Contact us if you have comments, corrections, or suggestions:

Center for Jewish History publicservices@cjh.org

American Jewish Historical Society reference@ajhs.org

Guide to the William F. Rosenblum (1892-1968) Papers,
1876, 1903-1973

P-327

Processed by Rachel Miller as part of the Leon Levy Archival Processing Initiative, made possible by the Leon Levy Foundation.

American Jewish Historical Society

Center for Jewish History

15 West 16th Street

New York, N.Y. 10011

Phone: (212) 294-6160

Fax: (212) 294-6161

Email: reference@ajhs.org

URL: http://www.ajhs.org

© 2013, American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY. All Rights Reserved.
Finding aid was created by Rachel Miller in MS Word and Excel 2000 and converted to EAD 2002 in October 2010. Description is in English.

Descriptive Summary

Creator: William F. Rosenblum (1892-1968)
Title: William F. Rosenblum Papers
Dates: 1876, 1903-1973
Abstract: Rabbi William F. Rosenblum was head rabbi of the reform congregation at Temple Israel in New York City from 1930 through 1963, and he was an active leader in a number of Jewish social welfare and religious organizations. In addition to broadly documenting his rabbinical career and organizational activities, the William F. Rosenblum Papers reflect Rosenblum's interests in military chaplaincy, relations between Catholicism and Judaism, the media, race relations, post-WWII Europe, and the Vietnam War. Materials include correspondence, scrapbooks, sermons, speeches, notes, radio transcripts, clippings, photographs, audiotapes and film.
Languages: The collection is in English, with a small amount of material in Yiddish, German, French, Italian and Hebrew.
Quantity: 11 manuscript boxes, 1 half-sized manuscript box, 1 oversized box (OS3)
Quantity: 7.25 linear feet
Accession number: P-327
Repository: American Jewish Historical Society
Return to the Top of Page

Biographical Note

William Franklin Rosenblum was born August 10, 1892 to Rita (Feinstein) and Joseph Samuel Rosenblum in Grodno, Poland. In 1897, his family emigrated to New York City. Rosenblum completed an undergraduate degree in economics and sociology at the College of the City of New York in 1910. Starting in 1912, he supervised the Boys’ Work department at the Cleveland Council Educational Alliance. Briefly making a move into the law field, he received a law degree from Tulane University Law School in 1916. He then moved to Chicago, followed by Nashville, where he straddled the worlds of both social work and business, as well as serving in the U.S. Navy between 1917 and 1918.

In 1920, while attending a Jewish Chautauqua Society conference as Director of Nashville’s Vine Street Temple Religious School, Rosenblum met Rabbi William Rosenau, who exerted a strong influence on Rosenblum’s decision to become a reform rabbi. Rosenblum went on to be ordained Rabbi at the Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio in 1926. He would later receive his Doctor of Divinity from Dickinson University in 1949 and a Doctorate in Hebrew Letters from Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion in 1956. Following his ordination, Rosenblum began his rabbinical career as Associate Rabbi of the Washington Hebrew Congregation in 1926 in Washington, D.C. His long-time tenure as Rabbi of Temple Israel in New York City started in 1930, continuing until 1963, when he became Rabbi Emeritus.

Two focal points of his rabbinical career were military chaplaincy and interfaith relations. He was a military chaplain across multiple conflicts -- serving in the U.S. Army Reserves from 1928 to 1933, visiting military bases in Alaska in 1944 and European displaced persons camps in 1948, and conducting Passover services in Saigon in 1967. In 1946, the U.S. War Department awarded him a citation for interfaith work in camps.

Rosenblum’s investment in the amelioration of interfaith relations began in earnest around 1934. He concerned himself most with the relationship between Judaism and Catholicism. As a representative of the Synagogue Council of America and the Anti-Defamation League, he met with Pope Pius XII in December 1948 in order to request that the Vatican revise its teachings surrounding concepts of the Jewish involvement in the death of Jesus and that the Vatican issue a statement labelling anti-Semitism a Cardinal sin. Rosenblum asserted that he was the first person to effectively press this issue with Pope Pius XII. In later years, he also met with Popes John XXIII and Paul VI.

Rosenblum boasted a wide variety of organizational involvements. He became Grand Chaplain of the Grand Masonic Lodge of New York in 1937; was President of the Synagogue Council of America 1947-1948; served twelve years as a member of the U.S. National Commission for UNESCO, representing the Synagogue Council of America; was on the National Program Committee of the Anti-Defamation League; participated in the Committee of Religious Leaders of the City of New York’s Committees on Newspapers, Radio and Television and was one of the leaders at their 1964 Conference on Religion and Race; and he was active in the Jewish Chautauqua Society.

Rabbi Rosenblum had a fairly high media presence, especially on the radio. He also had a hand in the creation of “Crossroads,” a 1950s religion television drama series.

He married Julia Fiddleman in 1932, and they had two children together. Together with his son he wrote the children’s book, Eight Lights: The Story of Chanukah, in 1967. Rosenblum died of a heart attack on February 10, 1968.

References

American Jewish Yearbook (Necrology, p. 59-60), 1969. Accessed October 19, 2010: http://www.ajcarchives.org/AJC_DATA/Files/1969_14_DirectoriesLists.pdf

Biographical Material, 1938-1967; William F. Rosenblum Papers; P-327; Box 1; Folder 2; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.

Return to the Top of Page

Scope and Content Note

The William F. Rosenblum Papers chronicle Rosenblum’s early years in social work and law in the American South, as well as his later years as a rabbi, radio speaker and organizational leader in New York City. Documentation is especially strong for his later years, from the 1940s through the 1960s. Personal materials and general autobiographical and biographical materials are in Series I. His social work and legal school years are represented in Series II. His years as rabbi and organizational leader in New York are covered in Series III and IV. Series V consists of photographs of Rosenblum from the 1910s through the 1960s.

Notably, Series III contains Rosenblum’s correspondence with U.S. Presidents, Secretaries of State, New York State and City politicians, and major figures in the Catholic church, and Series V offers photographic documentation of those relationships.

Document types in the collection include correspondence, scrapbooks, sermons, speeches, notes, radio transcripts, clippings, photographs, audiotapes and film.

Return to the Top of Page

Arrangement

The collection starts with Rabbi Rosenblum’s personal materials (Series I), followed by his professional materials (Series II and III). Photographs and audiovisual materials have been placed in their own two series based on format (Series IV and V).

Return to the Top of Page

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, NY 10011

E-mail: info@ajhs.org

Return to the Top of Page

Related Material

AJHS Archives

Synagogue Council of America Records; I-68; AJHS.

AJHS Library

Rosenblum, William F. and Robert J. Eight Lights: The Story of Chanukah. Doubleday and Company: Garden City, New York, 1967. AJHS call number: BM695.H3 R6

Other Collections

American Pro-Falasha Committee Records. Manuscript Collection No. 61. American Jewish Archives. Cincinnati, Ohio. The collection holds correspondence to and from Rabbi Rosenblum while he was Chairman of the American Pro-Falasha Committee in the 1930s.

Rabbi William Rosenau Papers. MS 44. The Jewish Museum of Maryland. Baltimore, Maryland.

William Rosenau Papers. Manuscript Collection No. 41. American Jewish Archives. Cincinnati, Ohio.

Return to the Top of Page

Separated Material

A Masonic apron, embroidered with Rosenblum’s name, has been removed to the textile collection by a previous archivist.

Return to the Top of Page

Preferred Citation

Published citations should take the following form:
Identification of item, date (if known); William F. Rosenblum Papers; P-327; box number; folder number; American Jewish Historical Society, Boston, MA and New York, NY.

Return to the Top of Page

Acquisition Information

In 1977 these papers were donated to AJHS by Julia (Fiddleman) Rosenblum, Rabbi Rosenblum's wife.

Return to the Top of Page

Processing Information

This collection was arranged in 1978 by AJHS staff and a box list was created. In 2010, Rachel Miller, an archivist on the Center for Jewish History's Leon Levy Archival Processing Initiative, further arranged the collection and created a new finding aid.

Return to the Top of Page

Access Points

Return to the Top of Page

Container List

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

 

Series I: Personal, 1903-1973.
2 linear feet. Boxes 1 and 12 (OS3).
Arrangement:

Alphabetical.
Scope and Content:

This series is comprised of Rosenblum’s personal writings, scrapbooks, diary, tributes and memorials to Rosenblum, as well as general biographical materials about Rosenblum. The rabbi started drafts towards a memoir labeled WMMBAR (which likely stands for “What Made Me Become a Rabbi”). The drafts include family history, notes on the circumstances surrounding his family’s emigration, what led him to the rabbinate, and reflections on his years as a rabbi (Box 1, Folder 1).

With a few exceptions, such as a pamphlet from his P.S. 20 graduation in 1903, the “Scraps of Life” scrapbook documents the 1910s and specifically his time in social work, especially at the Council Educational Alliance in Cleveland. The other scrapbook mostly covers his rabbinical and organizational activities in the 1940s. Both scrapbooks include clippings, invitations, correspondence, photographs and ephemera.

Box Folder Title Date
1 1 Autobiographical Material undated, [1959]
1 2 Biographical Material 1938-1967
1 3 Correspondence to Julia Rosenblum 1964-1968
1 4 Diary 1912
1 5 Marriage 1932
1 6 Memorials 1968-1973
1 7 Playbills Signed by Zero Mostel and Paul Muni 1943, 1964
1 8 Poetry, Essays and Fiction undated, 1909-1916
Box   Title Date
12 (OS3)   Scrapbook [includes photographs] 1914, 1926, 1937-1947
Box Folder Title Date
1 9 Scrapbook Contents [loose contents from above scrapbook in Box 12] 1945-1947, 1954
1 10 "Scraps of Life" Scrapbook Contents 1903, 1911-1918, 1922
1 11 Senate and House of Representatives Passes 1934
1 12 Tributes to Rosenblum 1910, 1954-1965
Return to the Top of Page
 

Series II: Social Work and Law School, 1910-1921.
0.75 linear feet. Boxes 2-3.
Arrangement:

Alphabetical.
Scope and Content:

The materials in this series date between Rosenblum’s college graduation and his decision to pursue the rabbinate. This period of time saw him attending Tulane Law School and active in Jewish social work organizations and regional branches in New Orleans (Jewish Orphans' Home) and Nashville (Young Men's Hebrew Association and Jewish Welfare Board). During his Nashville years, Rosenblum also worked in business, but there is little documentation of that work here. See his autobiographical writings, 1912 diary, and “Scraps of Life” scrapbook in Series I for more on this period.
Box Folder Title Date
2 1 Certificate of Admittance to Bar of the State of Louisiana 1916
2 2 City College of New York -- Aesthetics Class Notes 1910
2 3 City College of New York -- Yearbook 1911
2 4 Correspondence 1917-1921
2 5 Jewish Orphans' Home (New Orleans, Louisiana) 1914, 1920
2 6 Jewish Welfare Board (Nashville, Tennessee) 1918
2 7 Publications by or about Rosenblum 1912-1918
2 8 Tulane University -- Yearbook 1915
2 9 Tulane University Law School -- Admiralty Class Notes 1916
2 10 Tulane University Law School -- Carriers Class Notes undated
2 11 Tulane University Law School -- Corporations Class Notes undated
Box Folder Title Date
3 1 Tulane University Law School -- Louisiana Practice Class Notes undated
3 2 Tulane University Law School -- Sales Class Notes undated
3 3 Tulane University Law School -- Torts Class Notes 1913
3 4 Tulane University Law School -- Trusts Class Notes 1915
3 5 United States Navy Department 1918-1919
3 6 Vine Street Temple (Nashville, Tennessee) 1919-1920
3 7 Young Men's Hebrew Association (Nashville, Tennessee) 1917-1920
Return to the Top of Page
 

Series III: Rabbinical Career, 1876, 1922-1968.
4 linear feet. Boxes 3-11.
Arrangement:

Arranged in three subseries: General, Sermons and Writings, and Media Activities.
Scope and Content:

This subseries reflects the breadth of Rosenblum’s rabbinical career in three parts: materials Rosenblum generated both as a rabbi at Temple Israel and in connection with his other leadership roles and affiliations (Subseries 1); sermons and lectures he delivered and works he wrote (Subseries 2); and documentation of his media activities (Subseries 3).

Subseries 1: General, 1876, 1922-1968.
1.75 linear feet. Boxes 3-6.
Arrangement:

Alphabetical.
Scope and Content:

The correspondence, reports, programs, writings, lectures, transcripts, sermons, notes, funeral records and clippings in this subseries document broadly Rosenblum’s rabbinical career and organizational activities. For materials generated surrounding his 1947-1948 travels in Europe for the International Conference of Christians and Jews’ Seelisberg conference, for a visit with Pope Pius XII, and as a representative of the Synagogue Council of America and the Anti-Defamation League, see Box 4, Folder 15; Box 5, Folder 10; and Box 6, Folders 1, 8 and 17. Rosenblum’s 1967 trip to Vietnam with opera singer and ordained cantor, Robert Tucker, is documented in the Vietnam War folders. Also of potential interest to the researcher might be Rosenblum’s strong response to Rolf Huchhuth’s play, “The Deputy” (Vatican Relations folders), his attitudes on censorship (Committee of Religious Leaders of the City of New York folders), and a large cache of correspondence from the public in reaction to a sermon in which he categorized Martin Luther King Jr.’s speeches as “irresponsible diatribes” (Box 6, Folder 13).

Notable correspondents include Franklin D. Roosevelt (Box 4, Folder 14), John F. Kennedy (Box 4, Folder 14), Lyndon B. Johnson (Box 3, Folder 17), John Foster Dulles (Box 4, Folder 15), Pope Pius XII (Box 6, Folders 8-9; the extent of this correspondence is copies of what Rosenblum sent the Pope), and Cardinal Eugene Tisserant (Box 6, Folders 8-9), as well as Eddie Cantor, Will Durant, Jonah Goldstein, Edgar Cayce, Thomas E. Dewey, Ruth Slenczynska and Jack Valenti (Box 4, Folders 1-4). It is not known how Rosenblum came into possession of the Adolph Wise letter from 1876 (Box 4, Folder 14).

The funeral records in this subseries consist of cards with names, cemetery, death dates and notes for those funerals over which Rosenblum presided. The majority of the cards are from the 1960s.
Box Folder Title Date
3 8 40th Anniversary in the Rabbinate 1967
3 9 Abortion 1967
3 10 Anti-Defamation League 1950-1966
3 11 Appeal to Pardon Charles Bernstein (Charles Harris) -- Clippings 1934-1935
3 12 Appeal to Pardon Charles Bernstein (Charles Harris) -- Correspondence 1934-1937
3 13 Appeal to Pardon Charles Bernstein (Charles Harris) -- Correspondence 1938-1940, 1957
3 14 Christmas and Hannukkah -- Alan Burke Show 1966
3 15 Commission on Interfaith Activities (UAHC and CCAR) 1962-1967
3 16 Committee of Religious Leaders of the City of New York 1959-1965
3 17 Committee of Religious Leaders of the City of New York -- Conference on Religion and Race 1963-1964
Box Folder Title Date
4 1 Correspondence -- A-D 1930-1967
4 2 Correspondence -- E-J 1930-1967
4 3 Correspondence -- K-R 1930-1967
4 4 Correspondence -- S-Z 1930-1967
4 5 Correspondence -- Benton, William 1949-1958
4 6 Correspondence -- Ford, George B. 1954-1964
4 7 Correspondence -- Hurst, Fannie 1963-1966
4 8 Correspondence -- Kollek, Theodore 1956-1960
4 9 Correspondence -- Mana-Zucca 1960
4 10 Correspondence -- New York City Mayors 1957-1966
4 11 Correspondence -- Peale, Norman Vincent 1959-1967
4 12 Correspondence -- Rosenau, William and Myra 1922-1946
4 13 Correspondence -- U.S. Presidents 1938-1965
4 14 Correspondence -- Wise, Adolph 1876
4 15 European B'nai B'rith Conference (Paris) 1948
4 16 Funeral Records -- A-F 1936-1937, 1948, 1956, 1961-1968
4 17 Funeral Records -- G-L 1936-1937, 1948, 1956, 1961-1968
4 18 Funeral Records -- M-Sil 1936-1937, 1948, 1956, 1961-1968
Box Folder Title Date
5 1 Funeral Records -- Sim-Z 1936-1937, 1948, 1956, 1961-1968
5 2 Holidays undated
5 3 Interfaith Services 1954-1965
5 4 Intermarriage -- Religious and Racial 1951-1966
5 5 Jewish Chautauqua Society 1954-1968
5 6 Jewish Chautauqua Society -- Scripts 1957-1966
5 7 Kiwanis 1955-1967
5 8 Masons 1948-1968
5 9 Masons -- Scrapbook of Presentation of Rosenblum as Grand Chaplain 1937
5 10 Military Chaplaincy 1942-1962
5 11 Military Chaplaincy -- Passover Services at Lajes U.S. Air Force Base (Azores, Portugal) 1965
5 12 Miscellaneous Services 1943-1956
5 13 National Conference of Christians and Jews 1943-1945, 1964
5 14 Protestant Council of the City of New York 1961-1964
5 15 Public Schools and Religion 1958-1962
5 16 Publications about Rosenblum 1941-1967
Box Folder Title Date
6 1 Seelisberg Conference (International Conference of Christians and Jews' "International Emergency Conference to Combat Anti-Semitism") 1947-1948
6 2 Symposium on Obscenity Laws 1963-1966
6 3 Temple Israel -- Books of Remembrance 1947-1963
6 4 Temple Israel -- Chanukah Services 1949-1962
6 5 Temple Israel -- Printed Materials 1939-1967
6 6 Temple Israel -- Reports undated, 1931
6 7 UNESCO 1959-1962
6 8 Vatican Relations and Visits 1948-1949
6 9 Vatican Relations and Visits 1953-1967
6 10 Vatican Relations and Visits -- Clippings 1962-1967
6 11 Vietnam War 1965-1967
6 12 Vietnam War -- Correspondence from Soldiers 1965-1967
6 13 Vietnam War -- Correspondence in Reaction to May 5, 1967 Sermon on War Protests 1967
6 14 Vietnam War -- Passover Services in Saigon 1967
6 15 Vietnam War -- Proposed Visit 1965-1966
6 16 Washington Hebrew Congregation (Washington, DC) 1926-1928
6 17 World Council of Churches (Amsterdam) 1948
6 18 World Union for Progressive Jewry -- Black Jews 1954

Subseries 2: Sermons and Writings, 1930-1968.
1.75 linear feet. Boxes 7-11.
Arrangement:

Alphabetical, except Sermon Notebooks, which are arranged chronologically.
Scope and Content:

This subseries consists of sermon notes and outlines, lecture drafts and transcripts, manuscripts, published articles, a book and a play script generated by Rosenblum during his rabbinical career. For Rosenblum’s writings prior to his rabbinical career, see Box 1, Folder 8.

Sermons represent the bulk of materials. In his sermons, one of Rosenblum’s most oft-visited topics is that of Reform Judaism. He frequently addresses current events (especially World War II and the Vietnam War) and broaches such subjects as American identity, children, religion in business, national leaders, and 1960s counterculture. Many of the sermons were delivered at Temple Israel, but a large number were also given to other congregations, in classrooms and retirement homes, as well as at funeral, military, confirmation, children’s, and masonic services.

Rosenblum kept small, unlabelled binders of typewritten outlines of his sermons (Sermon Notebooks, Boxes 8-9). While there are thematic clusters within notebooks, no single notebook as a whole seems to cleanly reflect a single theme, service type, or holiday (except for the Chanukah Pageants notebook in Box 10, Folder 1), nor did Rosenblum arrange the contents chronologically. Each set of looseleaf notes has been removed from its binder and placed into a paper sleeve, in order to preserve its integrity as a unit. The title of the first sermon (or lecture, in some cases) found in each notebook is noted in the folder title.

Box Folder Title Date
7 13 "Chaplain John" -- Correspondence and Clippings 1950-1957
7 14 "Chaplain John" -- Play Script [1950]
7 15 Eight Lights: The Story of Chanukah -- Book 1967
Box Folder Title Date
8 1 Eight Lights: The Story of Chanukah -- Manuscript, Notes and Correspondence 1965-1967
8 2 Eight Lights: The Story of Chanukah -- Pageant 1967
8 3 "Panorama of Judaism in America" -- Book Proposal 1953
8 4 Publications by Rosenblum 1930-1967
8 5 Sermon Notebook -- "Sin and Salvation Today!" 1933-1936, 1947, 1951
8 5 Sermon Notebook -- "Messengers of God and Servants of Humanity" 1934-1936, 1941, 1951-1954, 1959
8 5 Sermon Notebook -- "East and West - Can They Ever Meet?" (1 of 2) 1937-41, 1946, 1950-1952
8 6 Sermon Notebook -- "East and West - Can They Ever Meet?" (2 of 2) 1937-41, 1946, 1950-1952
8 6 Sermon Notebook -- "The Sacred Writing! Outline of lecture to Negro Ministers" 1938, 1946, 1957
8 6 Sermon Notebook -- "The Nazarene - I" 1939-1940
8 7 Sermon Notebook -- "Mark the Perfect Man" (1 of 2) 1940-1943, 1960
8 7 Sermon Notebook -- "Mark the Perfect Man" (2 of 2) 1940-1943, 1960
8 7 Sermon Notebook -- "Dust and Divinity - Pattern Not Paradox" 1941, 1950-1951, 1960-1962
8 8 Sermon Notebook -- "If I Were a German Today" 1941, 1955-1956
8 8 Sermon Notebook -- "Charter of Faith" 1942-1946
8 8 Sermon Notebook -- "Mourning into Gladness" 1944-1947
8 9 Sermon Notebook -- "Greater Love Hath No Man!" 1944-1946, 1949-1951, 1963-1964
8 9 Sermon Notebook -- "Faith in a Time of Crisis" 1944, 1955-1958
8 9 Sermon Notebook -- "The 'Hometz' that Needs to be Burned" 1946, 1963
8 10 Sermon Notebook -- "This Year Mohammed…Tomorrow?" 1947, 1955, 1958, 1966
8 10 Sermon Notebook -- "What Has Happened to the Religion of Jesus?" 1951-1957, 1964
8 10 Sermon Notebook -- "The Story of Ty-Fly" 1953, 1962
Box Folder Title Date
9 1 Sermon Notebook -- "Preparations and Instructions for Candlelight Service" 1953-1955, 1960
9 1 Sermon Notebook -- "Introduction to Sermon of Saturday September 19" 1955, 1959
9 1 Sermon Notebook -- "Rites that are Right - and Wrong" 1955-1959, 1962
9 2 Sermon Notebook -- "Old Ethics for a New Age!" 1956, 1964
9 2 Sermon Notebook -- "Noah Takes Off for the Moon!" 1957
9 2 Sermon Notebook -- "Is Controversy Worth While?" 1957-1958
9 3 Sermon Notebook -- "Old Superstitions of Modern People" 1958-1959
9 3 Sermon Notebook -- "No More Scapegoats!" 1959
9 3 Sermon Notebook -- "Three Simple Words - He Loved Her!" 1959-1960
9 4 Sermon Notebook -- "If We Had One Religion" 1959-1961
9 4 Sermon Notebook -- Elijah Interludes, Purim Narration and Select 1963 Sermons 1959-1963
9 4 Sermon Notebook -- "Like Father Like Son" 1960-1961
9 5 Sermon Notebook -- "The Memorial Sermon" 1960, 1962
9 5 Sermon Notebook -- "Law Should Protect -- Whom?" 1961
9 5 Sermon Notebook -- "No More Floods" 1961
9 6 Sermon Notebook -- "Leprosy of the Skin…And Soul" 1961-1962
9 6 Sermon Notebook -- "Why History Repeats Itself!" 1961, 1963-1964
9 6 Sermon Notebook -- "God - Idol or Ideal - Which?" 1962
9 7 Sermon Notebook -- "Behind the Scenes at the Vatican" 1963
9 7 Sermon Notebook -- "Ideal Woman and Woman's Ideals" 1963, 1965
9 7 Sermon Notebook -- "Where There is Faith There is No Fear!" 1963-1964
9 8 Sermon Notebook -- "Tribute to Adlai Stevenson" 1965
9 8 Sermon Notebook -- "When Birth is Worse than Death" 1965-1967
9 8 Sermon Notebook -- "The Jew - Man of All Visions" 1967-1968
Box Folder Title Date
10 1 Sermon Notebook -- Chanukah Pageants 1957-1962
10 2 Sermons 1931, 1936-1939
10 3 Sermons 1940-1946
10 4 Sermons 1947-1955
10 5 Sermons 1956-1958
10 6 Sermons 1959-1965
Box Folder Title Date
11 1 Sermons undated
11 2 Sermons, Writings and Lectures undated, 1936-1966
11 3 Sermons, Writings and Lectures undated, 1937-1957
11 4 Sermons, Writings and Lectures undated

Subseries 3: Media Activities, 1939-1963.
0.5 linear feet. Box 7.
Arrangement:

Alphabetical.
Scope and Content:

Radio scripts and texts of sermons and sermonettes delivered across radio and television outlets from the 1940s through the early 1960s comprise the bulk of this subseries. Rosenblum authored and delivered the majority of the material. Many of the radio and television programs were sponsored by groups such as the Union of American Hebrew Congregations, the Anti-Defamation League, and the United Jewish Laymen’s Committee. Correspondence is also included. See Series IV for audio recordings of Rosenblum’s media appearances.
Box Folder Title Date
7 1 "Chapel of the Air" Radio Show 1945-1953
7 2 "Crossroads" Television Show 1955-1960
7 3 "Crossroads" Television Show -- Harvey Feathers and Rabbi Philip Bookstaber 1943-1944, 1955-1956
7 4 "Design for Living" Radio Show 1951-1952
7 5 "Faith in Our Times" Radio Show 1947-1950
7 6 "Lest We Forget" Radio Show 1942-1948
7 7 "The Message of Israel" Radio Show 1941-1961
7 8 Miscellaneous Radio Scripts undated, 1943
7 9 Miscellaneous Radio Sermons and Sermonettes 1939-1960
7 10 Miscellaneous Television Scripts undated, 1948-1963
7 11 "The Week in Religion" Television Show 1952
7 12 World Broadcasting System Sermonettes 1952
Return to the Top of Page
 

Series IV: Audio and Film, undated, 1952-1967.
0.25 linear feet. Box 11.
Arrangement:

Arranged alphabetically by the information written on either the reels themselves or the reel boxes.
Scope and Content:

This series primarily contains recordings of Rosenblum’s sermons and media appearances. Available information about reel format is noted in brackets.
Box   Title Date
11   Design for Living, December 3, 1952 [reel-to-reel audiotape] 1952
11   Design for Living, December 12, 1952 [7 1/2 IPS reel-to-reel audiotape] 1952
11   Martha Deane Program, December 16, 1964 [3 3/4 IPS reel-to-reel audiotape] 1964
11   Martin Luther King, Jr. Speech in New York, Mike Wallace CBS Report, from Colonel J.R. Meachem from Vietnam [one 3 3/4 IPS reel-to-reel audiotape and one 7 1/2 IPS reel-to-reel audiotape] undated
11   Mimi and Rabbi, WNBC, Hotline, December 15 [reel-to-reel audiotape] undated
11   Passover Services in Vietnam, April 24, 1967 [3 3/4 IPS reel-to-reel audiotape] 1967
11   A Rosh Hashanah Tribute [16mm safety film reel] undated
11   Unlabelled [7 1/2 IPS reel-to-reel audiotape] undated
11   Vietnam [reel-to-reel audiotape] undated
Return to the Top of Page
 

Series V: Photographs, undated, 1914-1967.
0.25 linear feet. Box 13. Separated into the AJHS Photography Collection.
Arrangement:

Chronological.
Scope and Content:

The earliest photographs are of young Rosenblum with classmates. The majority of photographs were taken in the 1940s through the 1960s. Included are photographs of Rosenblum engaged in a variety of activities: visiting a military base in Alaska in 1944 and Europe in 1948; presiding over Passover services for U.S. troops in Vietnam in 1967; meeting Pope Paul VI in the 1960s; conducting services at Temple Israel; as well as events with Presidents Truman and Kennedy and New York Mayor Robert Wagner. There is a set of photographs attributed to “Canadian Army Overseas Photo” of Jewish children in Belgium in 1944, Passover in Belgium in 1945, and Canadian, British and American troops with children. See also the scrapbooks in Series I for more photographs.
Box Folder Title Date
13 1 Photographs undated, 1914-1939
13 2 Photographs 1940-1949
13 3 Photographs [From this folder one photo of Rosenblum meeting Pope Paul VI in 1967 has been digitized and is available at the below link] 1950-1967
    View the item  
Return to the Top of Page