Metadata: Archive of the Jewish scholarship fund
Collection
- Country:
- Switzerland
- Holding institution:
- Archives of Contemporary History at the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Zurich
- Holding institution (official language):
- Archiv für Zeitgeschichte der ETH Zürich
- Postal address:
- Hirschengraben 62, CH-8092 Zurich
- Phone number:
- +41 44 632 40 03
- Web address:
- https://www.afz.ethz.ch/
- Email:
- afz@history.gess.ethz.ch
- Reference number:
- IB Jüdische Stipendienkasse
- Title:
- Archive of the Jewish scholarship fund
- Title (official language):
- Archiv der Jüdischen Stipendienkasse
- Creator/accumulator:
- Scholarship Fund for Jewish Students in Switzerland
- Date(s):
- 1945/2000
- Language:
- German
- Extent:
- 11 shelf metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
- The collection includes statutes, annual reports, the bulletin for the 50th anniversary of the organisation, regulations of the Association Support Fund (VUK) as well as files of the general assembly, the board of directors and the scholarship commission. It also contains annual accounts, correspondence concerning the support of applicants and coordination of the work among individual members of the Scholarship Fund. Furthermore, there are documents concerning the processing of grant applications (case files), correspondence and documents concerning personal details, studies, financial means and support during studies, cases of illness, etc.
- Archival history:
- The historical archives of the Scholarship Fund for Jewish Students in Switzerland consist mainly of two major acquisitions of different provenance. One part of the files was picked up in 2014 from Kurt Hutschneker in Zurich, where the majority of scholarship applications was processed. Another part was collected in the same year from Raymond Weill in Lausanne, where in the 1990s a further secretariat was set up with a corresponding filing system. In 2015 this was followed by a smaller delivery from Basel by Katia Guth who was the contact person for the Scholarship Fund.
- Administrative/biographical history:
-
The Scholarship Fund for Jewish Students in Switzerland (Jüdische Stipendienkasse for short) was founded on 15 June 1954. As a legally independent body, it replaced the Verbandsunterstützungskasse (VUK), which existed until 1954 as an organ of the Association of Jewish Students in Switzerland (Verband Jüdischer Studierender der Schweiz, VJSS). The scholarship fund remained closely linked to the VJSS. For example, the president of the VJSS was also a member of the commission that dealt with the awarding of scholarships. The first president was S Spivak and the vice president was Beno Eckmann. Other important persons within the scholarship fund were Sigi Feigel, Kurt Hutschneker and Raymond Weill. In addition, through Edith Zweig (secretary, later a senior member of the VSJF) there was a close cooperation with the Association of Swiss Jewish Refugee Aid and Welfare Organisations (Verein Schweizerischer Jüdischer Fürsorgen, VSJF) and cases were taken on the VSJF was unable to support sufficiently.
The central activity of the Scholarship Fund consisted of awarding and administering scholarships and obtaining financial resources. The Scholarship Fund was financed primarily through donations, legacies, repayments of scholarships and membership fees, which were coordinated by the board. The Scholarship Commission was responsible for processing scholarship applications, which it discussed at regular meetings. The general assembly, which met once a year, was the supreme body of the association and made decisions in its meetings, inter alia, on the annual budget of the scholarship fund. The scholarships consisted mainly of interest-free loans. The applicants undertook in the form of promissory notes to repay the loans after graduation. With the ELDA Fund (also ELDA Foundation) an opportunity was created in the 1980s to provide, among other things, a scholarship with no obligation to repay. Until the 1990s, the secretariat in Zurich was responsible for the main filing of records relating to scholarships awards and organisation. This was followed by a gradual move to Lausanne. Kurt Hutschneker in Zurich and Raymond Weill in Lausanne were primarily responsible for the two secretariats. In other university cities, there were contact persons for scholarship applicants, such as Katia Guth in the Basel area.
- Access points: locations:
- Switzerland
- Access points: persons/families:
- Zweig
- Access, restrictions:
- No open access. Subject to application.
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Severin Holzknecht; Jewish Museum of Hohenems; 2019
