Jewish Family and Vocational Service (Louisville, Ky.) Records, 1938-2010
Held by the Filson Historical Society
Creator: Jewish Family and Vocational Service (Louisville, Ky.)
Title: Records, 1938-2014
Rights: For information regarding literary and copyright interest for these papers, contact the Curator of Collections.
Size of Collection: 2 cubic feet and one oversized volume
Location Number: Mss. BJ J59
Scope and Content Note
The collection consists of records of Louisville’s Jewish Family and Vocational Service (JFVS) and its forerunners. The JFVS was formed by the 1978 merger between the Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA) and the Jewish Vocational Service (JVS). Included are board minutes, statistical and financial reports, histories, newspaper clippings, program materials, and publications.
Folders 1-2 contain University of Louisville master’s theses on the histories of the JSSA and the JVS, written in 1952 and 1965, and a brief history of the JSSA written in 1959.
Folders 3-11 contain various records of the JVS. Included are an early 1940s proposal and correspondence about the establishment of a Jewish Vocational Service in Louisville, an undated list of prospective employers and career mentors for clients, Vocation Guide newsletters from 1956-1960, a 1950s survey, and statistical reports on clients, services, and budgets from the 1940s-1970s. Also included are a ca. 1946 Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA) pamphlet, a 1966 United Appeal for the Jewish Home for Convalescent Children, newspaper clippings, and reports on teenagers and Louisville police-community relations. There are lists of JVS board members from 1947-1978 and some correspondence and meeting minutes.
Folder 11a includes correspondence, minutes, and other records relating to the consolidation of the JVS and JSSA.
Folders 12-15 contain various records of the JFVS. Included are board minutes from 1978 to 1987, information about various programs and projects, annual reports from 1990-2006, resettlement committee and family life committee records, and treasurer’s reports from the early 2000s. Other records from the 2000s are newspaper clippings, awards, certificates, materials related to the 100th anniversary of JFVS in 2008, and a CD-R with a PowerPoint presentation on “Jewish Louisville, 1760-2010.”
Binders 22-24 and oversized volume 25 are JVS and JFVS scrapbooks from 1943-2004, mostly containing newspaper clippings from YMHA publications, Kentucky Jewish Chronicle, Louisville Times, Courier-Journal, Jewish Post, and Louisville’s Jewish newspaper Community. Also included in the scrapbooks are programs and promotional materials for JVS and JFVS, a 1969 prayer book for Jewish worship for Central State Hospital, and JFVS annual reports.
Related collections:
Jewish Family and Vocational Service photograph collection (019PC42).
Historical Note
Jewish Family and Vocational Service (JFVS) grew out of Jewish agencies established in Louisville in the first half of the twentieth century. In 1908, local Jewish leaders and organizations formed the Federation of Jewish Charities to assist Eastern European Jewish immigrants who settled in Louisville. Its name changed to the Jewish Welfare Federation (JWF) in 1918 and became the Jewish Social Service Agency in 1951.
In 1943, the Jewish Vocational Service (JVS) was established in Louisville to provide educational and vocational guidance to Jewish youth. It grew out of a committee formed in 1938 representing the JWF, the Louisville section of the National Council of Jewish Women, and the Young Men’s Hebrew Association (YMHA). The committee was concerned with the lack of school and career guidance for young people and with the anti-Semitism faced by Jewish students. Louisville became the smallest Jewish community in the country with a professionally staffed vocational service, which served not just Jewish youth but also adults, veterans, immigrants, and non-Jewish residents.
In 1978, the JSSA and the JVS joined to create the Jewish Family and Vocational Service and moved to the newly opened Shalom Tower on Dutchmans Lane, next door to the Jewish Community Center. The organization has provided educational, testing, career, counseling, and family services, helped to resettle refugees, and sponsored programs for older adults. The Louis & Lee Roth Family Center opened in 2000, providing more spacious facilities for JFVS and its programs. In 2008, the organization’s name was changed to Jewish Family and Career Services.
Sources:
Carol Ely, Jewish Louisville: Portrait of a Community, pp. 92-93, 142-44
Jewish Family and Vocational Service, Leadership, Legends, and Legacies: A Tribute to the 100th Anniversary Honoring Past Leaders (2008)
Herman Landau, Adath Louisville: The Story of a Jewish Community (1981), pp. 122-34
Folder List
Box 1
Folder 1: History of the Jewish Social Service Agency (JSSA), 1952, 1959
Folder 2: History of the Jewish Vocational Service (JVS), 1965
Folder 3: JVS miscellaneous records, ca. 1938-1956
Folder 4: Prospective employers and career mentors, ca. 1945-1960
Folder 5: JVS Vocation Guide newsletters, 1956-1960
Folder 6: Jewish vocational services in other cities, ca. 1940-1953
Folder 7: YMHA and Jewish Home for Convalescent Children programs, 1946, 1966
Folder 8: Jewish Occupational Council publications, 1955-1967
Folder 9: Miscellaneous reports and presentations, 1960-1965
Folder 9a: JVS intake and budget reports, 1951-1978
Folder 10: Newspaper clippings, 1962-1979
Folder 11: JVS board members, minutes, and correspondence, 1947-1979
Folder 11a: Consolidation of JVS and JSSA, ca. 1976-1978
Folder 12: JFVS board and committee members, 1978-2008
Folder 12a: JFVS by-laws, budgets, and board minutes, 1979-1982
Folder 12b: JFVS board minutes, 1983-1987
Folder 12c: JFVS policy guideline for new Americans resettlement program, 1980
Folder 12d: JFVS project on intermarriage/Jews by choice, 1982-1984
Folder 12e: JFVS miscellaneous records, 1980-1987
Folder 13: Annual reports and meetings, 1990-2006
Folder 14: Board and committee records, 2001-2003
Folder 15: Family life committee records, 2003-2005
Folder 16: Louis & Lee Roth Family Center, 2001
Folder 17: JFVS miscellaneous records, 2002-2014
Folder 18: Awards and certificates, 2001-2008
Folder 19: Recollections and images collected for the 100th Anniversary of JFVS, 2008
Folder 20: Leadership, Legends, & Legacies: A Tribute to the 100th Anniversary of JFVS, 2008
Folder 21: PowerPoint Presentation on “Jewish Louisville, 1760-2010,” CD-R [A PDF of this presentation is available. These files are restricted to in-house viewing. Please see the reference desk or email gro.l1713979525aciro1713979525tsihn1713979525oslif1713979525@hcra1713979525eser1713979525.]
Box 2
Binder 22: Scrapbook, 1968-1995
Binder 23: Scrapbook, 1996-1998
Binder 24: Scrapbook, 1999-2004
Oversize
Volume 25 (wrapped): Scrapbook, 1943-1983
Subject Headings
Ability – Testing – Kentucky – Louisville.
Adoption – Kentucky – Louisville.
Career education – Kentucky – Louisville.
Charities – Kentucky – Louisville.
Children – Services for – Kentucky – Louisville.
Dobson, David, 1915–1978.
Family services – Kentucky – Louisville.
Federation of Jewish Charities (Louisville, Ky.)
Four Courts Louisville Hebrew Home.
Hadassah, the Women’s Zionist Organization of America. Louisville Chapter.
Immigrants – Kentucky – Louisville.
Jewish American newspapers.
Jewish college students – Kentucky – Louisville.
Jewish Community Center (Louisville, Ky.)
Jewish educators – Kentucky – Louisville.
Jewish families – Kentucky – Louisville.
Jewish Family and Career Services (Louisville, Ky.)
Jewish gays – Kentucky – Louisville.
Jewish Home for Convalescent Children (Louisville, Ky.)
Jewish Hospital (Louisville, Ky.)
Jewish Occupational Council (New York, N.Y.)
Jewish old age homes – Kentucky – Louisville.
Jewish refugees.
Jewish Social Service Agency (Louisville, Ky.)
Jewish students – Kentucky – Louisville.
Jewish veterans – Kentucky– Louisville.
Jewish Vocational Service (Louisville, Ky.)
Jewish youth – Kentucky – Louisville.
Jews – Kentucky – Louisville.
Jews – Kentucky – Louisville – Charities.
National Council of Jewish Women. Louisville Section.
Nearly New Shop (Louisville, Ky.)
Older Jews.
People with disabilities – Services for – Kentucky – Louisville.
Police–community relations – Kentucky – Louisville.
Psychological tests – Kentucky – Louisville.
Social service.
Social work with immigrants – Kentucky – Louisville.
Universities and colleges – Entrance examinations.
Vocational education – Kentucky – Louisville.
Women – Services for – Kentucky – Louisville.
World War, 1939–1945 – Veterans.
Young Men’s Hebrew Association (Louisville, Ky.)
Youth – Services for – Kentucky – Louisville.
