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Charlotte Holstein Papers

An inventory of her papers at Syracuse University


Finding aid created by: Dane Flansburgh
Date: 12 Jun 2024



Biographical History

Charlotte “Chuckie” Holstein (1925-) is an American civic leader who advocated for Jewish rights, women’s rights, and family welfare. She founded or cofounded several Syracuse organizations, and has served on many city, state, and national boards and committees.

Holstein is the child of Russian immigrants, and graduated with a Bachelor of Science in Education from the State University of New York (SUNY), Brockport in 1946. She was initially a teacher but soon thereafter dedicated her career to being a civic leader. She started with founding Meals on Wheels in Syracuse, NY in 1959.

An advocate for women’s rights and human rights, Holstein was an officer of The American Jewish Committee (AJC) and long time member of The Jacob Blaustein Institute for the Advancement of Human Rights. As an AJC delegate, she chaired the National Committee on the Role of Women and delivered a paper at the 1985 United Nations NGO Conference for Women in Nairobi. She also chaired the AJC delegation at the 1995 United Nations World Conference for Women in Beijing, China. Additionally, she led an AJC Delegation to South America to meet with the presidents of Chile, Argentina, Brazil, and Uruguay. In the US, she served on the Advisory Committee for the White House Conference on Families for President Jimmy Carter, the New York State Board of Social Welfare for Governor Nelson Rockefeller, and as a member of the New York State Division for Youth.

In 1986, she collaborated with Syracuse mayor Tom Young to start the Syracuse Commission of Women, on which she served. In this same year, she cofounded Leadership Greater Syracuse, a leadership program that educates citizens about making a difference in their community. Holstein cofounded FOCUS (Forging Our Community’s United Strength) Greater Syracuse, which works to increase civic engagement and education by bringing citizens, organizations, and government bodies together to improve life in Central New York. She was also involved in the creation of the Syracuse University Nursery School with Professor Laura Preston.

Throughout her life, Holstein has received many awards and honors for her public and civic engagement, including Woman of Achievement in 1991 from the Syracuse Post-Standard and an Honorary Doctor of Letters from Syracuse University.

She was married to Alexander Holstein for 75 years, until his passing in 2020. They have four children.


Scope and Contents of the Collection

The Charlotte Holstein Papers contains biographical material, material relating to committees and conferences, correspondence, interviews, memorabilia, photographs, and writings.

Biographical material contains biographies and biographical sketches about Holstein and her husband Alexander; resumes; Holstein's beliefs and reflections about leadership and what she has learned from her experiences; and materials from which Holstein drew personal inspiration. Also in this series are correspondence and programs for the Art Rage exhibit “Still the One,” in which Holstein was featured.

Committees contains materials relating to committee and board positions. Materials include correspondence, organizational materials, press releases, articles, and reports. Committees represented include the American Jewish Committee, Board of Social Welfare, FOCUS Greater Syracuse, Leadership Greater Syracuse, Meals on Wheels, National Advisory Committee, National Committee on the Role of Women, and Syracuse Commission for Women. There are also general reference materials that Holstein accumulated; topics include religion, human rights, and reports from the Center for National Policy.

Conferences consists of information about six conferences that Holstein attended; the Governor’s Conference on Families, Sustainability Conference, UN Fourth World Conference on Women, UN World Conference on Women, White House Conference on Aging, and White House Conference on Children. The Governor’s Conference on Families was a conference held for delegates in New York State who were attending the White House Conference on Families. Within the subseries are conference materials and workshop information. In the UN Fourth World Conference on Women is a letter from Hillary Clinton inviting Holstein to the White House for a conference on human rights in Bosnia, which was related to the workshop Holstein assisted with during the Conference on Women.

Correspondence consists primarily of incoming correspondence, with some outgoing. Letters are mainly from friends and work associates.

Interviews contains print and recorded interviews with Holstein about leadership and FOCUS Greater Syracuse.

Memorabilia comprises articles about Holstein, awards, scrapbooks, an invitation, a program, pamphlets and postcards, and a tapestry. Articles contain newspaper and magazine articles about Holstien’s professional work, the awards that she has won, and her personal life. Awards contains program information, correspondence, speeches, and recorded ceremonies, along with some of the actual awards.

Photographs are of Holstein with people she has met over the years, travels, award ceremonies, and committees. Notable people include David Ben Gurion, Hillary Clinton, Pope John Paul II, and Pope Paul VI. Included are photographs of her AJC leadership trips, including South America, Irael, Rome, Mexico, Egypt. There are photos from both United Nations Conferences on Women, held in Kenya and Beijing.

Writings contains articles by Holstein and speeches she delivered. “Common Ties” is an article that she wrote about the UN World Conference on Women, and the evolution of the article can be seen within the drafts. Speeches contains those that she gave at award ceremonies, class visits, workshops, and her committee work. Subjects include antisemitism and extremism, citizen involvement in the community, Judaism, welfare, families, the White House Conference on Families, and the UN World Conferences on Women. Included with the speeches are reference materials, flyers, programs, correspondence, and notes. Some of Holstein's writings can be found throughout the collection, under the series that they pertain to.


Arrangement of the Collection

Scrapbooks are listed chronologically. Correspondence and articles are arranged chronologically. Material in all other series are arranged alphabetically by type, title, or topic.


Restrictions

Access Restrictions:

Please note that the collection is housed off-site, and advance notice is required to allow time to have the materials brought to the Reading Room on campus.

Access to recordings requires advance notice to produce a use copy.

Use Restrictions:

Written permission must be obtained from SCRC and all relevant rights holders before publishing quotations, excerpts or images from any materials in this collection.


Subject Headings

Persons

Carter, Jimmy, 1924-2024.
Clinton, Hillary Rodham.
Holstein, Alexander.
Holstein, Charlotte.

Corporate Bodies

American Jewish Committee.
Center for National Policy (U.S.)
Meals on Wheels Association of America.
New York (State). -- Board of Social Welfare.
United States. -- Delegation to the United Nations Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, China, September 4-15, 1995.
White House Conference on Aging.
White House Conference on Children (1971 : Washington, D.C.)
White House Conference on Families.
William Petschek National Jewish Family Center.

Subjects

Antisemitism.
Community leadership.
Environment, development, and public policy. Public policy and social services.
Israel -- Description and travel.
Jewish women.
Judaism.
Older people -- Care.
Public welfare.
Women civic leaders -- United States.
Women’s rights.

Genres and Forms

Audiocassettes.
Awards.
Clippings (information artifacts)
Compact discs.
Conference proceedings.
Correspondence.
DVDs.
Interviews.
Invitations.
Manuscripts for publication.
Minutes (administrative records).
Newspaper clippings.
Photographs.
Press releases.
Programs (documents)
Scrapbooks.
Sound recordings.
Speeches (documents)
Videocassettes.

Administrative Information

Preferred Citation

Preferred citation for this material is as follows:

Charlotte Holstein Papers,
Special Collections Research Center,
Syracuse University Libraries

Acquisition information

Gift of Charlotte Holstein, 2024 and 2025.

Processing information


Table of Contents

Biographical material

Committees

Conferences

Correspondence

Interviews

Memorabilia

Photographs

Writings


Inventory