Emma Lazarus Jewish Women's Clubs of Los Angeles Records, 1945-1980

The Emma Lazarus Jewish Women’s Clubs of Los Angeles Records, 1945-1980 subcollection is comprised of records from the Emma Lazarus Jewish Clubs of Los Angeles (ELJWCLA), active from 1951 to 1980. The majority of the subcollection consists of correspondence, minutes of meetings, and records of cultural programs. The ELJWCLA also assembled a large number of newspaper clippings and pamphlets relating to the interests of the organization, which included: anti-Semitism, desegregation, civil rights and voting rights, deportation of the foreign born (Walter-McCarran Act), peace and nuclear disarmament, Jewish culture and children’s education, international brotherhood (particularly with the Soviet Union), the arts in general, and the status of women (particularly working women).The ELJWCLA was part of the national Emma Lazarus Federation of Jewish Women’s Clubs, which grew out of the Emma Lazarus Division of the Jewish People’s Fraternal Order, itself an outgrowth of the United Council of Working Class Housewives (later the Progressive Women’s Council). The Los Angeles clubs coordinated many of their activities with the national Federation, however, much of their work focused locally. In the mid-fifties the ELJWCLA were particularly concerned with civil rights and partnered with African-American organizations in Los Angeles. The clubs sponsored plays on the history of the Jewish people in the United States, concerts by Jewish and African-American performers, election and legislative initiatives on the local, state, and national level, senior citizen centers, and International Women’s Day celebrations. The records of the ELJWCLA end in 1980, with the activities of the organization ceasing during this decade. The national Federation dissolved in 1989.Materials from the Emma Lazarus Jewish Women's Clubs of Los Angeles Records subcollection are part of the L.A. as Subject Community Histories Digitization Project. Thanks to generous support from the National Endowment for the Humanities (https://www.neh.gov/), the USC Libraries are digitizing this collection for public access.