A four-point statement of objectives designed to aid historians and educators in clarifying the history of American Jews was adopted here yesterday at the closing session of the Tercentenary Conference of Historians called by the American Jewish Historical Society under the auspices of the Louis M. Rabinowitz Foundation. Seventy-five prominent Jewish and non Jewish historians attended the sessions.
The statement underlined the need for “a new understanding of the local community and neighborhood” to study the interaction of various groups and traditions. It stressed the importance of investigating the economic history of the Jews in this country–the contributions of the Jewish immigration and the Jews to the national economy and the expansion of American economic life.
The statement called for historians, in this time of restrictive immigration, to stress the role of free immigration in building the material and spiritual strength of America. Finally, the statement argues the need for more stress on the writing of biographies to analyze the role of the family in shaping the individual’s contribution to society.
The statement was prepared by a committee consisting of Dr. Allan Nevins and Dr. Salo W. Baron, both Professors of History at Columbia University; Dr. Solomon Grayzel, editor of the Jewish Publication Society of America; Dr. Jacob R. Marcus, director of American Jewish Archives, Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion; Rabbi Isidore S. Meyer, librarian and editor of the American Jewish Historical Society, and Dr. Sylvester E. Stevens, State Historian of Pennsylvania.
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