Salo W. Baron papers, circa 1886-1989

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Summary

Creators:
Baron, Salo W (Salo Wittmayer), 1895-1989
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
Extent:
400 Linear Feet (716 boxes and 1 map folder)
Language:
English .
Preferred citation:

[identification of item], Salo W. Baron papers (M0580). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Background

Scope and content:

The Baron Papers comprise the personal, professional, and research material of Salo Baron and occupy approximately 398 linear feet.

Biographical / historical:

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.

Acquisition information:

Purchased from Salo W. Baron in 1986 and 1990.

Gift from Shoshanna Tancer in 2023.

Processing information:

Processed by Polly Armstrong, Patricia Mazón, Evelyn Molina, Ellen Pignatello, and Jutta Sperling, 1993; reworked July, 2011 by Bill O'Hanlon.

Encoded by Sean Quimby.

Rules or conventions:
Describing Archives: A Content Standard

Indexed terms

Subjects:
Jewish studies.
Jews -- History
Names:
American Jewish Committee
American Academy for Jewish Research
American Jewish Historical Society
Columbia University. Center for Israel and Jewish Studies
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
Hebrew University (Israel)
Jewish Institute of Religion (New York, N.Y.)
Jewish Cultural Reconstruction, Inc. (New York, N.Y.)
Jewish Publication Society
Jewish Theological Seminary of America
Memorial Foundation for Jewish Culture
National Foundation for Jewish Culture (U.S.)
National Jewish Welfare Board
Tel-Aviv University (Israel)
Training Bureau for Jewish Communal Service
Union Theological Seminary (New York, N.Y.)
World Jewish Congress
Yivo Institute for Jewish Research
Abramsky, Chimen, 1916-2010
Adler, Cyrus, 1863-1940
Altmann, Alexander, 1906-1987
Ankori, Zvi, 1920-2012
Aptowitzer, Victor, 1871-1942
Arendt, Hannah, 1906-1975
Baeck, Leo, 1873-1956
Barzilay, Isaac, 1915-2006
Ben-Horin, Meir, 1918-
Bernstein, S. (Simon), 1884-1962
Blau, Joseph L. (Joseph Leon), 1909-1986
Blumenfield, Samuel M., 1901-1972
Blumenkranz, Bernhard
Cohen, Arthur A. (Arthur Allen), 1928-1986
Cohen, Morris R. (Morris Raphael), 1880-1947
Damask, Emil
Davis, Moshe
Diesendruk, Zvi.
Duker, Abraham G. (Abraham Gordon), 1907-1987
Einstein, Albert, 1879-1955
Feigin, Samuel I. (Samuel Isaac), 1893-1950
Finkelstein, Louis, 1895-1991
Friedmann, Philip, 1901-1960
Fuks, Lajb, 1908-1990
Gandz, Solomon, 1883-1954
Gartner, Lloyd P., 1927-2011
Glatzer, Nahum N. (Nahum Norbert), 1903-1990
Goitein, Shelomo Dov, 1900-1985
Goldmann, Nahum, 1895-1982
Grayzel, Solomon, 1896-1980
Halpern, Ben
Halpern, Israel, 1910-1971
Handlin, Oscar, 1915-2011
Hertzberg, Arthur
Janowsky, Oscar I. (Oscar Isaiah), 1900-1993
Kaplan, Jacob.
Karp, Abraham J.
Kisch, Guido, 1889-1985
Knapp, Russel.
Kohut, George Alexander, 1874-1933
Konvitz, Milton R. (Milton Ridvas), 1908-2003
Lieberman, Saul, 1898-1983
Mahler, Raphael, 1899-1977
Marcus, Jacob Rader, 1896-1995
Marx, Alexander, 1878-1953
Netanyahu, B. (Benzion), 1910-2012
Neusner, Jacob, 1932-2016
Oelsner, Toni.
Orlinsky, Harry M., 1908-1992
Pinson, Koppel S. (Koppel Shub), 1904-1961
Prinz, Joachim, 1902-1988
Roth, Cecil, 1899-1970
Scholem, Gershom, 1897-1982
Silberschlag, Eisig, 1903-1988
Spiegel, Shalom, 1899-1984
Starr, Joshua, 1907-1949
Steinberg, Aaron, 1891-1975
Stern, Selma, 1890-1981
Tal, Uriel
Tartakower, Aryeh, 1897-1982
Täubler, Eugen, 1879-1953
Twersky, Isadore
Wischnitzer, Mark, 1882-1955
Wischnitzer, Rachel, 1885-1989
Wise, George Schneiweis, 1906-1987
Wise, Stephen S. (Stephen Samuel), 1874-1949
Yerushalmi, Yosef Hayim, 1932-2009

Access and use

Restrictions:

Open for research. Note that material must be requested at least 36 hours in advance of intended use. Audiovisual materials are not available in original format, and must be reformatted to a digital use copy.

Terms of access:

While Special Collections is the owner of the physical and digital items, permission to examine collection materials is not an authorization to publish. These materials are made available for use in research, teaching, and private study. Any transmission or reproduction beyond that allowed by fair use requires permission from the owners of rights, heir(s) or assigns. See: http://library.stanford.edu/spc/using-collections/permission-publish

Preferred citation:

[identification of item], Salo W. Baron papers (M0580). Department of Special Collections and University Archives, Stanford Libraries, Stanford, Calif.

Location of this collection:
Department of Special Collections, Green Library
557 Escondido Mall
Stanford, CA 94305-6004, US
Contact:
(650) 725-1022
specialcollections@stanford.edu
Website