Isaac E. Ronch was a Yiddish writer, teacher, and journalist active in Jewish immigrant circles in Chicago and New York from the 1920s through the 1980s. Ronch was also a good friend of artist Marc Chagall. This collection includes correspondence, writings, and books documenting Ronch and Chagall's friendship, as well as publications, manuscripts, correspondence, photographs, ephemera, and clippings relating to Ronch's own life and works.
The Marc Chagall Materials Series is made up of records documenting Chagall and Ronch's friendship. The donor, Ronch's son, included a handful of books about the history of Jewish arts and identity in Russia to contextualize Chagall's work with Itzik Feffer, which led to his first meeting with Ronch.
The Landsmanshaften Book Series includes a signed copy of the book Di Yiddishe Landsmanshaften foon New York (The Jewish Landsmanshaften of New York), as well as papers relating to the creation of the Landsmanshaften book.
The Writings Series consists of Ronch's creative and journalistic writings. Books include books of prose and poetry, primarily written in Yiddish. Ronch's two serialized novels are preserved as compilations of newspaper clippings placed in composition books.
The Collected Publications Series is made up of three publications (or photocopies of publications) found in Ronch's papers: a 1902 issue of the periodical Di Yiddishe Familie, which includes an article by Sholem Asch, the 1982 Bulletin of the Reuben Brainin Children's Clinic in Tel Aviv, and photocopied pages of a Holocaust Memorial/Yizkor Book for Konin that includes likely relatives of Ronch under the surname Ronchkovski.
The Correspondence Series consists of a single postcard from Sol Liptzin, a scholar of Yiddish and German literature.
The Photographs Series includes photos of Ronch with his students at the Chicago shul where he taught, photos of Ronch giving lectures at Camp Kinderland and Camp Lakeland, and photos of Ronch with as-yet unidentified colleagues sometime in the 1930s.
The Clippings and Ephemera Series comprises newspaper clippings and ephemera relating to Ronch's activities or colleagues, as well as a obituaries for Ronch.