Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Part 4, 1950-1990

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Summary

Creators:
Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles. Community Relations Committee
Abstract:
The Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Part 4, documents the CRC's activities primarily from 1950 to the late 1970s. CRC continued to function as the Public Relations arm of the organized Jewish community. This collection documents the CRC's activities mostly under the leadership of Joseph Roos, until his retirement in 1969, and Charles Posner, as well as a smaller number of files from later leadership. It documents the committee's continued efforts to combat discrimination and antisemitism. During this time, there were many organizational changes to the CRC, including the creation of commission structures and regional focus with Area Councils.
Extent:
526 linear feet and 225 Gigabytes
Language:
English, German, Hebrew, Arabic, Russian .
Preferred citation:

For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style manual, or see the Citing Archival Materials guide.

Background

Scope and content:

The Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, Community Relations Committee Collection, Part 4, documents CRC's activities primarily from 1950 to the late 1970s. In 1959, the Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee (LAJCC) merged with the Federation of Jewish Welfare Organizations (FJWO) forming the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles (JFC). Part 4 continues to document the civic work with the Los Angeles Community Relations Committee (CRC) of the JFC, and the cooperation and divisions within both the Jewish and non-Jewish community of issues and tactics to combat right-wing movements, discrimination, and antisemitism.

This period includes records when there were many organizational changes to the JFC and CRC, including commission structures and their regional work of Area Councils. During this time, practitioners in community relations and civic participation recognized the necessity of adopting joint approaches. The relationships and strategic approaches to unification evolved in organizations working at a national level, like the Anti-Defamation League, B'nai B'rith, and the American Jewish Committee, which were unified in the National Community Relations Advisory Council (NCRAC) and in local chapters, like the LA CRC. This period mostly includes records from the CRC leadership of Joseph Roos and Charles Posner. The later years beyond Posner include records under other CRC Leadership like Zane Meckler and Murray Wood. This period includes the Master Files, Roos systematic filing system of fact-finding activities, from the early 1940s to the 1960s. It is arranged in four series: Administrative(1950-1980s), Fact Finding(1939-1970s), Subject Files(1948-1980s), and Audiovisual Materials(1960s-1990s).

Series I, Administrative (1950-1981) includes materials related to the administrative functioning of the LA CRC. This series is divided into three subseries based on administrative functions, and then folders are arranged alphabetically within each subseries. The subseries are arranged into the two CRC Executive Director Leadership periods, with some overlap into leadership beyond Posner. The Jewish Film Advisory Committee spans both periods.

Subseries A, Joseph Roos (1945-1969) consists of agendas, minutes, memos and materials, meeting notices, allocations and budgets, correspondence, membership lists, and descriptions of the organization under his leadership. After assisting Fred Heidelberg and Leon Lewis, Joseph Roos administered the CRC as Executive Director until his retirement in 1969. Joseph Roos dealt with the LA CRC and the joint staff of leading national organizations as well as other joint committees, the Board of Rabbis, the American Zionist Council, and other local Jewish Centers. During this time, the CDC’s committees dealt with many issues. These included education, separation of church and state, legal and legislative, motion pictures and television, international relations, civil rights in the 1950s and 1960s, interfaith activities, Soviet Jewry, inter-agency relations, right wing activities, public officials, and others. This series also contains files for the American Zionist Council (AZC). The LA CRC was their Western States Office. In 1949, AZC formed a local representative body of the Zionist movement concerned with taking action on common interests to Zionist groups. Files contain information on their Los Angeles political interventions, 1950s Arab-Israeli conflict, Egypt-Israel relations, and others. These records continue into CRC part 5 under the Series "Middle East" Commissions. The "Correspondence" files in this subseries contain documents between local communities, national organizations, Otto Schnitzel (a Nazi party county leader), the Tenney Campaign, Mendel Spielberg, local broadcasts concerning discrimination, CRC Leadership, and others. Most "Committee" files in the finding aid represent "sub-committees" within the CRC. The folder-level grouping "Correspondence, Regional CRCs" document the CDC’s coordinating actions and civic participation regionally inside and outside California, and Bay Area Cities.

Subseries B, Charles Posner and other Leadership (1968-1980) consists of records after Joseph Roos when Charles Posner administered the CRC as Executive Director in 1968-1976. Posner’s biographical information and leadership transition records are under "Posner personal". During this time, the Leadership in the CRC, and the whole community-relations field, started to brainstorm new initiatives, meaning, and structures. A commission structure started to be administered within the CRC by the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCRAC). Like the "Urban Affairs Committee" which was established as the "Commission on Education and Urban Affairs," the "Law and Legislation Commission" (before it became "Government Relations" in CRC part 5), and the Education Commission. Some issues in this period include religion and schools, racism and discrimination in schools and community post-war, post-civil rights movements, also local and state changes in Urban Affairs concerns, especially in relation to education. This series also contains the regional work of the CRC Area Councils, documenting their local groups, activities, and work in Los Angeles including the Eastern, Western, and Southern Area of Los Angeles, and the San Fernando and San Gabriel Valley (Eastern Region in CRC Part 5). The San Fernando Valley records include Joy Picus' work as the regional Director. The Area Councils are referred to as "Regions" in the folder names. For example, "Southern Area" is "Southern Region". This subseries also includes records on Soviet Jewry and related organizations and programs. This includes the Commission on Soviet Jewry, which advocated on behalf of Soviet Jews for their desired resettlement, preservation of their Jewish culture and rights under international laws. These files document news and press releases of the commission, letters to Nixon concerning Soviet Jews in Russia, and Russian culture in Los Angeles from the Commission's Cultural Exchange, as well as groups they collaborated with like the Student Struggle and Academic Committee for Soviet Jewry, the Committee of Concerned Scientists, and administrative files of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council (NJCAC) and the National Conference on Soviet Jews (NCSJ). Projects sponsored by the NCSJ included Project Yacht that supported relations of people in the U.S. and Jews in the Soviet Union. These records also contain files related to specific Jewish individuals and families known as Refuseniks under the folder name "Individuals". Many of these files continue into CRC Part 5. This sub series also contains the administrative records of the United Jewish Welfare Fund, a vital fund-raising unit for the JFC.

Subseries C, Jewish Film Advisory Committee (JFAC) (1959-1979) was an information agency serving the creators of Hollywood motion pictures and television on behalf of national Jewish religious and communal organizations, and local Jewish communities' relations councils in the U.S. In 1947, the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council created the Hollywood Motion Picture Project, later known as the Film Advisory Committee and then the JFAC. The JFAC committee advised writers and producers of motion pictures and television on the representation and misrepresentation of Jewish identity. This series includes some materials from when it was the Motion Picture Project. Mostly, it includes materials from when Allen Riverine was the committee's director. Riverine was a mid-20th century screenwriter and co-founder of the Writers Guild of America. Riverine held many close personal associations with entertainment creators. This series consists of Ruskin’s speeches, JFAC reports, and advisory materials. Riverine administered reports on a national-level to gain support for advisory. Also, correspondence to and from Allen Riverine with the CRC, Hollywood film executives and production companies, national broadcasting companies, and the NJCRAC. Also, advisory notes with writers, scripts, discussions from professors at UCLA's film division. The LA CRC was a consultation committee to the JFAC, and this series has records related to Joseph Rios and Charles Posner.

Series II, Fact Finding (1939-1969) is in two subseries. Subseries A, Investigated Groups and Individuals (1939-1969) and Subseries B, Master Files (1939-1969).

Subseries A, Investigated Groups and Individuals (1939-1969) consists of records on investigated groups and individuals like Gerald L.K. Smith, the National Renaissance party, right-wing activities, and others. Also included are directories on right-wing groups and publications. Many files contain cross-reference sheets that correspond to the Master Files and other series.

Sub series B, Master Files (1939-1969) reflect Joseph Roos’ reorganization of the CRC filing system to facilitate finding and the use of collected information. It is a large collection about subversives documented by newspapers articles, private investigative reports, pamphlets, and propaganda. The Master File system can also be seen as a scrapbook or special exhibition documents used by the CRC to state its case with the outside world. The Master File system was maintained through 1968 when Joseph Roos left the Community Relations Committee. This subseries also includes a card file that indexes names of individuals and organizations found in the Master Files, with some references to other CRC parts. The records 1941-1944 use the old numbering system before it changed to an annual system.

Series III, Subject Files (1948-1981) includes information on allied and related organizations working at a national level and administered outside the Los Angeles JFC, like the American Jewish Congress and the American Jewish Committee, as well as organizations that the CRC retained information about. Some represented organizations include the American Association for the United Nations, American Council for Judaism, American Legion, Keep America Committee, House of Pro-American Activities Committee, the Citizens Council, American Professors for Peace in the Middle East (continues into CRC part 5), As well as the American Plus organization, an anti-Communist organization headed by Senator Jack B. Tenney. A bulk of the subject files are resources collected by the CRC with information regarding antisemitism and various topics like Catholics, censorship, identification, Communists, and others. This series also contains resources of far-right and far-left religious and political propaganda including periodicals, pamphlets, programs, and other printed ephemera from the 1950s and beyond. These include materials from antisemitic groups and white supremacist organizations, Democratic Action organizations, anti-Communist newspapers and newsletters, political periodicals, and others. Also included are local Jewish newspapers and periodicals. This series also includes antisemitic materials like anonymous letters that the CRC collected with hate incidents, antisemitic documents, and correspondence.

Series IV, Audiovisual Materials (1964-1990) consist of a video library from the JFC-LA Communications Department. The videos, produced by various organizations, span topics from news broadcasts, Israel's involvement in the Gulf War, Operation Exodus, JFC-LA events, street interviews on Jewish life, local Arab-Jewish community centers, and others. This series also includes audio from the Christian Prisoners Release International campaign, 1960s sound recordings of community meetings on Soviet Anti-Semitism and messages from the American Opinion Library.

Biographical / historical:

In response to the spread of organized anti-Semitism in the United States during the 1930s spearheaded by domestic groups like the Ku Klux Klan and international ones like the propaganda arm of Hitler's Third Reich in Germany, leaders of Los Angeles' Jewish community formed a special defense organization known as the Los Angeles Community Relations Committee. The committee's purpose was to work with the Anti-Defamation League (ADL), B'nai B'rith, the American Jewish Committee (AJC), the American Jewish Congress, the Council of Jewish Women, and other Zionist organizations to fight anti-Semitism in the United States.

Mendel Silberberg, a respected community leader and motion picture industry attorney, served as the first chairman of Los Angeles Jewish Community Committee, which consisted of approximately forty representatives from various Jewish organizations. The committee adopted the strategy set forth by the ADL in 1933 for combating "un-Americanism," which was to infiltrate and expose pro-Nazi and anti-Semitic organizations and, if necessary, turn the information over to federal government agencies. The Community Relations Committee met on a biweekly basis to set policy and report on right wing activities in Los Angeles. It had subcommittees on research and fact-finding, public relations, legal and legislative matters, internal Jewish relations, interfaith activities, and education.

In 1938, Joseph Roos, a newspaperman and screenwriter who had served as a volunteer informant, joined the Community Relations Committee's staff. He set up a master file system for the committee's records, and edited the CRC's News Letter, which provided "intelligence" news reports and analysis of propaganda to committee, government officials, teachers, churchmen, influential journalists, and radio commentators across the United States. Radio broadcaster Walter Winchell and newspaper columnist Drew Pearson obtained many of their sensational "scoops" about American extremist groups from the News Letter. Under the News Research Service, Roos also directed the CRC's Radio Project and produced news releases and newspaper columns. The last issue of this noteworthy publication went to press on December 7, 1941. With the United States' entry into World War II, the Committee's intelligence gathering activities and investigative journalism were superseded by new activities with patriotic organizations, veterans groups, inter-faith religious organizations, and local schools and colleges to combat rising bigotry and discrimination. In 1941 the committee changed its name to the Community Relations Committee (CRC) of the Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles.

During the early 1950s, with the Cold War, Soviet-Jewish emigration, and U.S. Civil Rights, the JFC had organizational changes to continue to combat bigotry, antisemitism and discrimination. After the CRC changed its name, they expanded efforts to combat bigotry and to promote tolerance. Regional focus like the Area Councils for Greater Los Angeles and Committee structures were created. Joseph Roos and Charles Posner were the directors of the LA CRC for most of this time period. Some of the issues they addressed included Urban Affairs, Soviet Jewry, denazification in Germany, Arab-Israeli conflict, religion in schools, communism, civil liberties, fair employment practices, and stereotyping in the motion picture industry (many which continue into part 5).

At war's end, the CRC again reorganized itself in an attempt to better serve the larger Los Angeles community. Some of the most important issues the CRC addressed in the post-World War II period included resettlement of refugees from Eastern Europe on the West Coast, de-nazification in Germany, immigration legislation, religion in public schools, communism, civil liberties, discrimination in housing, fair employment practices, inter-racial relations, stereotyping in the motion picture industry and religious tolerance. The CRC also kept in close contact with the motion picture and television industries in an attempt to limit the cast stereotyping of Jews and other ethnic groups.

Acquisition information:
Jewish Federation Council of Greater Los Angeles, 1979, 2015
Processing information:

Jenny Galipo, 2025

Some creator-based folder language with outdated terminology were changed from "Negroes" to "Black-Jewish Relations."

Arrangement:

Series I: Administrative, 1950-1980

Subseries A: Joseph Roos, 1950-1969

Subseries B: Charles Posner and Other Leadership, 1957-1980

Subseries C: Jewish Film Advisory Committee, 1962-1975

Series II: Fact Finding, 1939-1969

Subseries A: Investigated Groups and Individuals, 1939-1969

Subseries B: Master Files, 1951-1968

Series III: Subject Files, 1950-1981

Series IV: Audiovisual Materials, 1964-1990

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Access and use

Restrictions:

This collection is open for research use.

Terms of access:

Copyright for unpublished materials authored or otherwise produced by the creator(s) of this collection has not been transferred to California State University, Northridge. Copyright status for other materials is unknown. Transmission or reproduction of materials protected by U.S. Copyright Law (Title 17, U.S.C.) beyond that allowed by fair use requires the written permission of the copyright owners. Works not in the public domain cannot be commercially exploited without permission of the copyright owners. Responsibility for any use rests exclusively with the user.

Preferred citation:

For information about citing items in this collection consult the appropriate style manual, or see the Citing Archival Materials guide.

Location of this collection:
18111 Nordhoff Street
Northridge, CA 91330, US
Contact:
(818) 677-4594
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