Western Jewish History Center

A well-tempered musician's unfinished journey through life : oral history transcript / 1990 by Ludwig Altman( Book )
2 editions published in 1990 in English and held by 3 libraries worldwide
Altman recalls life in Germany and the rise of Nazism, his training in Berlin at the Academy for Church and School Music, and his emigration to the United States in 1937. He discusses his 50 year career as organist at Temple Emanu-El, and his 33 years with the San Francisco Symphony. He also recalls many outstanding musicians and conductors, including Alfred Hertz and Pierre Monteux.

Michael Caminetsky papers, 1869-1970 by Michael Caminetsky( Book )
in Russian and held by 3 libraries worldwide
The collection consists primarily of personal and legal documents from Michael Caminetsky's life in Imperial Russia, including his Russian language army registration (1876), his family's merchant license (1869), a death certificate for a family member (possibly a brother), a passport from 1872, a subpoena to bear witness on behalf of "Citizen Keisel Verman" (1873), a promissory note (1774), a certificate from the Czar granting permission to travel within Russia, a birth certificate for Caminetsky's son, a circumcision document for Itsco Aaron (1874), a certificate of Caminetsky's partnership in a bakery business with Volka Pinchus Ruvinovitch (1881).

Dean of Tanglewood (1946-1964), piano soloist, accompanist and teacher, administrator and lecturer, 1910- : oral history transcript / 1991 by Ralph Berkowitz( Book )
1 edition published in 1991 in English and held by 3 libraries worldwide
Ralph Berkowitz discusses his career as Dean and teacher at Tanglewood, recording vs. live performance, his artistic temperament, activities during World War II and the plight of the Jewish people. Many figures of the American music scene are referred to, including Leonard Bernstein, Samuel Barber, Aaron Copland, Serge Koussevitzky, Jan Peerce, and Gregor Piatigorsky.

The responsibilities and rewards of involvement by Marcel Hirsch( Book )
1 edition published in 1981 in English and held by 3 libraries worldwide

Reuben R. Rinder papers, 1907-1966 by Reuben R Rinder( mixd )
in English and held by 3 libraries worldwide
The collection consists of correspondence; cantorial materials; musical arrangements, compositions and programs; biographical materials; certificates and honors; some of Rinder's writings and speeches; items from Rinder's tenure at Temple Emanu-El; and photographs. The correspondence consists of general correspondence as well as correspondence on particular topics (such as the commissioning of Chagall for a window at Emanu-El and Rinder's liturgical research trip to Israel) and correspondence with prominent individuals. Among the correspondents in the collection are the following: Ansel Adams; Abraham W. Binder; Henry Cowell; Monroe Deutsch; Mischa Elman; Enrique Jorda; Louis Lurie; Dorothy Warenskjold; and Rabbis Stephen Wise, Rudolph Coffee, David de Sola Pool, Ernest Bloch, Darius Milhaud, Marc Lavry, Paul Ben-Haim, and Frederick Jacobi (the last five of these are composers commissioned by Rinder to write music for Emanu-El). The collection also includes correspondence on child prodigies (including Yehudi Menuhin; Isaac Stern; and Miriam Solovieff) whom Rinder encouraged and for whom he found sponsors. Other notable items in the collection include: copies of Rinder's histories of the Board of Rabbis of Northern California and Congregation Emanu-El, together with minutes from Emanu-El (1957) discussing mixed marriages; two conversion certificates; correspondence from Bronislaw Huberman relating to the founding (1936) of the Palestine Orchestra which was composed of refugees escaping Nazi Germany, for which Rinder was the first to collect funds.

Adele Solomons Jaffa and Myer E. Jaffa family papers, 1880-1968 by Adele Solomons Jaffa( mixd )
in English and held by 3 libraries worldwide
The collection includes biographies; a few professional papers by Adele Solomons Jaffa; clippings; and photographs. The photographs include an 1893 portrait of Adele Solomons at her graduation from Hahnemann Medical College of the Pacific, a 1902 portrait of Adele Solomons Jaffa with her children, Edward and Aileen, a portrait of Myer E. Jaffa, a photograph of the interior of Madame Rabe Jaffa's home on Bush Street in San Francisco (circa 1880), and a photograph of Sarah and Michael Stein at the marriage of their son Allan to Yvonne Daunt in Paris in 1922 (also pictured are Yvonne Daunt and her mother). The collection also includes minutes (handwritten and typed) and a membership list for the California-based Committee for the Advance of Agricultural Research in Palestine, which was founded in 1934 and for which Aileen Jaffa Katzky (a poet and artist who was the head librarian of the Agricultural Library at the University of California, Berkeley) was secretary, and a copy of "Hither and Thither in California," a report of a trip around California organized by Myer E. Jaffa for the attendees of the 1899 annual convention of the Association of American Agricultural Colleges and Experiment Stations and the Association of Official Agricultural Chemists.

Jennie Harris papers, 1902-1972 by Jennie Harris( Book )
in English and held by 3 libraries worldwide
Collection consists primarily of a typed manuscript of Harris' detailed and evocative autobiography, in which she describes her early life and her experience as a businesswoman in the 1920s and 1930s. The collection also includes newspaper and magazine clippings about Harris' business (many of which focus on the "woman as business owner" angle of her story) and some of Harris' songs and other miscellaneous papers.

Gertrude Block papers, 1912-1970 by Gertrude Block( mixd )
in German and held by 2 libraries worldwide
Letters of recommendation from Germany and England testifying to Gertrude's Block's skills as a nurse and kindergarten matron, including a letter from the Head Nurse of the Society of Jewish Nurses in Frankfurt, Germany; a 1939 Nazi passport; Gertrude Block's last will and testament (written in 1956 in San Francisco by the Dinkelspiel and Dinkelspiel law firm); photographs; biographical and genealogical information, including a family tree; personal correspondence; and papers concerning the membership of Gertrude's father in an Odd Fellow's Lodge in Mannheim and the death of her parents.

Moritz Winter papers, 1910-1956 by Moritz Winter( mixd )
in English and held by 2 libraries worldwide
The collection includes doctoral and rabbinical certificates from Germany; clippings (1941-1956); a musical program autographed by Yehudi Menuhin; a scrapbook; two letters from Rabbi William Stern; and a photograph of Rabbi Winter giving an Eternal Light Medal to the first Jewish Boy Scout in Oakland to have received the honor.

Greenebaum family genealogy and prayer book, 1768 and 1914 by Greenebaum family( Book )
in English and held by 2 libraries worldwide
The collection includes a narrative providing genealogical information about the Greenebaum family and other California pioneer families related by marriage; and two 18th-century Hebrew and Judeo-German Prayer Books for women belonging to the Greenbaum family of San Francisco, bound together and annotated in the 19th and 20th centuries in Hebrew and English, with genealogical information about the Greenebaum, Gerstle, Sloss and Haas families: Seder tefilot sefatai renanot, Fuerth, [5]529 (1768-1769), and Seder tehilim, Fuerth [5]528 (1767-1768).