Series III: Correspondence, 1923-1960, bulk 1950-1960

Scope and content:

Series III primarily consists of correspondence directly related to the office of Senator Lehman. The majority of letters address issues surrounding immigration laws in the United States. In November of 1953, Senator Lehman called a meeting where he invited outstanding leaders of various the religious and civic organizations which had expressed concern about the racist aspects of US immigration laws. The group which participated in the meeting set up a steering committee to follow through for the purpose to help organize a campaign with the goal toward educating US citizens about the un-American nature of the country's immigration policies as designated under the McCarran-Walter Immigration Act. The steering committee set up two subcommittees: one to prepare an outline of the structure and program, and the other to prepare a statement of the policies which the National Committee would adhere. Next, the committee prepared a letter to solicit membership. The letter was mailed in early 1955 to numerous individuals resulting in 350 people accepting membership on the National Committee. The National Committee was granted a charter of incorporation in the spring of 1955 under the New York State Education Law resulting in the formation of the National Committee on Immigration and Citizenship (NCIC). The incorporators were as follows; Spyros S. Skouras, Senator William Benton, F. Ernest Johnson, Philip B. Perlman, Thomas K. Finletter, Theodore R. McKeldin, Daniel Bell and Senator Herbert H. Lehman. In conjunction with the incorporators, the following individuals were on the first board of trustees; Francis B. Sayre, Jr., Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver, John O'Grady, Walter P. Reuther, Roy Williams, Thomas A. Pappas, Jefferson B. Fordham and Jane M. Hoey. The chairman of the Board of Trustees, Spyros Skouras, was unable to devote a sufficient amount of time to the affairs of the Committee so Senator Lehman accepted the chairmanship.

Throughout all three subseries there is correspondence regarding the NCIC, ADA, American Jewish Congress and American Jewish Committee because of Lehman and Edelstein's affiliation with these organizations. Office memorandums are abundant, Lehman to Edelstein and the reverse. These are usually the method by which Edelstein briefs Lehman on current news concerning his Senatorial post. The original order of the series consisted of five subseries: two arranged alphabetically, one for the years 1954-1958, and a second for 1960, one chronologically, and two titled "personal correspondence". This has been maintained with the two alpha files under subseries III.1 and subseries III.3. It should be noted that Edelstein's personal correspondence can be found in all three subseries.

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