palestine Emergency Committee is not in scrapbook form, and includes material addressed to or from Mintz as secretary. With the rapidly deteriorating situation in Germany, their goal was to urge Great Britain to resume accepting Jewish refugees to Palestine. The committee arranged mass meetings in New Jersey and lobbied President Roosevelt and the United States Congress for intervention. Included are short Letters Signed from congressmen William Smathers and Edward O'Neill. 

    Scrapbook leaves from the 1931-1934 Allied Jewish Campaign consist entirely of newspaper clippings. Two folders of printed ephemera extend through 1948.

    A group of 8 small memorandum books in Russian, English and Yiddish includes mailing addresses of supporters, poetry, dues, and a few diary entries from a trip to Paris. Mintz's notes for a meeting circa 1919 are interesting: "We have not met for a long time, glad to see you. . . . I thought the Am. Zionist would sustain us. They did not. Balfour? Can't be a party to something that I don't believe in. When he came from Palestine, told the int readers of what is going on in America. . . . All we could do is undertake work in a modest way. I have been working under the hardest circumstances, giving them the money. I thought they'd sustain us."

    Mintz's personal papers include about 25 snapshot photographs, 1943 and undated, and a larger number of negatives. Several thick folders of family letters and postcards from circa 1910-1948 include many from Lithuania and are mostly in Yiddish, though some are in English. Many extended family members lived in Worcester, MA. 
  • Condition:
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November 20, 2025 10:30 AM EST
New York, NY, US

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