Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia, Neighborhood Centre Branch Records

 

1891-1969

 

SCRC 22

 

Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia. Neighborhood Centre Branch

 

92 linear feet (217 boxes)

 

Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries

 

Materials in English.

 

 

 

The Neighborhood Centre Branch of the Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia was a community service organization and settlement house established in 1885 and formally incorporated in 1896 as the Young Women’s Union (YWU). Initially led by Fannie Binswanger and thirty young women from affluent families in the Philadelphia Jewish community, the YWU was organized to operate a kindergarten and to aid children of Eastern European Jewish immigrants settling in Philadelphia. On March 1, 1885, the kindergarten opened at 238 Pine Street with fifteen children in attendance. In addition to educational instruction, the children were served daily lunches, given clothing, and visited at their homes to ensure living conditions were appropriate to their development. 

 

Within a year of opening, the YWU relocated their operation to 318 South Fourth Street to accommodate increasing enrollment. A household school was established to supplement the existing kindergarten. The school provided a place for girls between the ages of ten and thirteen to learn the proper way to run a kitchen and manage a home.  The following year, The YWU inaugurated group picnics as ways were sought to take children out of the congested slums and into the country for recreation. The YWU established evening classes in English language instruction, reading, and mathematics, as well as afternoon entertainment and a lending library. 

 

In 1893, the YWU established a supplemental day nursery and temporary shelter at 230 Pine Street. The Day Nursery addressed the needs of working mothers who were forced to leave their small children home unsupervised while at work. The Shelter provided a temporary home for orphans as young as six months, and for those children whose parents by reason of illness or other circumstances were unable to provide necessary care. Children were given vaccinations and examined by the resident physician before admission in order to prevent contagion among the other children.  In 1899, aided by a grant from the Simon Muir Estate, the Young Women’s Union purchased a lot at 422-428 Bainbridge Street to construct a larger facility. Designed by architects Louis Carter Baker, Jr., and Elijah James Dallett, the new building was constructed to bring all operations of the YWU under one roof. 

 

The YWU served as an incubator for programs that would later branch out on their own such as the Samuel S. Fleisher Art Memorial and the Juvenile Aid Society. Fleisher’s Graphic Sketch Club began in 1898 at the YWU, providing art instruction to boys from economically depressed families from the surrounding neighborhood. Increasing interest and enrollment in the Graphic Sketch Club forced Fleisher to relocate his operation outside the YWU in 1907. The Juvenile Aid Committee, organized in 1901 as a committee of the YWU, conferred with the Juvenile Court on matters of child welfare, supervised private boarding homes, and facilitated adoptions. In 1916, the Juvenile Aid Committee became its own entity, the Juvenile Aid Society.

 

The changing scope of the organization led the YWU to reincorporate in 1918 as the Neighborhood Centre. Although the Eastern European Jewish immigrant population remained the primary user of its services, the Neighborhood Centre’s activities broadened to include improvement of living conditions in South Philadelphia and offered free services and recreation to all, regardless of race, creed, or national origin. Programming at the center included youth canteens, various hobby clubs, holiday camps, musical events, and classes in art, music, and drama.  The Neighborhood Centre’s amateur theater group started in 1917 as the Miniature Players and later renamed the Neighborhood Players, performed plays in both English and Yiddish. A number of individuals who received their training with the Neighborhood Players went on to careers in film and television including actor Rudy Bond, screenwriter Harry Kleiner, and film director and producer Arthur Hiller Penn.

 

The Neighborhood Centre Nursery School was opened in 1925 to accommodate children up to age six and was primarily concerned with their physiological growth. By 1938, most of the Day Nursery's functions had been assumed by the Nursery School, so the former organization was discontinued. In 1943, the Day Nursery was reinstituted as World War II forced many mothers to obtain full time jobs necessitating daytime care for their children. The Nursery School suspended its activities since the Neighborhood Centre could not run both operations simultaneously. After World War II, the need for the Day Nursery dwindled resulting in its ultimate closure in 1950. 

 

In 1935, the Neighborhood Centre established Philadelphia's first day camp, known as Home Camp. Subsequent camps were established in the 1940s and 1950s providing sports and recreation activities to the center’s constituency. Day trips to parks in Philadelphia such as Woodside Amusement Park, Smith Playground, and swimming at League Island were typical day camp activities.   

 

During World War II, the Neighborhood Centre’s annex at Sixth and Spruce Streets operated victory gardens, not only as a war contribution, but as recreational and educational activity.  A monthly newspaper, Victory, served the approximate 500 Neighborhood Centre members serving in the armed forces.  The center’s annex was also an air raid warden headquarters and a Red Cross training facility for nursing education, sewing, bandage making, canning, and other activities. 

 

Gradually, the population and surrounding neighborhood served by the center changed from primarily Jewish to include other ethnic groups, namely African-American, Spanish, and Polish.  In 1948, as the Jewish population shifted further south, the Neighborhood Centre opened its southern branch at the corner of Marshall and Porter Streets.  Built in 1928, the building was known as Jewish Education Center No. 2 of the Associated Talmud Torahs. The Hebrew Education Society conducted its religious education programming in the building along with center activities. The building was renamed the South Philadelphia Community Center in 1950, and two years later designated Neighborhood Centre South. Subsequent branches were opened in northeast and northwest Philadelphia. The Northwest branch opened in 1957 in the West Oak Lane neighborhood. In 1955, after more than fifty years at the Bainbridge Street building, the main branch of the Neighborhood Centre relocated to Northeast Philadelphia on Bustleton Avenue.  The Bustleton Avenue branch operated out of the Gilbert Spruance School at Horrocks and Levick Streets beginning in 1953 before the official opening of the building at 6600 Bustleton Avenue.

 

In the 1960s, the similarity between the programming of the Neighborhood Centre and the Young Men's and Young Women's Hebrew Association of Philadelphia (YM/YWHA) became apparent. Both organizations served all religious and ethnic groups in the neighborhoods they were located. Both had athletic facilities, and served children, adults, and the elderly equally; and both received funding from the United Way and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. In 1965, the Neighborhood Centre merged with YM/YWHA and was renamed the Jewish Ys and Centers of Philadelphia, with the building at the Bustleton Avenue location receiving the moniker, Neighborhood Centre Branch. 

 

References:

Young Women's Union (Philadelphia, Pa.). The History of the Young Women's Union of Philadelphia, 1885-1910. Philadelphia: Young Women's Union, [1910].

 

 

The Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia, Neighborhood Centre Branch Records, document the organization’s activities as a social welfare organization, settlement house, educational facility, and recreational community center. The collection contains administrative and financial records, correspondence, child care case files, self-studies and surveys, population statistics, and programming documentation from the primary branch, satellite branches, and day camps operated by the Neighborhood Centre. The collection provides details about the planning and implementation of services at the center, designed to aid and improve the lives of the Jewish immigrant community in twentieth century Philadelphia. 

 

General subject area strengths include social work, institutional child care, early childhood education, the settlement movement, and cultural based entertainment and recreation services. In particular, the Day Nursery and Shelter case files have both genealogical and quantitative value as the summaries contained within often provide extensive details about familial interactions and home life, public education, childhood development, and the challenges of immigrant life. The center’s relationships with allied local, regional, and national community and social welfare organizations is also well documented within the collection and provide a broad view of social service activities in urban America from the 1920s through the early 1960s.

 

Records produced by the satellite branches located in Series 3, 4, and 5 duplicate what is contained within Series 2 in scope and content, but offer evidence of the growing, but varied constituency of the organization in the 1940s, 1950s, and 1960s in various neighborhoods across Philadelphia. Limited records dated prior to 1918 and produced by the Young Women’s Union are located in Series 2. Visual documentation of the center’s activities is limited to lantern slides in Subseries 2.17 and photographs in Series 7 and Subseries 8.7.

 

 

The records are arranged in nine series, five of which have been further arranged in subseries as follows:

 

          Subseries 1.1: Administrative Records, 1909–1952

          Subseries 1.2: Day Nursery and Shelter Case Files, 1905–1950 [Portions Restricted]

          Subseries 2.1: Organization History, 1896-1952

          Subseries 2.2: Annual Meetings and Reports, 1896-1954

          Subseries 2.3: Committees, 1904-1955

          Subseries 2.4: Correspondence, 1910-1955

          Subseries 2.5: Financial Records, 1891-1955 

          Subseries 2.6: Friends of the Neighborhood Centre, 1940-1955

          Subseries 2.7: Library, 1928-1951

          Subseries 2.8: Building Maintenance, 1934-1954

          Subseries 2.9: Membership, 1930-1955

          Subseries 2.10: Jewish Organizations, 1920-1956

          Subseries 2.11: Community and Social Welfare Organizations, 1925-1957

          Subseries 2.12: Programming, 1921-1960

          Subseries 2.13: Publicity, 1920-1955

          Subseries 2.14: Julian L. Greifer Subject Reference Files, 1917, 1936-1956

          Subseries 2.15: Reports, 1903-1953

          Subseries 2.16: Statistics, 1921-1955

          Subseries 2.17: Photographs and Lantern Slides, circa 1900-1955

          Subseries 3.1: Administrative Records, 1946-1966

          Subseries 3.2: Programming, 1946-1965

          Subseries 3.3: Publicity, 1949-1960

          Subseries 3.4: Reports, 1949-1965

          Subseries 3.5: Statistics, 1948-1959

          Subseries 4.1: Annual Meetings and Reports, 1952-1963

          Subseries 4.2: Committees, 1953-1965

          Subseries 4.3: Correspondence, 1953-1965 

          Subseries 4.4: Financial Records, 1953-1965

          Subseries 4.5: Friends of the Neighborhood Centre, 1955-1965

          Subseries 4.6: Library, 1956-1965

          Subseries 4.7: Building Maintenance, 1954-1965

          Subseries 4.8: Membership, 1953-1965

          Subseries 4.9: New Building, 1952-1957

          Subseries 4.10: Nursery School and Kindergarten, 1955-1963 [Portions Restricted]

          Subseries 4.11: Jewish Organizations, 1954-1965

          Subseries 4.12: Community and Social Welfare Organizations, 1955-1965

          Subseries 4.13: Programming, 1953-1965

          Subseries 4.14: Publicity, 1952-1965

          Subseries 4.15: Reports, 1955-1965

          Subseries 4.16: Statistics, 1953-1965

          Subseries 4.17: Julian L. Greifer Personal Papers, 1937–1963

          Subseries 8.1: Home Camp, 1936-1939

          Subseries 8.2: Noar and LaGrange Camps, 1943-1961

          Subseries 8.3: Camp Centre at Strawberry Mansion, 1945-1948

          Subseries 8.4: Camp Medina, 1949-1950

          Subseries 8.5: Camp Circle, 1950-1952

          Subseries 8.6: Centre Day Camp, 1954-1958

          Subseries 8.7: Frontier Day Camp, 1959-1968

          Subseries 8.8: Teen Tours, 1956-1969

          Subseries 8.9: Bainbridge Camps, 1935-1955

          Subseries 8.10: Bustleton Camps, 1954-1963

 

Series 1 contains records of the operations of the Day Nursery and Shelter and the Nursery School which provided day care, temporary placement, and educational services. This series is arranged in two subseries. Subseries 1.1 Administrative Records, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains committee minutes, correspondence, financial records, membership information, programming material, reports, and statistics. Subseries 1.2 Day Nursery and Shelter Case Files, contains approximately 1,500 case files for children and their families who were served by the Day Nursery and Shelter. A case file typically consists of biographical data about children and their family who were placed at the Day Nursery or Shelter or in temporary housing such as a foster home, or referred by a child welfare clearing house agency like the Bureau for Jewish Children. The case files include data such as family surname, parents’ and children’s names, parents’ occupations and education level, address, and ages. Supplementary information varies in breadth and depth by each case file, but may include caseworker’s reports, medical and psychological evaluations conducted by physicians at the Community Health Centre, an on-site medical facility, correspondence, and school reports. The case files in are arranged in numerical order and have been described at the box level with the range of case file numbers described in the container inventory below. All case files have a corresponding entry indexed by surname in the alphabetical case files index located in boxes 42 and 43. All indexed case files without a corresponding case file number are arranged alphabetically in box 36. Due to medical information included in the case files, access to these records is restricted for 75 years from the date of creation.

 

Series 2 is the largest series in the collection and documents the activities of the center for the bulk of its existence, from the earliest years of operation until its move from the Bainbridge Street location to the Bustleton Avenue location in 1955. Series 2 is arranged into seventeen subseries.  Subseries 2.1: Organization History, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains administrative histories written by center administrators, as well as founding and legal documents such as the organization’s charter, bylaws, and constitution.  Subseries 2.2: Annual Meetings and Reports, is arranged chronologically and contains an incomplete set of annual meeting minutes and reports dating from 1896 to 1954.  Subseries 2.3: Committees, contains meeting minutes and correspondence generated by the Board of Directors and various committees arranged alphabetically by committee name.  Although the bulk of the minutes and correspondence produced by committees is contained within Subseries 2.3, some committee materials have been arranged in separate subseries including the Finance Committee in Subseries 2.5, the Friends of the Neighborhood Centre committee in Subseries 2.6, and the Library Committee in Subseries 2.7.  Subseries 2.4: Correspondence, is arranged chronologically and contains administrative correspondence primarily from the 1940s and 1950s.  Subseries 2.5: Financial Records, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains center budgets and budget related correspondence, funds and investments, general ledgers, and various financial reports.  Subseries 2.6: Friends of the Neighborhood Centre, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains materials produced by an auxiliary fundraising group responsible for garnering support for the center’s activities including a college scholarship fund and an annual essay contest.  Subseries 2.7: Library, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains records produced by the Library Committee and staff including correspondence, committee meeting minutes, traveling libraries made available to members, and lists of requested books for the library’s collection.  Subseries 2.8: Building Maintenance, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains records related to the management and maintenance of the building at the 428 Bainbridge Street.  Subseries 2.9: Membership, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains membership lists, member policies and procedures, and a survey conducted in the late 1940s. Subseries 2.10: Jewish Organizations, is arranged alphabetically by organization name and contains material related to local, regional, and national Jewish-centric organizations engaged in allied activities with whom the Neighborhood Centre collaborated.  Subseries 2.11: Community and Social Welfare Organizations, is arranged alphabetically by organization name and consists of materials related to local, regional, and national organizations whose work paralleled that of the Neighborhood Centre, primarily in areas of social service and welfare, the settlement movement, and recreation. Subseries 2.12: Programming, is arranged alphabetically by type and name of club and contains materials generated by various social and activity clubs organized for adults, children, and teens at the center ranging from crafting to music and arts, civic engagement, and horticulture. Subseries 2.13: Publicity, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains newspaper clippings, newsletters produced by the center and some of its clubs, and press releases.  Subseries 2.14: Julian L. Greifer Subject Reference Files, consists of materials kept by Dr. Julian L. Griefer who served as Executive Director from 1942 to 1965, on topics of relevance to the work of the center. This subseries is arranged alphabetically by topic. Subseries 2.15: Reports, is arranged alphabetically by type of report and contains summary activity, course work, and departmental reports detailing the progress, administrative activities, and management of the Neighborhood Centre. Reports labeled as composite reports consist of statistical and summary information on membership, clubs, educational courses, and the Day Nursery.  Subseries 2.16: Statistics, is arranged alphabetically by type and contains statistical reports on programs and activities offered, and center membership prepared for the center’s administration and external social welfare agencies in Philadelphia.  Subseries 2.17: Photographs and Lantern Slides, is arranged alphabetically by title and contains lantern slides produced by the Young Women’s Union showcasing the buildings, services, and activities offered. Also included in this subseries, are photographs from the 1950s, primarily related to the construction of the building located on Bustleton Avenue.

 

Series 3 contains information about the activities of the Neighborhood Centre’s southern branch, the South Philadelphia Community Centre, later renamed Neighborhood Centre South. The records in this series are consistent in scope and content with those found in Series 2. This series is arranged in five subseries. Subseries 3.1: Administrative Records, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and consists primarily of committee meeting minutes and correspondence with limited financial records and membership information.  Subseries 3.2: Programming, is arranged alphabetically by type and name of club and contains program materials for social and activity clubs organized for adults, children, and teens. Subseries 3.3: Publicity, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains newspaper clippings, newsletters produced by the center and some of its clubs, and press releases.  Subseries 3.4: Reports, is arranged alphabetically by type of report and contains departmental and composite reports detailing the progress and administrative activities of the southern branch.  Subseries 3.5: Statistics, is arranged alphabetically by type and contains statistical reports on programs, activities, and center membership prepared for the center’s administration and the Health and Welfare Council.  

 

Series 4 documents the activities of the Neighborhood Centre at the Bustleton Avenue location from the planning stages for the center’s relocation to Northeast Philadelphia to its merger with the Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia in 1965. This series includes information about activities at the Gilbert Spruance School and other locations which predate the move to the new building on March 1, 1955. The records in this series are consistent in scope and content with those found in Series 2 and Series 3.  This series is arranged in seventeen subseries.  Subseries 4.1: Annual Meetings and Reports, is arranged chronologically and contains an incomplete set of annual meeting minutes and reports dating from 1955 to 1963 with administrative histories filed at the beginning of the series.  Subseries 4.2: Committees, contains meeting minutes and correspondence generated by the Board of Directors and various committees arranged alphabetically by committee name.  Although the bulk of the minutes and correspondence produced by committees is contained within Subseries 4.2, some committee materials have been arranged in separate subseries including the Finance Committee in Subseries 4.4, the Friends of the Neighborhood Centre committee in Subseries 4.5, and the Library Committee in Subseries 4.6.  Subseries 4.3: Correspondence, is arranged chronologically and contains general administrative correspondence generated between 1953 and 1965.  Subseries 4.4: Financial Records, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains center budgets and budget related correspondence, committee meeting minutes, and auditors’ reports.  Subseries 4.5 Friends of the Neighborhood Centre, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains materials produced by an auxiliary fundraising group responsible for garnering support for the center’s activities including a college scholarship fund.  Subseries 4.6: Library, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains records produced by the Library Committee and staff including correspondence, book lists and purchases, and the Library Fund.  Subseries 4.7: Building Maintenance, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains records related to management and maintenance of the building at the 6600 Bustleton Avenue including correspondence and building reports.  Subseries 4.8: Membership, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains correspondence and membership lists.  Subseries 4.9: New Building, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and includes correspondence, financial records, moving information, newspaper clippings, plans, and site selection material related to the building on Bustleton Avenue.  Subseries 4.10: Nursery School and Kindergarten, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains meeting minutes, correspondence, program evaluations, and newsletters.  Access to the case summary and health history file in this series containing medical and personally identifiable information about third parties is restricted for 75 years from date of creation.  Subseries 4.11: Jewish Organizations, is arranged alphabetically by organization name and contains material related to local, regional, and national Jewish-centric organizations engaged in allied activities with whom the Neighborhood Centre collaborated.  Subseries 4.12: Community and Social Welfare Organizations, is arranged alphabetically by organization name and consists of materials related to local, regional, and national organizations whose work paralleled that of the Neighborhood Centre, primarily in areas of social service and welfare, the settlement movement, and recreation. Subseries 4.13; Programming, is arranged alphabetically by type and name of club or activity with correspondence filed at the beginning of the series. This subseries contains programming documents for social and activity clubs organized for adults, children, seniors, and teens at the Center as well as holiday events and athletics.  Subseries 4.14: Publicity, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains club and organization newsletters, newspaper clippings, pamphlets, and press releases.  Subseries 4.15: Reports, is arranged alphabetically by type and contains reports on a Home Visitation Survey conducted in 1961, individual summary reports on Center attendees, and program evaluations.  Subseries 4.16: Statistics, is arranged alphabetically by type and contains statistical reports on programs and activities, and Center membership prepared for the Center’s administration and the Health and Welfare Council.  Subseries 4.17: Julian L. Greifer Personal Papers, is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains the personal papers of Centre Executive Director, Julian Greifer including personal correspondence, an outline of his dissertation on social work, newspaper clippings about Greifer, professional resumes, and miscellaneous writings.

 

Series 5 is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains materials produced by the Neighborhood Centre branch located at 820 Vernon Road including various committee meeting minutes and correspondence, programming and publicity material, and reports. The bulk of the series consists of questionnaires from junior high and high school students as part of a 1960 survey of youth activities coordinated by the West Oak Lane Coordinating Council. 

 

Series 6 is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains staff correspondence and meeting minutes, personnel policies, and information about volunteers and student workers enrolled in local university and college social work programs.

 

Series 7 is arranged alphabetically by type of record and consists of general correspondence regarding royalties, advertising, and booking plays; playbills, schedules, performance budgets, theater newsletters, newspaper clippings, press releases, and photographs of rehearsals. The earliest dated material in this series is a 1917 program for the Miniature Players, predecessor of the Neighborhood Players.

 

Series 8 contains records of various day camps organized by the Neighborhood Centre at the Bainbridge Street building, satellite branches, and other locales. This series is divided into ten subseries according to name of day camp, all of which are arranged alphabetically by type of record. The breadth and depth of material greatly varies from camp to camp, but may include administrative correspondence and meeting minutes, information about camp dining services, programming material regarding day trips and athletics, publicity materials, enrollment statistics, and progress reports and health histories about individual campers. Access to files in this series containing medical and personally identifiable information about third parties is restricted for 75 years from date of creation.  Subseries 8.1: Home Camp, contains records related to the first day camp started by the Neighborhood Centre in 1935 and held at the Bainbridge Street building to provide an alternative to children unable to vacation outside the city in the summer months.  Subseries 8.2: Noar and LaGrange Camps, contains records related to the operation of  both the Noar and LaGrange camps, established in 1948 and 1943 respectively, which operated independently until 1957 when they merged into a single camp held at the Marshall and Porter Streets branch.  Subseries 8.3: Camp Centre at Strawberry Mansion, contains records related to the operation of a camp held at the B’nai Jeshurun Congregation in the Strawberry Mansion neighborhood from 1945 until 1948 when it was taken over by the Strawberry Mansion Recreation Association.  Subseries 8.4: Camp Medina, contains records related to the operation of a camp established in 1949 at Congregation Brith Israel at Roosevelt Boulevard and D Street in Northeast Philadelphia.  Subseries 8.5: Camp Circle, contains records related to the operation of a camp held in the Oxford Circle neighborhood at Beth Emeth Synagogue at Bustleton and Unruh Avenues.  Subseries 8.6: Centre Day Camp, contains records related to the operation of a camp held at the Neighborhood Centre’s Bustleton Avenue location in Northeast Philadelphia and nearby Pennypack Park.  Subseries 8.7: Frontier Day Camp, contains records related to the operation of a camp originally held in Forest Park in Chalfont, PA until 1962 when the day camp was relocated to a 57-acre farm in Dublin, PA gifted by Samuel W. Levitties to the Neighborhood Centre.  Subseries 8.8: Teen Tours, contains records related to the operation of a day camp established in 1956 to create adult style vacations or bus trips for adolescents to locations like Williamsburg, VA, Washington, D. C., and New York, NY.  Subseries 8.9: Bainbridge Camps, contains general material pertaining to various camps or camp related activities held at the Bainbridge Street location in South Philadelphia including meeting minutes, correspondence, camp reunion material, and records related to holiday camps and the Staff Counsellor Training Institute. Subseries 8.10: Bustleton Camps, is arranged alphabetically and contains general material pertaining to various camps or camp related activities held at the Bustleton Avenue location in Northeast Philadelphia including meeting minutes, correspondence, and staff camping manuals.

 

Series 9 is arranged alphabetically by type of record and contains administrative records produced during the first four years after the merger of the Neighborhood Centre with the Young Men’s Young Women’s Hebrew Association (YM/YWHA) of Philadelphia in 1965 to form the Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia. This series consists primarily of Board of Directors and committee meeting minutes and correspondence, programming, and publicity materials. 

 

 

 

Case files #1-1206 and the case file indices from Subseries 1.2 are available on microfilm.

A selection of photographs from this collection has been digitized and is available online on the Temple University Digital Collections website: https://digital.library.temple.edu/digital/collection/p15037coll15 

 

A record for this collection is available in Temple University’s online library catalog: http://diamond.temple.edu/record=b5653036~S30 

 

Collection is open for research. Access to records in Subseries 1.2, and portions of Series 4 and 8, is restricted for 75 years from date of creation due to medical and personally identifiable information about third parties. Restrictions, where applicable, are noted at the box or folder level in the inventory below.

 

This collection may be housed off site at the Library Depository, and require up to two business days to retrieve. Please review the finding aid and be prepared to identify specific materials to be retrieved. Contact the Special Collections Research Center in advance of your visit, so that materials may be relocated to the reading room for research. 

 

The Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia, Neighborhood Centre Branch Records are on deposit at the Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries. Temple University holds intellectual property rights only for material donated to the university with such rights specifically assigned. For all other material, intellectual property rights, including copyright, belong to the authors or their legal heirs and assigns. Researchers are responsible for determining the identity of rights holders and obtaining their permission for publication and for other purposes where stated.

 

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia, Neighborhood Centre Branch Records, SCRC 22, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

 

Association for Jewish Children Records, SCRC 37, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Jewish Community Centers of Greater Philadelphia Records, SCRC 177, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Jewish Family Service Records, SCRC 196, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Jewish Family and Children’s Service of Greater Philadelphia Records, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Lincoln Day Nursery Records, Acc. 966, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Philadelphia Association of Day Nurseries Records, URB 5, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

Philadelphia Society for Services to Children Records, Acc. 150, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. 

 

 

 

Collection placed on deposit in March 1973 by the Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia. Collection previously administered by the Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center, acquired by Temple in June 2009.

 

Collection processed and finding aid prepared in 1978 by Lindsay B. Nauen and Lee B. Leopold. Collection reprocessed and finding aid revised according to contemporary archival standards in July 2014 by Jessica M. Lydon, Associate Archivist.

 

 

The following headings have been used to index the description of this collection in Temple University’s electronic catalog:

 

Greifer, Julian L.

 

Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia

Jewish Ys and Centers of Greater Philadelphia. Neighborhood Centre Branch

Neighborhood Centre (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Neighborhood Players (Philadelphia, Pa.)

Young Men’s and Young Women’s Hebrew Association of Philadelphia 

Young Women’s Union (Philadelphia, Pa.)

 

Community theater -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

Day camps -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia 

Day care centers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

Jewish children -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia 

Jewish community centers -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

Nursery schools -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia 

Social service -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

Social settlements -- Pennsylvania -- Philadelphia

 

Philadelphia (Pa.)

 

Administrative records

Articles of incorporation

Bylaws (administrative records)

Case files

Clippings

Correspondence

Financial records

Lantern slides

Ledgers (account books)

Minutes

Newsletters

Pamphlets

Photographs

Press releases

Reports

 

 

 

Collection Overview