Dedication of Ida Cooper Floor, 1960

This collection is comprised of six series: Governing Body, Administration, Public Relations, Pediatric Rehabilitation Program, Auxiliary, and Artifacts.

Series I contains the governing documents of the Jewish Memorial Hospital and Rehabilitation Center. The material in this series reveals the process by which the Governing Body established hospital policy, maintained quality patient care, and provided for institutional management and planning. Most of this series consists of the meeting minutes of the Board of Directors and Board of Managers, the minutes of various board committees, and the minutes of the Annual Meeting. Of particular interest to researchers will be the original board minutes of the Bikur Cholim Association from 1923-1928. These minutes describe the charitable activities of this organization and their attempts to acquire a site for the original Jewish Memorial Hospital. Researchers will also find in this series the original charters of the Roxbury Ladies' Bikur Cholim Association (1915), the Greater Bikur Cholim Hospital (1927), and the Jewish Memorial Hospital (1937). Researchers should note that the governing documents of the hospital from the 1930s through 1940s are missing from this collection.

Series II contains the administrative files of the Jewish Memorial Hospital and Rehabilitation Center and of Donald E. Schwarz, this series documents the day-to-day activities of hospital officials, medical staff, and administrative staff from the mid-1950s to the late 1990s. Researchers should be aware that the administrative files of the hospital from the 1930s through the mid-1950s are absent from this collection.

In Subseries A, researchers will find the information contained in the Accreditation, American Hospital Association, Massachusetts Hospital Association and the Commonwealth of Massachusetts folders helpful in documenting the growth of the hospital and its patient services over a thirty-year period. All of these folders contain surveys and reports that describe the hospital at various stages of its development. Researchers should note that from 1981 to 1994 the Jewish Memorial Hospital and other chronic care hospitals were involved in several legal challenges to the regulations imposed upon them by various government agencies. These challenges are well documented in the Behar and Kalman folders, which contain various affidavits, interrogatives, opinions, legal correspondence, and court rulings.

The folders that contain the correspondence of the various Presidents, Board Members, and Executive Directors of the hospital, provide an overview of the development of the Jewish Memorial Hospital for at least a half-century. These folders include the correspondence of Presidents Nathan Buchman, Stanley M. Fertel, Robert A. Gold, Frank L. Kozol, Joseph M. Linsey, David L. Rosenberg, and David Stern. The correspondence of Executive Director Murray Fertel and Board Chairman Sydney L. Miller is also included in these files. Finally, the thousands of financial contributors to the hospital from 1929 to 1993 are well documented in this series. This fund-raising correspondence includes bequests, building pledges, celebrities nights contributions, merchandise donations, endowments, and direct donations to the hospital.

Subseries B contains the administrative files of Donald E. Schwarz. Schwarz spent twenty-one years at the Jewish Memorial Hospital starting as a co-op student from Northeastern University. He began his hospital career in the Admissions Office and held several positions over the years including Utilization Review Coordinator, Director of Quality Assurance, Assistant Administrator, Vice President of Operations, Chief Operating Officer and finally, President of the hospital. This series documents his activities at the hospital from 1969-1998.

The reports and surveys found in the Accreditation and Massachusetts Department of Public Health folders will provide researchers with an overview of the development of the hospital in the 1980s and 1990s. Furthermore, this subseries provides researchers with an opportunity to study the programs and patient services the hospital developed in the 1980s and 1990s to expand its customer base and survive in an increasingly competitive hospital environment. These programs and services include the Comprehensive Assessment and Rehabilitation Environment Unit, Complicated Obesity Rehabilitation Environment Program, Managed Health Care for the Frail and At-Risk Elderly, and the attempted development of a satellite facility at the South Shore Hospital.

These files reflect Schwarz's intimate involvement with all aspects of the hospital's administration and researchers will find a wide range of material in this subseries. For example, Schwarz was involved in the development of the hospital's budget, reviewed personnel decisions, and was a member of many of the hospital's administrative and medical committees. He also reviewed medical statistical reports on a daily and monthly basis, supervised the housekeeping, maintenance and security staffs, and managed plant operations.

Researchers should be aware that the archivist imposed the arrangement scheme in this subseries because the Schwarz files were received in a state of disarray.

Series III provides researchers with a visual, audio, and written history of the Jewish Memorial Hospital and Rehabilitation Center.

Researchers will find that the scrapbooks, containing news clippings from various local Jewish newspapers, provide the most comprehensive historical record of the hospital in the collection. Starting in 1936 and ending in 1982, the scrapbooks review the building projects that the hospital was involved with and they report on all the significant public events that the hospital sponsored. Furthermore, researchers will discover mini-biographies of the most important people in the hospital's history in these scrapbooks.

The photographs in this series provide an almost complete visual history of the hospital. Although the bulk of the photographs consist of contact sheets, they document the various events and building developments that occurred at the hospital from 1929 to 1992. Moreover, these photographs include pictures of various staff members, patients, volunteers, and auxiliary members. Besides still photographs, this series includes videotape cassettes and motion picture film. Particularly interesting is the film, Because Someone Cares, which is a documentary review of the hospital as it existed in 1946.

Researchers will want to examine the quarterly magazine of the Jewish Memorial Hospital, Visions, and the newsletter, Jewish Memorial Hospital News. These two publications highlight and describe the many events, activities, programs, and patient services that took place at the hospital from 1966 to 1996. Finally, researchers might find the hospital surveys that describe the health resources of the Boston Jewish community in the 1940s and 1950s interesting to study.

Series IV documents the Pediatric Rehabilitation Program at the Jewish Memorial Hospital and Rehabilitation Center. This program was designed to serve pre-school age children who had a variety of medical diagnoses including developmental delay, cerebral palsy, seizure disorders, tuberous sclerosis, auditory and visual impairments, head injury, failure to thrive and lead poisoning. Although this series is limited in its scope and coverage, it does provide an introduction for researchers into this important hospital program.

eries V contains the records of the following auxiliary groups: the Women's Auxiliary and Men's Auxiliary, the North and South Shore Auxiliary, the Evening Auxiliary, the Chelsea and Brookline Auxiliary, the Greater Boston Auxiliary, the Junior Auxiliary, the Young Women's Auxiliary, and the Hospital Group. All of these organizations contributed to the development of the hospital over its history through various fund raising and voluntary activities.

Researchers will find the board minutes contained in this series helpful in studying the activities of each auxiliary. Furthermore, a review of the Celebrities Nights Program Books will provide an almost complete record of the board members and officers of both the hospital and auxiliary groups from 1950 to 1998. This series is missing the program books from 1953 to 1955 and 1997.

Most of the auxiliary scrapbooks in this series were in disrepair and needed to be disassembled. Nevertheless, the cards, tickets, notices, invitations, and flyers that were included in them have been maintained in chronological order in folders and they do provide a fairly complete description of the various activities and events sponsored by the auxiliaries from 1947 to 1986. Finally, for those individuals curious about auxiliary membership, this series contains a number of ledgers, lists, and index card files that the auxiliary groups maintained to keep track of their almost 12,000 members.

Series VI includes placques, portraits, and silverware sets from the hospital.