Kroman, Edna

Literary Manuscripts, circa 1920s

(AR 628)

Edna Kroman moved to Birmingham with her parents and siblings in 1897. As an adult, Kroman worked as a stenographer and later as a reporter for the Birmingham News. In 1953, she opened the Junior Shop in Homewood and later operated Edmans Shoes in Mountain Brook before returning to writing for the Birmingham News. This collection largely consists of rough drafts and typescripts of articles, stories, and plays by Kroman, written in the 1920s and 1960s. Several of the folders contain rejection slips from Harper's, Atlantic Monthly, and The Saturday Evening Post. Kroman's works often concern social issues such as the education of women, the role of women in society, and anti-Semitism.

Size: 1 box

Mendel, Leo and Bertha Mendel

Papers, 1900-1987

(AR 1896)

This collection contains Leo Mendel’s correspondence with his cousin, later wife, Bertha Cohen. Leo Mendel lived in Sheffield, Alabama at the time of their letters, while Berthat Cohen lived in Staten Island, New York. The majority of the letters are to Bertha Cohen from Leo Mendel during the period 1918 to 1922. Many letters discuss Jewish business and community events. The collection also includes 1938 correspondence between Leo Mendel and a cousin in Germany who was attempting to get family members out of Europe to escape Nazi persecution.

Size: 3 boxes

Newfield, Mayer

Papers, 1959-1973

(AR 1268)

Mayer Newfield was a Birmingham attorney and an active member of the Anti-Defamation League of B’nai B’rith. He was elected to the ADL National Commission in 1959 and was a member of the Birmingham Jewish Community Council. This collection contains correspondence, reports, newspaper clippings and other material that Newfield collected as an official of ADL and the Community Council. Subject areas covered by this material include anti-Semitism, the Civil Rights Movement, the radical right and white supremacists, and Jewish-Christian relations.

Size: 2 boxes

Newfield, Morris

Papers, 1868-1940

(AR 817)

Morris Newfield was born in Hungary in 1868. In 1894, Newfield immigrated to the United States and attended Hebrew Union College in Cincinnati, Ohio. A year later he was ordained a rabbi and accepted duties at Temple Emanu-El in Birmingham, Alabama where he remained until his death in 1940. Newfield was a leader of social and religious reform in Birmingham. He founded an interfaith council to improve relations between Christians and Jews, supervised the Jewish Welfare Board, founded the Alabama Conference of Human Relations and the Birmingham chapter of the National Conference of Christians and Jews. Newfield served as a professor of Hebrew at Birmingham's Howard College (now Samford University) and as president of the Central Conference of American Rabbis. The collection contains letters relating to Morris Newfield's career as rabbi of Temple Emanu-El, including correspondence between Newfield and other religious leaders in the South relating to social issues. Also included are some of Newfield's sermons, sermon notes, financial documents, military records and newspaper clippings.

Size: 2 boxes

Temple Beth-El, Birmingham

Records, 1908-1972

(AR 1794)

Seceding from K'nesseth Israel, the congregation of Beth-El was formed in 1907. After 20 years, a temple was constructed on Highland Avenue in Birmingham. Temple Beth-EL is described as a Conservative Jewish congregation with a progressive viewpoint. By 1951, Beth-El was the largest Jewish congregation in Alabama. In 1958 the Ku Klux Klan attempted to bomb the temple, but the bomb was discovered and disarmed before it exploded. This collection contains the temple constitution and by-laws, minutes of meetings, newspaper clippings, correspondence, yearbooks and programs from the Temple Sisterhood, and correspondence and clippings relating to the attempted bombing.

Size: 2 boxes

Temple Emanu-El

Records, 1887-2000

(AR 796)

Temple Emanu-El was established in 1882 as Birmingham’s first synagogue and the congregation constructed a temple on the southwest corner of Fifth Avenue and 17th Street, North in 1889. A new temple was completed on Highland Avenue in 1908. The records of Temple Emanu-El include Board of Trustees/Board of Directors minutes, annual reports, scrapbooks, membership and confirmation records, cemetery records, financial documents, Temple history files, publications, records of Temple organizations and officers and architectural drawings.

Size: 74 boxes

Ullman, Samuel

From the Summit of Years, Fourscore, "Youth," and Related Material

(AR 973)

Samuel Ullman was born in Germany in 1840 and immigrated with his family to the United States in 1852. They settled in Mississippi where nine years later Samuel Ullman served in the Confederate Army. He later married, started a business, and began what became a pattern of civic and religious activism that continued the rest of his life. In 1884, Ullman and his family moved to Birmingham, where he became a progressive leader during the city’s formative years. He served in numerous civic and community capacities, including eighteen years of service on the Birmingham Board of Education. Samuel Ullman died in Birmingham in 1924. Throughout his life, but particularly during his retirement, Ullman pursued an avocation as a poet. While in his seventies he wrote a poetic essay entitled "Youth" which became a favorite of General Douglas MacArthur. The General displayed a framed copy of the poem in his Tokyo office during the post-World War II administration of Japan. Through General MacArthur’s influence, "Youth" gained popularity in Japan. This collection includes a Japanese translation of From the Summit of Years and Fourscore; an undated reprint of the poem "Youth"; a videocassette of festivities in Japan in association with the publication of Summit and Fourscore in Japanese; a copy of Aunt Sister's Book containing letters from Ullman; and a few miscellaneous items of related material.

Size: 2 boxes

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