Hebrew National Orphan Home Alumni Association

The Hebrew National Orphan Home Alumni Association was created in 1925, a little more than a decade after the Hebrew National Orphan Home was established. The alumni association was founded to facilitate social contact among men who, as children, had grown up in the home, since co-resident boys were their "family." Extant records contain little evidence of the activities of the alumni association in its early decades. According to Irwin Abrams, who left HNOH in 1925, he and others who had "graduated" from HNOH that year banded together in a social, basketball-playing group that met at the Central Jewish Institute and called themselves the ALYONS (Alumni from Yonkers). He continues: "Later we founded an alumni association consisting of boys who left the home before and after us. At its peak, it numbered about 1000." 1 An offshoot of the alumni association, the Harry Lucacher Alumni Society (HLAS) formed officially in 1940 with the alumni association's recognition. HLAS published a newsletter, The Recorder, that same year.

The official alumni association itself commenced publication of an association newsletter, The Alumnus, with a May 17, 1936 issue. This newsletter was the main means by which alumni of the orphan home kept in touch with each other, as it had membership lists, published member correspondence, reminiscences, photographs, and news (including obituaries), and encouraged participation in the alumni reunions. Another important point of contact was the alumni reunion event, for which there is documentation of regular occurrence from 1957-1985.

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