Rabbi Abba Hillel Silver (1893-1963) was the rabbi at The Temple, Cleveland, Ohio, and prominent leader of the Zionist movement for a Jewish homeland. The collection consists of personal and professional correspondence, sermons, writings, speaking engagements files, scrapbooks and miscellaneous personal material. The bulk of the material is in the correspondence series and includes minutes, publications, reports, financial statements and confidential notes relating to Rabbi Silver's participation in numerous local and national organizations, especially Zionist groups. Important material relating to the American Zionist Emergency Council, the Zionist Organization of America, the Jewish Agency for Palestine, the United Jewish Appeal, United Palestine Appeal and the American Zionist Policy Committee is found in the collection. Also included is significant material relating to Cleveland Jewish organizations and other civic groups, such as The Temple (Temple-Tifereth Israel), Cleveland Bureau of Jewish Education, the Jewish Community Council, the Jewish Welfare Federation of Cleveland, and the Cleveland Zionist Society. In addition, the collection contains an extensive file of Silver's speeches, sermons, books, articles and other writings on Zionism, Judaism and other topics, and assorted material relating to Silver's personal life
