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Julia Mates Cheney Papers

 Collection
Identifier: P-806

Scope and Content Note

This collection consists of a published copy of Cheney's Master's thesis, Narratives of Courage: Oral Histories of Jewish Émigrés from the Former Soviet Union, which she submitted to the Public History program of California State University, Sacramento in 2002. As part of her research, Cheney conducted oral history interviews with five Russian Jewish immigrants and one non-Jewish spouse of a Jewish immigrant. The collection includes audiotapes of these interviews, biographical worksheets, release forms, and transcripts. These materials offer a kind of coda to the long epic of the Soviet Jewish struggle to emigrate, as the speakers look back and relate, in English, their struggles in the USSR and subsequent life in the U.S.

Dates

  • Creation: 2001-2002

Creator

Access Restrictions

The collection is open to all researchers, except items that may be restricted due to their fragility, or privacy.

Use Restrictions

No permission is required to quote, reproduce or otherwise publish manuscript materials found in this collection, as long as the usage is scholarly, educational, and non-commercial. For inquiries about other usage, please contact the Director of Collections and Engagement at mmeyers@ajhs.org.

For reference questions, please email: inquiries@cjh.org

Extent

1 Linear Feet (2 manuscript boxes)

Language of Materials

English

Abstract

This collection consists of a published copy of Cheney's Master's thesis, Narratives of Courage: Oral Histories of Jewish Émigrés from the Former Soviet Union, which she submitted to the Public History program of California State University, Sacramento in 2002. As part of her research, Cheney conducted oral history interviews with five Russian Jewish immigrants and one non-Jewish spouse of a Jewish immigrant. The collection includes audiotapes of these interviews, biographical worksheets, release forms, and transcripts. These materials offer a kind of coda to the long epic of the Soviet Jewish struggle to emigrate, as the speakers look back and relate, in English, their struggles in the USSR and subsequent life in the U.S.

Acquisition Information

Ms. Cheney donated the papers in 2004.

Digitization Note

The recordings in this collection were reformatted from audiocassettes to an optical disc in 2007 as part of a project funded by the National Endowment for the Humanities in 2007. The recordings were migrated and made available online in its entirety in 2016

Related Material

Julia Mates Chaney Papers is a part of the American Soviet Jewish Movement group of collections. Materials at the American Jewish Historical Society that are related to the American Soviet Jewry Movement, include records of National Conference on Soviet Jews (I-181), Union of Councils for Soviet Jews (I-410), Action for Soviet Jewry (I-487), Medical Mobility for Soviet Jewry; Jerry Goodman Papers, and Joel Ackerman Papers (P-787).

Individual accounts of activities within the Soviet Jewry Movement are preserved in the UJA Oral History Collection (I-433), which include accounts from Union of Councils for Soviet Jews, Bay Area Council on Soviet Jews, Seattle Action for Soviet Jews, Houston Action for Soviet Jews, Chicago Action for Soviet Jews, Colorado Committee of Concern for Soviet Jews, National Conference on Soviet Jews; accounts by Lillian Forman (BACSJ), Ann Polunsky, Morey Schapira, Myrtle Sitowitz, Deborah Turkin, David Waksberg, Sylvia Weinberg, and Dolores Wilkenfeld. There are posters related to the Soviet Jewish Movement in the Jewish Student Organizations Collection (I-61) and the North American Jewish Student Appeal Records (I-338).

The American Jewish Historical Society is actively soliciting new collections regarding America and American Jews' role in the Soviet Jewry Movement. It is best to check with an Archivist to inquire if additional collections have become available.

Title
Guide to the Julia Mates Cheney Papers, undated, 2001-2002   *P-806
Status
Completed
Author
Processed by Vital Zajka and Andrey Filimonov
Date
© 2007
Description rules
Describing Archives: A Content Standard
Language of description
English
Script of description
Latin
Language of description note
Description is in English.

Revision Statements

  • March 2017: Links were added to digitized material by Nicole Greenhouse.
  • October 2020: RJohnstone: post-ASpace migration cleanup.

Repository Details

Part of the American Jewish Historical Society Repository

Contact:
15 West 16th Street
New York NY 10011 United States