Fonds JM-CAHJP/P85 - Ms. Rebecca Gertrude Affachiner collection - P 85

Identity area

Reference code

JM-CAHJP/P85

Title

Ms. Rebecca Gertrude Affachiner collection - P 85

Date(s)

  • 1899-01-01-1988-12-31 (Creation)

Level of description

Fonds

Extent and medium

Global extent: 119 files, all selected and described

Context area

Name of creator

(1884-1966)

Biographical history

Ms. Rebecca Gertrude Affachiner was born in New York City in 1884. In 1934 she settled in Palestine, where she lived – except for extended trips abroad – until her death in 1966. She was an active figure in Jewish public service in the United States until 1934 and in Israel from the time of her aliya to the mid 1950’s.
Affachiner attended the School of Philanthropy and Art School in New York. She was the first teacher to graduate from the Jewish Theological Seminary, New York City; she took special courses at Columbia and Yale Universities and Hartford College of Law, etc. She began her career in social work as an investigator for the United Hebrew Charities, New York City, later serving as Assistant Superintendent at Beth Israel Hospital, Y.W.H.A. Superintendent Columbia Religious and Industrial School for Jewish Girls; leader of girl's clubs at the Educational Alliance, Recreation Rooms and Settlements, etc. She was the first woman to act as chaplain in a State Institution, serving in that capacity at the New York State Training School, Hudson, N.Y., under the auspices of the New York Section, Council of Jewish Women.
During World War I, Affachiner was Assistant Regional Director of the American Embarkation Center, Le Man, leaving for France with the first women's unit of the Jewish Welfare Board. Upon her return from service overseas, she conducted a survey for Child Welfare for the United Jewish Aid Society of Brooklyn, N.Y., later making a study of the problem of the Jewish blind, in the same city. For six years, she served as Superintendent of the United Jewish Charities in Hartford and was actively interested in the Connecticut State School for the Blind. Being a pioneer in work among juvenile delinquents, she was responsible for the earliest developments of the Jewish Big Sisters Movement in New York City, and founded the Jewish Big Sister and Big Brother Organizations in Hartford shortly after coming there in 1920.
In May 1923 Affachiner was appointed a Juvenile Commissioner of the City of Hartford, and in 1924 Governor Templeton chose her to represent the State of Connecticut at the International Conference of Social Workers, meeting in Toronto, Canada. She also served as Vice President of the New England Social Workers, Secretary of the Advisory Board, Y.M. and Y.M.H.A. of Hartford Director of the Travelers Aid Society in that city. In 1926 she made a tour of Palestine, Egypt, Italy, and the Near East; upon her return to America she was appointed the first National Field Secretary of Hadassah, of which she was a charter member. From 1929 to 1934 Affachiner was Director of Jewish Social Service for Greater Norfolk Va. Under the Auspices of the Norfolk Section National Council of Jewish Women, she also founded and directed Council House, the first Jewish Community Center in that city.
In 1929 she was elected to represent Norfolk at the World Zionist Congress held in Zurich, Switzerland. In 1934 after resigning her post in Norfolk, Ms. Affachiner returned to Palestine. Shortly after her arrival in Jerusalem she organized the Palestine Society for Crippled Children (later ALYN), acting as its Director of Social Service and in whose interest she made a trip around the world. In 1937 she helped organize the Rumanian Settlers’ Association (Hitahdut Olei Rumania) of which she became the Director, and in whose interest she had visited Rumania and the USA 1937-38.
1939 she was the only woman asked to serve on the Executive Vaad of the Child Placement Bureau Jerusalem – Miklat Dati. She was one of the Jewish Charter Members of the American Association of Social Workers, International Conference of Social Work. She is listed in "Who's Who among American Jews" American Hebrew, 1923, and "Women of 1924" – International.
Affachiner traveled extensively throughout the world. In 1924 she went to Mexico to study the conditions under which the Jews lived there, and the possibilities for settling the Polish Jewish refugees flocking, not only there and to Cuba, but to other Central American countries as well. In 1925 she went to Spain and Portugal, being interested in the problem of the modern Marranos. In 1930 she visited South America, in 1931 she went to Poland and in 1932 to Soviet Russia, being primarily interested in the Jewish problem in these countries.

Archival history

The material was transferred to the CAHJP in October 1966 by Dr. P. Jacobi, executor of Ms. Affachiner's estate and Mr. Ezra Gorodetsky.

Immediate source of acquisition or transfer

Content and structure area

Scope and content

The following biographical sketch, which was found among Ms. Affachiner's papers, describes her various activities. A matter not mentioned in it, but subsequently indicated in her archives, was the management in Israel, during the 1940’s, of an import-export company, on whose behalf she apparently traveled to the United States after World War II.
Most of Affachiner's material left to the CAHJP has been retained by the Archives and is listed on the following pages. The material was transferred to the CAHJP in October 1966 by Dr. P. Jacobi, executor of Ms. Affachiner's estate and Mr. Ezra Gorodetsky. In May 1968 the CAHJP also received the appointment books of Ms. Affachiner, which were added as appendix to the list. The collection was arranged by Hadassah Kellman in January 1968.

Appraisal, destruction and scheduling

Accruals

System of arrangement

Conditions of access and use area

Conditions governing access

Subject to the authorization of the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People, Jerusalem

Conditions governing reproduction

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      Language and script notes

      Physical characteristics and technical requirements

      Finding aids

      Allied materials area

      Existence and location of originals

      Existence and location of copies

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      Alternative identifier(s)

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      Description control area

      Description identifier

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      Rules and/or conventions used

      ISAD(G), Second Edition, Ottawa 2000.

      Status

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      Dates of creation revision deletion

      Catalogue prepared on January 1968; published in OpenJerusalem database in October 2019.

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          Archivist's note

          Inventory of Ms. Rebecca Gertrude Affachiner collection (119 files, 1899-1988), held by the Central Archives for the History of the Jewish People (Jerusalem), arranged by Hadassah Kellman in January 1968.

          Accession area