People

The Buffalo region has been home to a wide range of individuals associated with local Jewish communities and Jewish networks from the 1820s through to the contemporary period as immigrants, citizens, residents and locals.

Institutions

Buffalo Jews have a rich history of forming both formal and informal institutions for religious, educational, political and social needs. From synagogues to organizations, and from coordinating agencies to groups and clubs, Jewish Buffalonians have seen a changing range of institutions supported by group endeavors and community philanthropy.

Neighborhoods

In living memory, the East Side and North Buffalo stand out as physically connected and interwoven religious and commercial centers of Jewish living. In contrast to these specific areas are the mini hubs identified with Jewish living and connected to a more dispersed idea of neighborhood. Separately, suburbia with its significant geographic spread, has redefined how a series of Jewish spaces come together with a mix of hubs, focal points and networks.

Themes

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Exhibitions

Special exhibitions, through a focus on particular individuals and subjects, delves into the personal stories that have animated Jewish lives. Each digital exploration reflects on the interplay between place, identities and changing times and the way in which American, Jewish and Buffalo historical experiences are deeply interwoven.

Resources

Materials that document Jewish Buffalo in all its diversity are found in books, articles, archives and museums, many of which are available locally or online. This section highlights some of these sources and will be updated regularly.

Research Collections

Research Collections in the US
Research Collections at the University at Buffalo

Archives in Buffalo and Erie County, NY

Albright Knox Art Museum, Buffalo, NY

  • Individual artists with a Jewish Buffalo connection 

Buffalo and Erie County Library, Central Library, Grosvenor Room, Buffalo, NY

  • RBRWNYO, 1902.M55, Miller archives, 1902-1963, Personal papers, correspondence, and other items belonging to Leon Hillel Miller (1880-1939) and Ada Holender Miller of Buffalo, New York.
  • RBR BUFFALO PHOTO, F129 .B8 M56, Helen Mintz Photograph collection, ca. 1900-1960

Buffalo History Museum, Buffalo, NY

  • 32-16-2, Hare Photograph Collection
  • A2015-81, Howard Kline Family.
  • A2000-10, 2000-72 Russian emigrant interviews, 1999 March-May.   Tall, Emily, Russian emigrants Leonid Pollack, Anatoly Danilovich, and Maria Tsyryulnikova, by a student at State University of New York at Buffalo. Mss A2000-10, 2000-72
  • A94-67, Poummit family Genealogy
  • A96-54, Cohen Family Collection
  • B2016-06, Siegfried Construction Company.
  • B2013-01, L.L. Berger, Inc., L.L. Berger, Inc. Papers, 1905-2011
  • C2012-01, Bunis Family Collection, Bunis Sample Shop Papers, 1909-1979 (bulk 1930-1950),

Buffalo State College Archives, Buffalo, NY

  • Buffalo Courier Express Archives
  • Buffalo Evening News Clippings
  • Grace Manor Nursing Home Founding Committee Papers, 1989-1993
  • SUNY Buffalo State, Campus Photograph Collection [1871-2009, bulk 1970-1990]

Burchfield Penney Art Museum Archives, Buffalo, NY

  • Numerous individual artists with a Jewish Buffalo connection

University at Buffalo, Jewish Buffalo Archives, University Archives, Amherst, NY

  • See separate listing below

University at Buffalo, Charles B. Sears Law Library, Special Collections

  • Justice Philip Halpern papers, 1929-1969 

Outside of Buffalo and Erie County, NY

American Jewish Archives, Cincinnati, Ohio

  • MS-141, Allen Howard Podet 1934-, Papers, 1957-1980
  • MS 478, Selig Adler Papers, 1921-1961 (bulk 1952-1960).
  • MS-585, Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, Inc. (Buffalo, NY)
  • MS-906, Shirley T. Joseph Papers.1970-2005.
  • PC-45 Photographs. Adler, Della, 1876-1975.
  • PC-591, Congregation Beth Abraham (Buffalo, NY)
  • PC-592, Temple Beth David-Ner Israel (Buffalo, NY)
  • PC-593, Temple Beth El (Buffalo, NY), Photographs
  • PC-594, Temple Beth Zion (Buffalo, NY), Photographs
  • PC-1225, Joseph Lionel Fink 1897-1964, Photographs.
  • SC-94, Adler, Della 1876-1975, Autobiography, 1970
  • SC-1476, Kadimah School (Buffalo, NY), Charter. April 26, 1968
  • SC-1477, United Jewish Federation of Buffalo (Buffalo, NY), Constitution, 1950
  • SC-1480, Temple Beth Zion (Buffalo, NY), Sermon, April 1967, Delivered by Rabbi Arnold G. Fink
  • SC-6265, Joseph D. Herzog Eulogy for Daniel E. Kerman, 19 July 1982.
  • SC-13800, Sermons. Buffalo, N.Y. 1989-1991, Herzog, Joseph D. Temple Sinai

Arizona State Archives

  • MSS-347, Gerda Weissmann and Kurt Klein Papers 1940s-2012 (bulk 1940s-2001)

Center for Jewish History, American Jewish Historical Society Archives, NYC, NY

  • P-59, David Diamond Papers, undated, 1928-1968, 3 linear feet (6 manuscript boxes),
  • I-315, Jewish Center of Buffalo Records, undated, 1945-1969, 1985, 0.5 linear feet.
  • P-932, Shirley T. Joseph Papers, 1972-1998, 10.3 linear feet

Research Collections at the University at Buffalo

Jewish Buffalo Archives (Collections under the Jewish Buffalo Archives Project)

Selig Adler Jewish Archives of Greater Buffalo

Other related archival collections