Microfilming the "Industrial Removal Office" Records

FAIN: PT-50003-03

Center for Jewish History (New York, NY 10011-6301)
Lyn Slome (Project Director: January 2003 to January 2008)

To support the preservation microfilming of archival records related to Jewish immigration from Europe, 1899 to 1922.

The Center for Jewish History in association with the American Jewish Historical Society requests support to preserve the intellectual content of the records of the Industrial Removal Office, n.d. 1899-1922 (IRO), comprising 75 linear feet. This fragile, popular collection has yellowing, crumbling paper due to its acid content, and cannot sustain repeated handling by patrons. The materials document the work of a communal, self-regulating organization which was established to relocate Jewish immigrants from urban tenements to jobs and new lives in more than 1500 cities and towns across the US. The Collection has national significance because of the centrality of immigration to the American experience and the nature of the IRO as an organized social experiment through which the US fulfilled its role as a land of opportunity. This Collection is invaluable for American history scholars studying the rise of unions, ethnic migration, the Americanization of immigrants, and the development of American cities and towns.