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Edward Ginsberg was born in Brooklyn in 1917 and graduated from the University of Michigan in 1938. Ginsberg was heavily involved in Israeli and Jewish activities in the United States and served as chairman and president of United Jewish Appeal. The collection primarily documents his travel to Israel on behalf of United Jewish Appeal and highlights his relationship with prominent Israeli leaders, including Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and David Ben-Gurion. The collection is especially strong in its visual documentation of life in Israel during the 1960s.

The Edward Ginsberg papers document Ginsberg's involvement with United Jewish Appeal and his relationship with prominent Israeli politicians, including Golda Meir, Moshe Dayan, and David Ben Gurion. The collection is primarily composed of photographs and films covering Ginsberg's travels to Israel on behalf of United Jewish Appeal. These photographs offer strong visual evidence of life in Israel during the 1960s and following the Six Days War.

The collection is organized in five series: Autographed Books (1 linear foot); Travel and Events (2 linear feet); Photographs and Slides (2 linear feet); Motion Pictures (2.5 linear feet and 12 reels), Audiotapes (.5 linear feet); and Awards and Memorabilia (.2 linear feet and 9 oversized items).

University of Michigan teacher and administrator, economist, labor mediator, and member of boards of various universities, Jewish educational, social, and welfare agencies, and public official. Series in collection include: Biographical/Personal, Correspondence, Jewish Organizations, University of Michigan, Other Organizational Activities, Appearances, Writings, Newspaper Clippings and Press Releases, and University of Wisconsin Student Notebooks and Papers, 1924-1926. Subjects covered in collection pertain to his activities as economist and authority on matters of labor economics, social security, and unemployment insurance. Also documented is his involvement with various Jewish social and philanthropic organizations, including ORT, B'nai B'rith, the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, Hebrew University, and to his work as Advisor on Jewish Affairs to General Lucius Clay. Correspondents in the collection include public figures from government, labor, universities, Jewish organizations, and philanthropic agencies.

The papers of William Haber, covering the period since his education at the University of Wisconsin in the 1920s until his death in 1988, have come to the library in several accessions beginning in 1978. Because of the fullness of Haber's career and the fact that he worked out of different offices, this half century of documentation was surprisingly well organized although somewhat broken up because files had been retired at different times. In 1992, the collection was reprocessed and the opportunity was taken to bring together sequences of files that had been separated. There are still some inconsistencies in the filing but these have been explained and described in the Series Description that follows.

The collection has been arranged into ten series. Although Haber and his secretarial staff never classified his files in these terms, the series headings were given to draw like materials together and to provide a rational framework for thinking about and using the various Haber files. The series are: Biographical/Personal; Correspondence; Jewish Organizations; University of Michigan; Other Organizational Activities; Appearances; Writings; Scrapbooks, clippings, etc.; Miscellaneous; and University of Wisconsin Files.