EMJC has a long history and a large volume of records. These are gradually being collected, arranged and described. Eventually they will be available for research by EMJC members and anyone interested in New York City and American Jewish history. In the meantime, one very interesting set of genealogical records is now available and ready for use: The membership file cards filled out by new members in the 1940s, 50s and 60s. Each card has the new member’s name, address, age, occupation and business address, the names of his parents, the names and ages of the wife and children and the date of the couple’s marriage. The collection includes approximately 1,000 alphabetized cards.

This is a valuable genealogical resource. Perhaps you are looking for a grandfather or an aunt,  who may have been a member of EMJC at some time during the postwar years and you don’t know date of birth or the date of birth, former occupation or residence at that period. You might or might not have found the person in the censuses of 1920, 1930 and 1940, which are now online, but information about the later years won’t be publicly available for several decades yet.  Perhaps you’ll find basic facts in the EMJC archives and then you can look for the person in other sources.

Anyone interested in genealogical research using the membership records may contact Toby Sanchez, the EMJC archivist at 347-702-6284 or at tobysanchez34@gmail.com to request a search of the cards.

The EMJC archives currently have a great deal of information ready to use, but there is much more out there to acquire. If you have letters, documents, photographs, bulletins, yearbooks, dinner dance journals, etc. pertaining to EMJC, please consider donating them to our archives, so that other people can make use of them in the future, after you are gone. We can photocopy items that you wish to retain. Thank you for helping us preserve and share EMJC’s rich history.

Readers of the EMJC Bulletin will be informed when new interesting items are discovered in the EMJC Archives and made ready for use. Sign up for the Bulletin here.