A Lower East Side Vacation

Born in Keidan, Russian Empire (today Kėdainiai, Lithuania), Bernard Gerson Richards immigrated to the United States as a child, first living with his father in Idaho Springs, Colorado, and later Boston. He began his career in journalism as a reporter for the Boston Post, contributing as well to Yiddish papers as their Boston correspondent. He helped to establish the Jewish Educational Alliance in Boston. After marriage, he moved New York City. There Richards became active in Jewish communal organizations beginning in 1906, serving as secretary to the New York Kehillah from 1908 to 1913. In 1915, he helped establish the American Jewish Congress, which aspired to serve as a representative body of American Jewish opinion through community-wide democratic participation; Richards served as the congress’s executive secretary until 1932. At the end of World War I, he participated in the American Jewish delegation to the Paris Peace Conference. An active Zionist, he was a member of the Zionist Organization of America and wrote articles on Zionism and American Jewish communities. He founded the Jewish Information Bureau during the Great Depression to act as a clearinghouse on questions relating to Jews and Judaism.