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Descriptive Summary
Creator:	Foreman, Lillian
Title:	Lillian Foreman Papers
Dates:	undated, 1965, 1967-1976, 1979, 1981-1984, 1987-1990
Abstract:	The papers of Lillian Foreman reflect her work on behalf of Soviet Jews as a member of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews. The collection includes correspondence with Jews in the Soviet Union, materials used to create a database of the Refuseniks, materials pertaining to Bar and Bat Mitzvah Twinning and Adopt-A-Family projects, clippings collected in order to monitor the situation of Jews in the USSR and newsletters from Soviet Jewry movement organizations.
Languages:	The collection is in English.
Quantity:	2 1/2 linear feet (5 manuscript boxes).
Identification:	*P-945
Repository:	American Jewish Historical Society

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Historical Note

The Papers of Lillian Foreman represent one collection housed within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM). These papers reflect the effort, beginning in the 1960s through the late 1980s, of thousands of American Jews of all denominations and political orientations to stop the persecution and discrimination of Jews in the Soviet Union. The American Soviet Jewry Movement (ASJM) is considered to be the most influential Movement of the American Jewish community in the 20th century. The beginnings of the organized American Soviet Jewry Movement became a model for efforts to aid Soviet Jews in other countries, among them Great Britain, Canada, and France. The movement can be traced to the early 1960s, when the first organizations were created to address the specific problem of the persecution and isolation of Soviet Jews by the government of the Soviet Union.

San Francisco-based Lillian Foreman was an activist in the American Soviet Jewry Movement in the 1970s and 1980s. She was active in the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews (BACSJ) and served as the Council’s president in the 1980s. Lillian Foreman participated in numerous rallies and demonstrations in the Bay Area to raise awareness to the plight of Soviet Jews. She built an extensive filing system documenting thousands of Refuseniks that became a resource for BACSJ and other Soviet Jewry organizations in the United States. Foreman helped connect Jewish families in the US and USSR with special project such as Adopt-A-Family and Bar/Bat Mitzvah Twinning. She visited the Soviet Union in the 1970s and met with many Refuseniks and Prisoners of Conscience, including Ida Nudel and Leonid Slepak.

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Scope and Content Note

The papers of Lillian Foreman reflect her work on behalf of Soviet Jews as a member of the Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews. The collection includes correspondence with Jews in the Soviet Union, materials used to create a database of the Refuseniks, materials pertaining to Bar and Bat Mitzvah Twinning and Adopt-A-Family projects, clippings collected in order to monitor the situation of Jews in the USSR and newsletters from Soviet Jewry movement organizations.

The collection consists of five manuscript boxes.

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Arrangement

The collection is arranged into a single series.

• Papers of Lillian Foreman, undated, 1965, 1967-1976, 1979, 1981-1984, 1987-1990

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Restrictions

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers by permission of the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society, except items that are restricted due to their fragility.

Use Restrictions

Information concerning the literary rights may be obtained from the Director of Library and Archives of the American Jewish Historical Society. Users must apply in writing for permission to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection. For more information contact:

American Jewish Historical Society, Center for Jewish History, 15 West 16th Street, New York, N.Y., 10011 email: reference@ajhs.org

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Related Material

The Papers of Lillian Foreman is one individual collection within the Archive of the American Soviet Jewry Movement (AASJM) located at the American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS). Other Soviet Jewry Movement collections at AJHS include the records of Action for Soviet Jewry (I-487), the National Conference on Soviet Jewry (NCSJ; I-181 and I-181A), the Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (I-410, I-410A), Houston Action for Soviet Jewry (I-500), Bay Area Council for Soviet Jews (I-505), Seattle Action for Soviet Jewry (I-507), The Jewish Chronicle Soviet Jewry Collection (I-523), B'nai B'rith Klutznick National Jewish Museum Soviet Jewry Movement Collection (I-529), Chicago Action for Soviet Jewry (I-530), the papers of Joel Ackerman (P-787), Julia Mates Cheney (P-806), Jerry Goodman (P-863), Laurel and Alan J. Gould (P-866), Carolyn W. Sanger (P-870), Leah Lieberman (P-869), Si Frumkin (P-871), Elaine Pittell (P-873), Sanford A. Gradinger (P-880), Shaul Osadchey (P-882), Leonard S. Cahan (P-883), Doris H. Goldstein (P-887), David H. Hill (P-888), Margery Sanford (P-889), Pinchas Mordechai Teitz (P-891), David Waksberg (P-895), Pamela B. Cohen (P-897), Moshe Decter (P-899), William Korey (P-903), Morey Schapira (P-906), Charlotte Gerper Turner (P-907), Myrtle Sitowitz (P-908), Kathleen M. Hyman (P-911), Babette Wampold (P-912), Rabbi David Goldstein and Shannie Goldstein (P-918), Leslie Schaffer (P-923), Arthur Bernstein (P-925), Dolores Wilkenfeld (P-927), Sylvia Weinberg (P-928) , Irwin H. Krasna (P-934) , Constance S. Kreshtool (P-935), Grace Perlbinder (P-942) and Mort Yadin (P-943)

Additional materials from other collections include records dealing with the Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (SSSJ) located within the North American Jewish Students Appeal (NAJSA, I-338) and the records of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC, I-172). Related records are also located at the AJHS in Newton Centre, MA including memorabilia and ephemera of the New England Student Struggle for Soviet Jewry (I-237) and the Records of the Student Coalition for Soviet Jewry – Brandeis University (I-493).

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Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); Lillian Foreman Papers; *P-945; box number; folder number; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.

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Acquisition Information

Donated by the University of Colorado at Boulder in 2007.

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Access Points

• Subject Topics:

  • Antisemitism
  • Human rights
  • Jews, Soviet
  • Refuseniks

• Subject Places:

  • Soviet Union
  • United States

• Document Types:

  • Clippings
  • Correspondence
  • Memorandums
  • Newsletters
  • Pamphlets
  • Photographs
  • Publications

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Container List

The following section contains a detailed listing of the materials in the collection.

Papers of Lillian Foreman, undated, 1965, 1967-1976, 1979, 1981-1984, 1987-1990.
English.
5 manuscript boxes.
Scope and Content: See the collection Scope and Content Note.
Box	Folder	Title	Date
1	1	Adopt-A-Family Data Bank	1982-1983
1	2	Articles and Reports	1973-1975
1	3	Bar and Bat Mitzvah Twinning	1984
1	4	Bar and Bat Mitzvah Twinning	1984
1	5	Bar and Bat Mitzvah Twinning (contains photographs)	1983-1984, 1988
Box	Folder	Title	Date
2	1	Clippings	1965, 1967-1969, 1972-1976
2	2	Clippings	1970-1976
2	3	Correspondence	undated, 1974, 1976
2	4	Events	undated, 1975-1976, 1979, 1981
2	5	Kravis, Eugene	1982
2	6	Newsletters: Jews in the USSR [Board of Deputies of British Jews]	1972-1973
2	7	Newsletters: Samizdat Bulletin	1974-1975
Box	Folder	Title	Date
3	1	Newsletters: Samizdat Bulletin	1975-1976
3	2	Newsletters: Miscellaneous	1972-1975, 1984
3	3	Publications	1972-1975, 1984
3	4	Refuseniks Biographies	1987-1990
Box	Folder	Title	Date
4	1	Refuseniks Lists	1970s
4	2	Refuseniks Lists	1987-1989
4	3	Refuseniks Lists	1989-1990
4	4	Refuseniks Lists: Permissions	1988
Box	Folder	Title	Date
5	1	Refuseniks Profiles	1988
5	2	Refuseniks Profiles	1988
5	3	Refuseniks Profiles	1988

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