Metadata : Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities Archive
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
- 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 SIG-Archiv
- Title:
- Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities Archive
- Title (official language):
- Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund Archiv
- Creator/accumulator:
- Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities
- Date(s):
- 1902/2015
- Language:
- German
- French
- English
- Hebrew
- Italian
- Extent:
- 64 shelf metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG) contains business records: minutes (preliminary files and constituent assembly 1902, 1904; delegates' meetings and central committee meetings from 1908; business committee 1932-1944; executive committee from 1944; presidents' conferences from 1973); articles of association; annual reports; finances; social affairs; correspondence with Jewish communities; relations with Jewish organisations at home and abroad; files and documents of individual SIG employees.
The collection also includes personal files (Abba Eban, David Farbstein, Nahum Goldmann, Golda Meïr and others); cultural/religious shechita questions, kosher meat, cemeteries, Jewish schools, teachers' and cantors' association, relations with various cultural and religious organisations, minutes of the cultural commission and others.
There are also files about trials: libel suits, Mordechai Rachamim case (proceedings in connection with the attack on an El Al aircraft at Kloten airport on 18 February 1969), Frauenknecht case, violations of the racist criminal code, etc.
There is material about the youth centre, youth organisations, sports clubs, events, holiday colonies, youth camps, etc.
Furthermore it includes documents concerning international organisations, Zionism, relations with Israel, "World Jewish Congress", JOINT, WIZO, O.R.T., OSE and others, as well as those concerning press and information: "Jüdische Rundschau", "Israelitisches Wochenblatt" and others; press documentation “Judentum Schweiz” (Judaism Switzerland) and “Die Schweiz im Zweiten Weltkrieg” (Switzerland in the Second World War).
Regarding the Second World War, there is a review of Switzerland's role in the Second World War in the 1990s: correspondence, reports, court cases, restitutions, dormant assets, documentary material.
Finally, the collection contains documents concerning social affairs: aid and reconstruction, reparations, employment services, relief operations, refugee policy, care for refugees and the needy, Les Berges du Léman home, etc.
- Archival history:
- When the SIG historical archives were taken over in 1998, the year 1985 was set as time limit for the delivery (SIG archive delivery A, 34 shelf metres). However, due to the manner of filing, in a few cases material extending beyond this period is also found. The subsequent deliveries in 2008, 2011 and 2015 together cover the period 1986-2005 (SIG archive, delivery B), but here, too, there are documents that are not included in this period. The estates of the majority of the SIG presidents were secured by the AfZ and made available as supplementary material to the SIG archive, for example Saly Mayer (chairman 1936-1943), Saly Braunschweig (chairman 1943-1946), Georges Brunschvig (chairman 1946-1973), Jean Nordmann (chairman 1973-1980), Robert Braunschweig (chairman 1980-1988), Michael Kohn (chairman 1988-1992) and Rolf Bloch (chairman 1992-2000). Supplementary material on Saly Mayer as a representative of the Joint between 1940 and 1950 was obtained from the archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, New York, in the form of microfilms. Other SIG-related holdings in the AfZ include the JUNA Archive (Jüdische Nachrichten), the IB David Frankfurter Trial, the Benjamin Sagalowitz estate, the Georg Guggenheim estate, the IB Trials of the Elders of Zion, the IB VSJF Archive and the files of Gerhardt Riegner as microfilm holdings "Archives of the Geneva office of the World Jewish Congress" from the Central Zionist Archives Jerusalem.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG) was established on 27 November 1904 in Baden. As the umbrella organisation of initially 13 Jewish communities, its declared main objective was to lift the ban on kosher slaughter (shechita), which had been incorporated into the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1893. Despite the constitutional equality of 1874, there were still many forms of discrimination against Jewish citizens, such as restrictive naturalisation practices against Jewish immigrants, which had to be combated. After the First World War, the tasks of the SIG expanded (administration of Jewish cemeteries, centralisation of care for the poor, placement of Jewish itinerant teachers, holidays for Jewish soldiers, commitment to Jews in countries with antisemitic pogroms). In 1929, the SIG began working with the Jewish Agency for Palestine and subsequently expanded its relations with Zionist and non-Zionist Jewish organisations. When the ‘frontline’ movement began openly to stir up hatred against Jewish people and businesses in Switzerland, the SIG actively defended itself. In 1936, it founded the press office "Jüdische Nachrichten" (JUNA), which fought against increasing antisemitism with its information service. From the coming to power of Adolf Hitler as Reichs Chancellor in January 1933 and even more so after the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938, the care of Jewish refugees became one of the SIG's main tasks.
- Access points: locations:
- Braunschweig
- Switzerland
- Access points: persons/families:
- Bloch
- Frankfurter
- Goldmann, Nahum
- Guggenheim
- Kohn
- Littmann
- Mayer
- Meir, Golda
- Nordmann
- Rosenfeld
- Subject terms:
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
- Cemeteries
- Education
- Education--Schools and universities
- Legal matters
- Refugees
- Restitution and compensation
- Ritual slaughter
- Welfare
- Zionism
- Zionism--WIZO (Women's International Zionist Organization)
- Zionism--Zionist organisations and parties
- Access, restrictions:
- Partially restricted. Subject to application.
- Finding aids:
- An online finding aid is available.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://onlinearchives.ethz.ch/
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Severin Holzknecht; Jewish Museum of Hohenems; 2020
- Reference number:
- IB SIG-Archiv
- Title:
- Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities Archive
- Title (official language):
- Schweizerischer Israelitischer Gemeindebund Archiv
- Creator/accumulator:
- Federation of Swiss Jewish Communities
- Date(s):
- 1902/2015
- Language:
- German
- French
- English
- Hebrew
- Italian
- Extent:
- 64 shelf metres
- Type of material:
- Textual material
- Physical condition:
- good
- Scope and content:
-
The collection of the Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG) contains business records: minutes (preliminary files and constituent assembly 1902, 1904; delegates' meetings and central committee meetings from 1908; business committee 1932-1944; executive committee from 1944; presidents' conferences from 1973); articles of association; annual reports; finances; social affairs; correspondence with Jewish communities; relations with Jewish organisations at home and abroad; files and documents of individual SIG employees.
The collection also includes personal files (Abba Eban, David Farbstein, Nahum Goldmann, Golda Meïr and others); cultural/religious shechita questions, kosher meat, cemeteries, Jewish schools, teachers' and cantors' association, relations with various cultural and religious organisations, minutes of the cultural commission and others.
There are also files about trials: libel suits, Mordechai Rachamim case (proceedings in connection with the attack on an El Al aircraft at Kloten airport on 18 February 1969), Frauenknecht case, violations of the racist criminal code, etc.
There is material about the youth centre, youth organisations, sports clubs, events, holiday colonies, youth camps, etc.
Furthermore it includes documents concerning international organisations, Zionism, relations with Israel, "World Jewish Congress", JOINT, WIZO, O.R.T., OSE and others, as well as those concerning press and information: "Jüdische Rundschau", "Israelitisches Wochenblatt" and others; press documentation “Judentum Schweiz” (Judaism Switzerland) and “Die Schweiz im Zweiten Weltkrieg” (Switzerland in the Second World War).
Regarding the Second World War, there is a review of Switzerland's role in the Second World War in the 1990s: correspondence, reports, court cases, restitutions, dormant assets, documentary material.
Finally, the collection contains documents concerning social affairs: aid and reconstruction, reparations, employment services, relief operations, refugee policy, care for refugees and the needy, Les Berges du Léman home, etc.
- Archival history:
- When the SIG historical archives were taken over in 1998, the year 1985 was set as time limit for the delivery (SIG archive delivery A, 34 shelf metres). However, due to the manner of filing, in a few cases material extending beyond this period is also found. The subsequent deliveries in 2008, 2011 and 2015 together cover the period 1986-2005 (SIG archive, delivery B), but here, too, there are documents that are not included in this period. The estates of the majority of the SIG presidents were secured by the AfZ and made available as supplementary material to the SIG archive, for example Saly Mayer (chairman 1936-1943), Saly Braunschweig (chairman 1943-1946), Georges Brunschvig (chairman 1946-1973), Jean Nordmann (chairman 1973-1980), Robert Braunschweig (chairman 1980-1988), Michael Kohn (chairman 1988-1992) and Rolf Bloch (chairman 1992-2000). Supplementary material on Saly Mayer as a representative of the Joint between 1940 and 1950 was obtained from the archives of the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, New York, in the form of microfilms. Other SIG-related holdings in the AfZ include the JUNA Archive (Jüdische Nachrichten), the IB David Frankfurter Trial, the Benjamin Sagalowitz estate, the Georg Guggenheim estate, the IB Trials of the Elders of Zion, the IB VSJF Archive and the files of Gerhardt Riegner as microfilm holdings "Archives of the Geneva office of the World Jewish Congress" from the Central Zionist Archives Jerusalem.
- Administrative/biographical history:
- The Swiss Federation of Jewish Communities (SIG) was established on 27 November 1904 in Baden. As the umbrella organisation of initially 13 Jewish communities, its declared main objective was to lift the ban on kosher slaughter (shechita), which had been incorporated into the Swiss Federal Constitution in 1893. Despite the constitutional equality of 1874, there were still many forms of discrimination against Jewish citizens, such as restrictive naturalisation practices against Jewish immigrants, which had to be combated. After the First World War, the tasks of the SIG expanded (administration of Jewish cemeteries, centralisation of care for the poor, placement of Jewish itinerant teachers, holidays for Jewish soldiers, commitment to Jews in countries with antisemitic pogroms). In 1929, the SIG began working with the Jewish Agency for Palestine and subsequently expanded its relations with Zionist and non-Zionist Jewish organisations. When the ‘frontline’ movement began openly to stir up hatred against Jewish people and businesses in Switzerland, the SIG actively defended itself. In 1936, it founded the press office "Jüdische Nachrichten" (JUNA), which fought against increasing antisemitism with its information service. From the coming to power of Adolf Hitler as Reichs Chancellor in January 1933 and even more so after the "Anschluss" of Austria in 1938, the care of Jewish refugees became one of the SIG's main tasks.
- Access points: locations:
- Braunschweig
- Switzerland
- Access points: persons/families:
- Bloch
- Frankfurter
- Goldmann, Nahum
- Guggenheim
- Kohn
- Littmann
- Mayer
- Meir, Golda
- Nordmann
- Rosenfeld
- Subject terms:
- American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee
- Cemeteries
- Education
- Education--Schools and universities
- Legal matters
- Refugees
- Restitution and compensation
- Ritual slaughter
- Welfare
- Zionism
- Zionism--WIZO (Women's International Zionist Organization)
- Zionism--Zionist organisations and parties
- Access, restrictions:
- Partially restricted. Subject to application.
- Finding aids:
- An online finding aid is available.
- Links to finding aids:
- http://onlinearchives.ethz.ch/
- Yerusha Network member:
- Jewish Museum Hohenems
- Author of the description:
- Severin Holzknecht; Jewish Museum of Hohenems; 2020
