Malcolm H. Stern Papers
Item
Country
US
Name of institution (official language of the state)
Language of name of institution
eng
Contact information: postal address
3101 Clifton Avenue, Cincinnati, Ohio 45220
Contact information: phone number
001 513 487 3000
Contact information: web address
Contact information: email
Reference number
MS-626
Type of reference number
Archival reference number
Title (official language of the state)
Malcolm H. Stern Papers
Language of title
eng
Creator / accumulator
Malcolm H. Stern
Date(s)
1882/1994
Date note
Copies of documents since 1753
Language(s)
dut
eng
fra
heb
por
Extent
35 boxes and 1 oversized box
Type of material
Textual Material
Physical condition
Good
Scope and content
This collection comprises writings, correspondence and papers relating to Malcolm H. Stern’s genealogical research, information on rabbinical associations and activities, and memorials and tributes. The collection is divided into six series: A. Writings; B. Correspondence; C. Genealogy; D. Rabbinical Associations; E. Personal; and F. Non-Print Materials. These series include handwritten and typewritten letters, research annotations, genealogical charts, transcriptions, printed and unprinted papers, photocopies of books and articles, newspaper clippings, etc.
The Genealogy series, which comprises the more significant part of the materials of this collection (25 boxes), includes Stern’s results on the research he developed on various Jewish families in North America and the communities of Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York City; Canada; Curaçao; and Kingston, Jamaica. The Research subseries includes intriguing materials related to Sephardic communities, families and individuals, for instance:
Box 16, folder 3: Handwritten index of burial records of the Congregation Mikveh Israel, Philadelphia cemetery, composed in 1911.
Box 16, folder 4: Old Jewish Cemeteries: includes a typescript copy of a deed of leasing of land for the burial ground of Charleston by Isaac da Costa to Joshua Hart and others, on March 12, 1764 (recorded in book C-3, p. 168, Register Mesne Conveyance, County Court House, Charleston, SC).
Box 16, folder 8: Colonial marriage records: includes photographies of ketubot records of marriages performed by Gershom Mendes Seixas, namely: Solomon Levy and Rebecca Eve Hendricks (1789); Jacob de Leon and Hannah Hendricks (1789); and Solomon Moses and Rachel Gratz (1806). It also contains records of marriages performed by Isaac Benjamin Seixas (Benjamin Seixas Nathan and Emily Grace Hendricks in 1836) and Jacques Judah Lyons (Harmon Hendricks Nathan and Miriam Hendricks in 1865; Mendes Cohen and Justina Nathan in 1865; Nathan Werner and Pauline in 1870; Julius Reuben Wolff and Frances Louisa Nathan in 1877).
Box 16, folder 12: Cortissos Family: includes a photocopy of the Cortissoz Diary sent by Gail Greenberg to Malcolm Stern in 1989. Title: “Copy. Record as kept by my father. Original in possession of my sister Mrs Henry Levy, resident at Sacramento, State of California, late at San Francisco”. The first entry is on Abraham Haim Simah Cortissos, born on the island of St. Eustatius on June 28, 1774. It is followed by other records on births, marriages, deaths, migrations, etc., related to the Cortissos family.
Box 17, folder 1: Curaçao Families: includes a photostat of the manuscript “Dinim de Degolar”, with instructions on ritual slaughter; copy of female birth records from the Congregation Mikve Israel of Curaçao (1743-1831); genealogical charters of Curaçao families; copy of Curaçao male birth roll (1722-1830).
Box 19, folder 7: Hamburg-Altona, vital records: includes photocopies of vital records of the Jewish community of Hamburg (1753-1789) and 18th-century ketubot.
Box 22, folder 14: includes copies of extracts of the Escabot of the Congregation Shearith Israel of New York (18th-19th centuries) and a typescript catalogue of the congregation’s archives composed by Malcolm Stern.
Box 26, folder 2: Savannah, Ga. - Congregation Mickve Israel (1790-1954): includes a photocopy of the charter of incorporation on November 30, 1790.
Box 26, folder 4: Savannah, Ga. - Photostats and photos (1755-1978): includes photocopies of the ketubot of Samuel Nunes Ribeiro and Ribca Nunes Ribeiro, and Abraham de Lyon and Ester Nunes (London).
Box 26, folder 5: Sheftall family: includes the transcription of Emanuel de la Motta’s memorandum on the death of Isaac de la Motta in December 1794, whose original is part of a private collection.
Box 28, folder 5: includes a manuscript copy of Malcolm Stern’s Abstracts of Wills of Early American Jews (unpublished paper).
Box 28, folder 6: Wills (1700s) – Canada, New England and New York: includes copies of wills of Joseph Bueno de Mesquita (1708), Abraham de Lucena (1716) and Jacob Fonseca (1728) of New York; David Lopez (1797) of Boston; and estate of Aaron Lopez (1783).
Box 28, folder 7: Wills (1753-1824): Pennsylvania: includes copies of wills of Isaac Miranda (1732), Isaac Pesoa (1809), Isaac Rodriguez (1815), and Emanuel Nunes Carvalho (1817).
The Genealogy series, which comprises the more significant part of the materials of this collection (25 boxes), includes Stern’s results on the research he developed on various Jewish families in North America and the communities of Richmond and Norfolk, Virginia; Savannah, Georgia; Charleston, South Carolina; Philadelphia, Pennsylvania; New York City; Canada; Curaçao; and Kingston, Jamaica. The Research subseries includes intriguing materials related to Sephardic communities, families and individuals, for instance:
Box 16, folder 3: Handwritten index of burial records of the Congregation Mikveh Israel, Philadelphia cemetery, composed in 1911.
Box 16, folder 4: Old Jewish Cemeteries: includes a typescript copy of a deed of leasing of land for the burial ground of Charleston by Isaac da Costa to Joshua Hart and others, on March 12, 1764 (recorded in book C-3, p. 168, Register Mesne Conveyance, County Court House, Charleston, SC).
Box 16, folder 8: Colonial marriage records: includes photographies of ketubot records of marriages performed by Gershom Mendes Seixas, namely: Solomon Levy and Rebecca Eve Hendricks (1789); Jacob de Leon and Hannah Hendricks (1789); and Solomon Moses and Rachel Gratz (1806). It also contains records of marriages performed by Isaac Benjamin Seixas (Benjamin Seixas Nathan and Emily Grace Hendricks in 1836) and Jacques Judah Lyons (Harmon Hendricks Nathan and Miriam Hendricks in 1865; Mendes Cohen and Justina Nathan in 1865; Nathan Werner and Pauline in 1870; Julius Reuben Wolff and Frances Louisa Nathan in 1877).
Box 16, folder 12: Cortissos Family: includes a photocopy of the Cortissoz Diary sent by Gail Greenberg to Malcolm Stern in 1989. Title: “Copy. Record as kept by my father. Original in possession of my sister Mrs Henry Levy, resident at Sacramento, State of California, late at San Francisco”. The first entry is on Abraham Haim Simah Cortissos, born on the island of St. Eustatius on June 28, 1774. It is followed by other records on births, marriages, deaths, migrations, etc., related to the Cortissos family.
Box 17, folder 1: Curaçao Families: includes a photostat of the manuscript “Dinim de Degolar”, with instructions on ritual slaughter; copy of female birth records from the Congregation Mikve Israel of Curaçao (1743-1831); genealogical charters of Curaçao families; copy of Curaçao male birth roll (1722-1830).
Box 19, folder 7: Hamburg-Altona, vital records: includes photocopies of vital records of the Jewish community of Hamburg (1753-1789) and 18th-century ketubot.
Box 22, folder 14: includes copies of extracts of the Escabot of the Congregation Shearith Israel of New York (18th-19th centuries) and a typescript catalogue of the congregation’s archives composed by Malcolm Stern.
Box 26, folder 2: Savannah, Ga. - Congregation Mickve Israel (1790-1954): includes a photocopy of the charter of incorporation on November 30, 1790.
Box 26, folder 4: Savannah, Ga. - Photostats and photos (1755-1978): includes photocopies of the ketubot of Samuel Nunes Ribeiro and Ribca Nunes Ribeiro, and Abraham de Lyon and Ester Nunes (London).
Box 26, folder 5: Sheftall family: includes the transcription of Emanuel de la Motta’s memorandum on the death of Isaac de la Motta in December 1794, whose original is part of a private collection.
Box 28, folder 5: includes a manuscript copy of Malcolm Stern’s Abstracts of Wills of Early American Jews (unpublished paper).
Box 28, folder 6: Wills (1700s) – Canada, New England and New York: includes copies of wills of Joseph Bueno de Mesquita (1708), Abraham de Lucena (1716) and Jacob Fonseca (1728) of New York; David Lopez (1797) of Boston; and estate of Aaron Lopez (1783).
Box 28, folder 7: Wills (1753-1824): Pennsylvania: includes copies of wills of Isaac Miranda (1732), Isaac Pesoa (1809), Isaac Rodriguez (1815), and Emanuel Nunes Carvalho (1817).
Archival history
The American Jewish Archives received this collection from Louise Stern, New York, N.Y., in 1996. Joseph Greer processed the materials in June 1998.
Administrative / Biographical history
Malcolm Henry Stern was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, on January 29, 1915. Stern was the son of Arthur Kaufman and Henrietta Berkowitz Stern and had one brother, Edward. After growing up on a seven-acre farm in Fox Chase, Pennsylvania, Stern earned a Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Pennsylvania in 1935. In 1941 Stern was ordained at Hebrew Union College (HUC) in Cincinnati, becoming the fifth member of his family to enter the rabbinate. At HUC, Stern earned the Bachelor of Hebrew Letters degree in 1937, the Master of Hebrew Letters in 1941, and the Doctor of Hebrew Letters degree in 1957. Stern received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the same school in 1966.
In 1941, Stern became assistant rabbi at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia. He ministered to the congregation until 1943, when he took a sabbatical to serve as a chaplain in the Army Air Corps. During World War II, Stern survived a plane crash in Casablanca in which thirteen persons were killed. Stern returned to Keneseth Israel in 1946 but departed again in 1947 when he was elected rabbi of the Congregation Ohef Sholom in Norfolk, Virginia, where he served for 17 years. While in Norfolk, Stern spoke out strongly against segregation. In 1964 Stern moved to New York City to become the first Director of Rabbinic Placement for the Central Conference of American Rabbis, holding this position until his retirement in 1980. In 1981 Stern joined the faculty of the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He served as a counsellor for student fieldwork and was an adjunct professor of Jewish history.
Genealogy was Stern's great interest in life. His love for genealogy started in grade school when he traced the descendants of Charlemagne for an assignment. From 1949 until 1994, he served as the genealogist for the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati. His work contributed to making the American Jewish Archives an internationally recognised institution. In 1960 he published Americans of Jewish Descent, in which he traced members of Jewish immigrant families who arrived in the United States before 1840. Two more book editions would follow in 1978 and 1991 as First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1977 and First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1988.
Stern served the world of genealogy and American Jewish history in many ways. Nearly every Jewish genealogical society in the United States was established with his help. He was known as the dean of American Jewish genealogy. Stern served as secretary of the American Society of Genealogists from 1968-1973, as vice president from 1973-1976 and as president from 1976-1979. Stern was the founder of the Jewish Historical Society of New York. He was also a trustee of the American Jewish Historical Society. In 1989 Stern testified before Congress, arguing that the position of Archivist of the United States should be awarded to a scholar and not an administrator. In 1990 he served on a special National Archives and Records Administration commission to prepare four American genealogists for a mission to Russia designed to educate Russian archivists. Stern was also the vice president of the Gomez Foundation for Mill House in Newburgh, New York, the oldest surviving Jewish residence in North America, built by Louis Moses Gomez in 1716. Stern participated in numerous Jewish and non-Jewish genealogical organisations, including the National Genealogical Society, the Jewish Genealogical Society (president emeritus), the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the Jewish Historical Society of England and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.
Stern had a deep love for music. In 1960, he edited the Union Songster for Reform Judaism. He co-edited songs and hymns for Gates of Prayer and chaired the committee that created Shaarei Shira/Gates of Song.
On May 25, 1941, Malcolm Stern married Louise Steinhart Bergman. Malcolm H. Stern died in New York City of a heart attack on January 5, 1994, aged 78.
In 1941, Stern became assistant rabbi at Reform Congregation Keneseth Israel in Philadelphia. He ministered to the congregation until 1943, when he took a sabbatical to serve as a chaplain in the Army Air Corps. During World War II, Stern survived a plane crash in Casablanca in which thirteen persons were killed. Stern returned to Keneseth Israel in 1946 but departed again in 1947 when he was elected rabbi of the Congregation Ohef Sholom in Norfolk, Virginia, where he served for 17 years. While in Norfolk, Stern spoke out strongly against segregation. In 1964 Stern moved to New York City to become the first Director of Rabbinic Placement for the Central Conference of American Rabbis, holding this position until his retirement in 1980. In 1981 Stern joined the faculty of the New York campus of Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion. He served as a counsellor for student fieldwork and was an adjunct professor of Jewish history.
Genealogy was Stern's great interest in life. His love for genealogy started in grade school when he traced the descendants of Charlemagne for an assignment. From 1949 until 1994, he served as the genealogist for the American Jewish Archives in Cincinnati. His work contributed to making the American Jewish Archives an internationally recognised institution. In 1960 he published Americans of Jewish Descent, in which he traced members of Jewish immigrant families who arrived in the United States before 1840. Two more book editions would follow in 1978 and 1991 as First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1977 and First American Jewish Families: 600 Genealogies, 1654-1988.
Stern served the world of genealogy and American Jewish history in many ways. Nearly every Jewish genealogical society in the United States was established with his help. He was known as the dean of American Jewish genealogy. Stern served as secretary of the American Society of Genealogists from 1968-1973, as vice president from 1973-1976 and as president from 1976-1979. Stern was the founder of the Jewish Historical Society of New York. He was also a trustee of the American Jewish Historical Society. In 1989 Stern testified before Congress, arguing that the position of Archivist of the United States should be awarded to a scholar and not an administrator. In 1990 he served on a special National Archives and Records Administration commission to prepare four American genealogists for a mission to Russia designed to educate Russian archivists. Stern was also the vice president of the Gomez Foundation for Mill House in Newburgh, New York, the oldest surviving Jewish residence in North America, built by Louis Moses Gomez in 1716. Stern participated in numerous Jewish and non-Jewish genealogical organisations, including the National Genealogical Society, the Jewish Genealogical Society (president emeritus), the Federation of Genealogical Societies, the Jewish Historical Society of England and the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society.
Stern had a deep love for music. In 1960, he edited the Union Songster for Reform Judaism. He co-edited songs and hymns for Gates of Prayer and chaired the committee that created Shaarei Shira/Gates of Song.
On May 25, 1941, Malcolm Stern married Louise Steinhart Bergman. Malcolm H. Stern died in New York City of a heart attack on January 5, 1994, aged 78.
Access points: locations
Access points: persons, families
Access points: corporate bodies
Access points: subject terms
Access points: document types
System of arrangement
The collection is divided into six series, which are divided into subseries. The records are organised by subject.
Links to finding aids
Existence and location of copies
Existence and location of originals
Author of the description
Carla Vieira, 2022
Published primary sources
Linked resources
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