Kehillat Haharedim

Title: Kehillat Haharedim

Inclusive Dates: 1939-1947

ID: RG 340

Extent Information

14'7"; 35 5"lgl

Creators

Kehillat Haharedim (France)

Administrative/Biographical History

French name: Association des Israelites Pratiquants. Association of Orthodox Jews organized in 1936 by Rabbi Schneur Zalmen Schneersohn (Chneerson), to conduct religious and educational activities throughout France. During the German occupation, the organization engaged in underground activities, rescuing and supporting Jews, especially children. Originally centered in Paris, its headquarters were moved to Marseilles in 1940, to Demu in 1942 and to St. Etienne-de-Crossey in 1943. After the war, the organization concerned itself chiefly with searching for children hidden in Christian homes throughout the French countryside and with working for their return to a Jewish environment. A questionnaire was distributed by the Kehillat Haharedim to numerous municipalities in France, inquiring about the existence of Jewish children and expressing the organization's willingness to take custody of such children and to provide for them.

Subjects (links to similar collections)

Charitable Activities
Children
Communal Welfare Organizations
Education
England
France
Great Britain
Hasidism
Holocaust and Aftermath
Rabbis
Refugees
Religious Life
Resistance, World War II
Survivors, Holocaust
Synagogues

Forms of Material (links to similar genres)

Documents - Records

Finding Aid Information

Inventory: English, 17 pp.; Yiddish, 33 pp., typed

Administrative Information

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Description: The records reflect the Kehillat Haharedim's activities during and after the World War II. *World War II Period* Correspondence with children's homes and youth homes in Seignebon-Demu, St. Etienne-de-Crossey, Brout-Vernet, St.- Gervais-les-Bains. Correspondence relating to the provision of food for children's homes. Letters from children. Correspondence with internees of camps in Verny, Gurs, Rivesaltes, Les Milles, Barcares, Recebedou, Aubagne, Rieucros, Argeles-sur-Mer. Correspondence regarding relief work in the camps, including the sending of provisions, clothes and religious articles. Lists of refugees and internees. Correspondence with rabbis, including Rabbi Elie Munk, Rabbi David Chaim Met, Rabbi Shlomo Kunstlinger, Rabbi Shlomo Fuchs. Correspondence with the UGIF, HICEM. Bulletin of the Kehillat Haharedim. Materials on yeshivot in Marseilles, St. Etienne-de-Crossey, and in Heide, Belgium, including lists of students. Materials on vocational courses offered by the Kehillat Haharedim, such as tailoring. Financial records. *Post War Records* Circulars sent to municipalities in France inquiring about the fate of Jewish children. Responses of the municipalities, written on the returned questionnaires. Correspondence with the OSE. Correspondence with organizations in England and Poland relating to the fate of rescued Jewish children. Correspondence regarding the return of children sheltered in Catholic institutions. Correspondence with the Commission on the Status of Jewish War Orphans, with the Federation de Societes Juives de France, Centre de Documentation Juive Contemporaine, AJDC, HICEM. Letters from children in children's homes. Lists of children, reports on their condition, on the fate of their parents. Statistical reports on children's homes. Lists of students, programs of studies and financial records from educational institutions in Eragny, Boissy-St. Leger, Tragny. Materials relating to the Kehillat Haharedim school in Paris. Reports on students in the Talmud Torah, lists of students. Materials from schools and Talmud Torahs, such as "Chaim L'Yisrael", Talmud Torah in Mulhouse, Metz, Grenoble, Brussels, Limoges. Requests to government schools to free children from writing on the Sabbath. Materials relating to religious activities. Correspondence, minutes of the Coordinating Committee of the Synagogues of Paris, 1945. Correspondence of the Vaad Harabonim, 1944-1945. Materials on *kashrut*, Passover, 1941. Materials of the synagogue of the Kehillat Haharedim. Correspondence of the Rashi Synagogue, Ezras Yisroel Synagogue, Beit Yisrael Synagogue, Adath Israel Synagogue. Materials relating to kashrut, burials, provision of matzot. Reports on *shehitah*, kosher wine. Lists and correspondence relating to relief packages of kosher food. Correspondence relating to the *mikveh*. Materials relating to Nazi victims. Materials on project to found an Association of Victims of Nazism. Correspondence with Comite d'Aide Immediate aux Deportes et Victimes de la Guerre. List of deportees. Correspondence with branches of Kehillat Haharedim in Moirans, Toulouse, Marseilles. Lists of members of Kehillat Haharedim in Paris.