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Baron, Salo W. Papers, Date (Inclusive): 1900-1980 Collection Number: M0580 Creator: Baron, Salo W http://oac.cdlib.org/findaid/ark:/13030/ft509nb07b No online items Guide to the Salo W. Baron Papers, 1900-1980 Processed by Polly Armstrong, Patricia Mazón, Evelyn Molina, Ellen Pignatello, and Jutta Sperling; reworked July, 2011 by Bill O'Hanlon Department of Special Collections Green Library Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA 94305-6004 Phone: (650) 725-1022 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/spc/ © 2002 The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved. Guide to the Salo W. Baron M0580 1 Papers, 1900-1980 Guide to the Salo W. Baron Papers, 1900-1980 Collection number: M0580 Department of Special Collections and University Archives Stanford University Libraries Stanford, California Contact Information Department of Special Collections Green Library Stanford University Libraries Stanford, CA 94305-6004 Phone: (650) 725-1022 Email: [email protected] URL: http://www-sul.stanford.edu/depts/spc/ Processed by: Polly Armstrong, Patricia Mazón, Evelyn Molina, Ellen Pignatello, and Jutta Sperling; reworked July, 2011 by Bill O'Hanlon Date Completed: 1993 June Encoded by: Sean Quimby © 2002 The Board of Trustees of Stanford University. All rights reserved. Descriptive Summary Title: Baron, Salo W. Papers, Date (inclusive): 1900-1980 Collection number: M0580 Creator: Baron, Salo W. Extent: ca. 398 linear ft. Repository: Stanford University. Libraries. Dept. of Special Collections and University Archives. Abstract: The Baron Papers comprise the personal, professional, and research material of Salo Baron and occupy approximately 398 linear feet. As of July 1992 the papers total 714 boxes and are arranged in 11 series, including correspondence, personal/biographical, archival materials, subject, manuscripts, notecards, pamphlets, reprints, and books, manuscripts (other authors), notes, photo and audio-visual. Language: English. Access None. Publication Rights Property rights reside with the repository. Literary rights reside with the creators of the documents or their heirs. To obtain permission to publish or reproduce, please contact the Public Services Librarian of the Dept. of Special Collections. Preferred Citation Papers. M0580. Dept. of Special Collections, Stanford University Libraries, Stanford, Calif. Acquisition Information Purchased 1986 and 1990. Provenance Acquired from Salo W. Baron, 1986 and 1990. Biography Guide to the Salo W. Baron M0580 2 Papers, 1900-1980 Salo Wittmayer Baron was instrumental in establishing Jewish Studies as an academic discipline in the United States. An extraordinarily prolific historian, Baron also played an exceptional role in American Jewish organizational life. Baron was born in 1895 in Tarnow, now in Poland but then part of Austrian Galicia. His parents, Elias Baron and Minna Wittmayer Baron, were orthodox Jews, and Elias Baron was a banker and Jewish community leader. Salo Baron had two sisters: Gisa (1892-1943) and Tanya (Tania, "Toni") (1898-?). Both Gisa and the parents died in the Holocaust in 1943. Studying at the University of Vienna, Baron earned doctorates in history (1917), political science (1922), and law (1923). Baron also completed a rabbinical degree from the Jewish Theological Seminary in Vienna in 1920. After teaching at the Juedisches Paedagogium in Vienna from 1919 to 1926, Baron left for the United States, where he joined the faculty of the Jewish Institute of Religion in New York. Baron was offered the newly-created Miller Chair of Jewish History, Literature, and Institutions in 1930 by Columbia University, where he remained for the rest of his career (emeritus after 1963). In 1936 Baron and Morris R. Cohen founded the Conference on Jewish Relations (later called the Conference on Jewish Social Studies), which publishes the journal Jewish Social Studies. The author of more than a dozen monographs and over 500 articles on Jewish history, Baron had an extraordinary range and scope. He was at home in ancient, medieval, and modern history and could read twenty languages. His magnum opus was A Social and Religious History of the Jews, which filled 18 volumes. Baron saw his scholarship as a corrective to what he termed "the lachrymose conception of Jewish history." His work focused on the social history and cultural accomplishments of the Jews rather than on suffering and pogroms. Baron also sought to reintegrate religious experience into the historical fabric of Jewish life. Beginning with his work on the Permanent Minorities Commission of the League of Nations in 1925, Baron served on various international committees during his long career. He founded and directed Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, an organization dedicated to identifying and reclaiming Jewish cultural patrimony plundered by the Nazis. At the invitation of Ben Gurion, Baron testified at the Eichmann trial in 1961. In addition, Baron directed or served as trustee for several academic institutions and organizations in this country and in Israel. Collection Scope and Content Summary The Baron Papers comprise the personal, professional, and research material of Salo Baron and occupy approximately 398 linear feet. Access Terms The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the library's online public access catalog. Abramsky, Chimen, 1916- Adler, Cyrus, 1863-1940. Altmann, Alexander, 1906- Ankori, Zvi, 1920- Aptowitzer, Victor, 1871-1942. Arendt, Hannah. Baeck, Leo, 1873-1956. Barzilay, Isaac, 1915- Ben-Horin, Meir, 1918- Bernstein, S. (Simon), b. 1884. Blau, Joseph L. (Joseph Leon), 1909-1986. Blumenfield, Samuel U., 1901-1972. Blumenkranz, Bernhard. Cohen, Arthur Allen, 1928- Cohen, Morris Raphael, 1880-1947. Damask, Emil. Davis, Moshe. Diesendruk, Zvi. Duker, Abraham. Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955. Feigin, Samuel I. (Samuel Isaac), 1893-1950. Finkelstein, Louis, 1895- Friedmann, Philip, 1901-1960. Fuks, Leo. Guide to the Salo W. Baron M0580 3 Papers, 1900-1980 Gandz, Solomon. Gartner, Lloyd P., 1927- Glatzer, Nahum Norbert, 1903- Goitein, S.D., 1900- Goldmann, Nahum, 1895-1982. Grayzel, Solomon, 1896-1980. Halpern, Ben. Halpern, Israel, 1910- Handlin, Oscar, 1915- Hertzberg, Arthur. Janowsky, Oskar. Kaplan, Jacob. Karp, Abraham J. Kisch, Guido, 1889- Knapp, Russel. Kohut, George Alexander, 1874-1933. Konvitz, Milton Ridvas, 1908- Lieberman, Saul, 1898- Mahler, Raphael, 1899- Marcus, Jacob Rader, 1896- Marx, Alexander, 1878-1953. Netanyahu, Benzion. Neusner, Jacob, 1932- Oelsner, Toni. Orlinsky, Harry, Meyer, 1908- Pinson, Koppel. Prinz, Joachim, 1902- Roth, Cecil, 1899-1970. Scholem, Gershom Gerhard, 1897- Silberschlag, Eisig, 1903- Spiegel, Shalom, 1899- Starr, Joshua, 1907-1949. Steinberg, Aaron, 1891-1975. Stern, Selma, 1890- Tal, Uriel. Tartakower, Aryeh, 1897-1982. Tèaubler, Eugen, 1879-1953. Twersky, Isadore. Wischnitzer, Mark, 1882-1955. Wischnitzer, Rachel, 1885-1989. Wise, George Schneiweis, 1906- Wise, Stephen Samuel, 1874-1949. Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim, 1932- American Jewish Committee. American Academy for Jewish Research. American Jewish Congress. American Jewish Historical Society. Columbia University. Center for Israel and Jewish Studies. Guide to the Salo W. Baron M0580 4 Papers, 1900-1980 Conference on Jewish Cultural Reconstruction. Conference on Jewish Material Claims Against Germany. Conference on Jewish Relations (U.S.) Conference on Jewish Social Studies (U.S.) Emergency Committee for Displaced German Scholars. Hebrew Union College (Cincinnati) Hebrew University (Israel) Institute of Jewish Religion (New York) Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. Jewish Pubication Society. Jewish Theological Seminary (New York) Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture. National Foundation for Jewish Culture. National Jewish Welfare Board. Tel-Aviv University (Israel) Training Bureau for Jewish Communal Service. Union Theological Seminary (New York) World Jewish Congress. YIVO. Jews--History. Jewish studies. Guide to the Salo W. Baron M0580 5 Papers, 1900-1980 Series 1: Correspondence Series 1: Correspondence Physical Description: 70 linear ft. (140 boxes) Scope and Content Note Measuring 70 linear feet, the correspondence of Salo W. Baron has an extraordinary range and depth. Baron's first letters are from before the First World War, and he was an energetic correspondent until his death in 1989. The scope of the correspondence is quite broad, covering personal, professional, and financial matters. Because Baron generally kept copies of his outgoing correspondence, all of these materials are very rich. Although the correspondence is largely in English, there are many letters in Hebrew and German as well as several in Polish, French, Spanish, Portuguese, and Italian. The overview on page 12 summarizes the general organization of the correspondence, which is described in more detail below. Although Baron filed most of his correspondence separately, some letters escaped this system. In sorting through the Baron Papers as a whole, most of the correspondence, filed or not, was removed. Nevertheless some letters were left in other series of the collection (see especially the manuscripts and subject series) because of the information they provided on the specific materials they accompanied. In the correspondence series, some noncorrespondence materials (such as financial reports) are included, mainly because these items were originally filed with the correspondence. To the greatest degree possible Baron's letters have been kept in their original order. Baron maintained two residences, one in Canaan, Connecticut and
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