Archives of the Anglo-Jewish Association

Papers of the council of the Association: minute books, 1871- 1962, carbons of correspondence, apologies and nominations, 1952, lists of members, expenditure sheets and annual reports, 1950-1, AGM minutes, 1953-6, chairman's and secretary's agenda and notes book, 1926-39. Executive committee minute books, 1874-1909. Papers of committees, including the executive committee, the finance committee, press and media committee, publications committee and membership committee: executive committee minute books, 1874-1909; financial material, including cash books, investment papers, 1889-1983. Charitable trusts and education committee: papers relating to bequests and to schools supported by the Anglo-Jewish Association worldwide, including the Elly Kadoorie school in Bombay and the Elvira de Rothschild school, Jerusalem. Foreign affairs committee papers and reports on Jewish communities abroad, together with communications with international organisations, including the Consultative Council of Jewish Organisations (CCJO), the UN and Unesco; files relating to refugees and war criminals; country files: 1872-1981, but principally 1940s and 1950s. Correspondence, press cuttings, notices and articles in country files, 1947-69. Reports of the conjoint foreign committee and the Board of Deputies, 1915-17. Letter books: home series, 1920-39; overseas series, 1921-39. Alphabetical files of correspondence, 1939-47; annual files of correspondence, 1945-57. General correspondence, 1945-58, in subject files, including correspondence with the Board of Deputies, the Council of Christians and Jews, League of Arab-Jewish Co-operation and the United Jewish Educational and Cultural Organisation (UJECO). Honorary officer files, 1947-53: papers for meetings and correspondence, notes and papers of individuals honorary officers, including R.N.Carvalho, H.A.Goodman, Lawrence Jacobs, R.Landman, N.J.Laski, E.E.S.Montagu, S.I.Salmon, L.Stein and H.Stone. Jewish Monthly , general correspondence files, arranged alphabetically, 1951-2; Jewish Monthly special files, relating to Mrs Primrose Aslett, Max Beloff, R.N.Carvalho, Albert M.Hyamson, Ewen Montagu, Raphael Loewe, Cecil Roth, Wilfred Samuel and Evan Senior 1950-2. Printed pamphlets, 1944-50 Papers relating to the CCJO, 1955

The Anglo-Jewish Association was founded in 1871 mainly through the exertions of Dr Abraham Benisch and Revd Albert Lwy. Membership of the Association is open to all British Jews who accept as their guiding principle loyalty to their faith and their country. Its objects are to promote the education of Jews in the United Kingdom and elsewhere; to instruct in Jewish affairs and matters relating to the Jewish religion and race; to collect and publish information relating to the religious and social conditions of Jews throughout the world; to encourage Jews in the United Kingdom to support Jewish charitable organisations by personal service and financial assistance; to join or promote any charitable society or body in the United Kingdom or elsewhere, in order to further any of its objects and people; to use its education, cultural and political experience for the promotion of goodwill towards Israel. Until July 1943 the Association's work in the field of foreign affairs was carried on in conjunction with the Board of Deputies of British Jews through the medium of the Joint Foreign Committee. When the latter body was dissolved the Association set up its own General Purposes and Foreign Committee: it is the papers relating to foreign affairs that form the most substantial part of the archive. (A report on the records of the Anglo-Jewish Association covering AJ 37 and AJ 95 was reproduced by the Royal Commission on Historical Manuscripts in 1978.)

The Special Collections Division is available for anyone to use, regardless of whether you are attached to an academic institution. Access to the Archives and Manuscripts and Rare Books reading room, however, is by prior appointment to access the manuscript material. See our website for more details.

The archives of the Joint Foreign Committee are in part among the papers of the Board of Deputies of British Jews, now in the GLRO.