Weisberger family papers

Documents, photographs, and printed materials, related primarily to the activities of the Weisberger family, of Poughkeepsie, NY, and New York City, during World War II. Most material relates to Rabbi Ralph M. Weisberger, in his role as a chaplain in the U.S. Army, including his service in Iraq and Iran, where he worked with refugee Polish doctors. Also includes photographs of his parents, and documents related to the wartime voluntary service in the United States of two of his siblings, Estelle Klein and Helen Weisberger. Rabbi Ralph Weisberger (1912-1996) was born in Poughkeepsie, NY on 28 March 1912, the ninth of eleven children of Bentzion and Pearl (nee Singer) Weisberger, both of whom had immigrated from Hungary (Bentzion with his family as a child in 1882, and Pearl as a 15-year-old in 1890). The family moved to Harlem in the 1920s, and eventually settled in Washington Heights. Ralph studied at the City College of New York, obtaining a bachelor's degree there in 1934, and went from there to the Jewish Theological Seminary of America, where he was ordained a rabbi in 1940. His first position was as rabbi with the Brith Sholom Community Center in Philadelphia, where he served until 1942. After chaplain training at Harvard University, he joined the United States Army in October 1942, serving at bases in Florida, South Carolina, and Mississippi, before being sent overseas, to the Persian Gulf Command, stationed in Iran and Iraq. He ministered to Jewish soldiers from the U.S. and British military forces based there, but also to Jewish refugees from Poland who were living there. He reached the rank of captain in the U.S. Army, and was demobilized in 1946. He returned to the United States after the war, but subsequently worked in the Torah education department of the World Zionist Organization in Jerusalem, beginning in 1951, and immigrated to Israel in 1969, when he changed his name to Ralph Ben-Zion. He died in Jerusalem on 20 December 1996.