PROVENANCE NOTE

The Touro College Archives in 2007 originally consisted of 65 large file-drawer length cartons, culled from the records of the college’s founder, Rabbi Dr. Bernard Lander. These records primarily spanned the period from the school’s formation ca. 1970 to the year 1999, and had been placed in storage as records not needed for the current operations of the institution. They were accessed beginning in 2005 by biographer Max Rosenblum, who had been employed to write the story of Dr. Lander’s life. At the author’s suggestion, Dr. Jacqueline Maxin and Michoel Rotenfeld, directors of Touro College’s library, planned and recommended the creation of a new full-time archivist’s position and an appropriate office to properly house the historic records.

With the approval of Dr. Lander, an archival space was secured for these documents at the college’s main campus at 27-33 West 23rd street in Manhattan, and an archivist hired to organize and preserve them. In 2010, following the passing of Dr. Lander, materials from his home in Forest Hills, NY were added to the collection, with the cooperation and assistance of the Lander family. Included in this acquisition were many photographs, wall art, trophies, awards and other mementos, and a large collection of sociology books. In 2011, an additional 54 cartons of materials from Touro’s executive administrative offices were transferred to the archive’s second home, at 65 Broadway, the site of Touro’s Graduate School of Business and School of Education. These cartons contained primarily materials dating for the period 1999-2005, representing files no longer required for daily operations of the administrative offices of the college. 6

In addition to the two accessions of Dr. Lander’s papers and items from his home, which comprise the bulk of the Archives, several smaller collections have been acquired since 2007. These collections, obtained from past and present faculty, board members and administrators make up an additional 62.5 linear feet of the Archives, are exclusive of the Lander Collection, and are not included in this finding aid.