Call Number:

SCRC 813

Repository:

Temple University Libraries: Special Collections Research Center

Extent:

7.25 linear feet (8 boxes + 1 map folder)

Language:

English, Hebrew, and Yiddish

Preferred Citation:

[Description and date of item], [Box/folder number], Zelda Rabinowitz Meranze Family Papers, SCRC 813, Special Collections Research Center, Temple University Libraries, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.

Date:

1890-2003 (inclusive)

Creator:

Meranze, Zelda Rabinowitz, 1905-2000, Rabinowitz, Clara, 1899-1999, and Levitt, Julie Meranze, b. 1943

Form:

35mm (photographic film size), Born digital, Charters, Clippings, Compact discs, Correspondence, Diaries, Diplomas, Exhibition catalogs, Financial records, Genealogies, Ledgers (account books), Legal documents, Marriage certificates, Negatives, Newsletters, Oral histories, Pamphlets, Photocopies, Photographs, Playbills, Property records, Publications (documents), School records, Scrapbooks, Slides, VHS (TM), video recordings (physical artifacts), and Yearbooks

Abstract:

In 1891, Baron Maurice de Hirsch (1831-1896) created a fund for Russian Jews facing persecution to support their migration to the United States. That year, the fund purchased land in Cape May County (N.J.) to create the Jewish settlement of Woodbine, described at the time as a colony. The early residents worked in agriculture and manufacturing. In 1903, Woodbine incorporated as a borough.

Joseph Rabinowitz (1872-1958) was born in Poland and came to the United States around 1888. He moved to Woodbine in the 1890s. He worked as a foreman at Daniel and Blumenthal Clothing Manufacturers and later founded the Woodbine Children's Clothing Company. He served as mayor of Woodbine and as a member of its Borough Council. Joseph Rabinowitz married Lena Shapiro (1878-1967) in 1898. They had six children: Clara Rabinowitz (1899-1999), Milton Rabinowitz (1900-1993), Benjamin Rabinowitz (1902-1978), Zelda Rabinowitz Meranze (1905-2000), Chester Rabinowitz (1908-1990), and Albert Rabinowitz (1909-2001).

Zelda Rabinowitz married Joseph Meranze (1909-1995) in 1936. They lived in Philadelphia where Joseph worked as a lawyer. They had one daughter, Julie Meranze (b. 1943), who married Jerry Levitt in 1967. Jerry and Julie Levitt had three children: Rachel, Daniel, and Gabriel.

Clara Rabinowitz lived in New York and worked as a social worker and psychologist.

This collection contains the papers of Zelda Rabinowitz Meranze documenting her family's time in the Jewish community of Woodbine (N.J.) in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, as well as the family's later activities in Philadelphia and New York. The bulk of the collection was created by Zelda Rabinowitz Meranze, with contributions from her sister, Clara Rabinowitz, and Zelda's daughter, Julie Meranze Levitt. The collection includes correspondence, photographs, and Zelda's writings of her childhood memories of Woodbine.