TABLE OF CONTENTS

Introduction

Biographical Sketch

Scope and Content Note

Organization

Arrangement

Restrictions

Administrative Information

Series A: Skyjacking Files. 1970-1994.

Series B: General Files. 1939-1978.

An Inventory to the 

Sylvia R. Jacobson Papers

 1939-1994

Manuscript Collection No. 681

Biographical Sketch

Sylvia Rosalie Jacobson was born on May 9, 1911 in New York City to Rosalie Hartogensis and Albert Jacobson. She grew up in Riverdale, New York. She received her B.A. from Hunter College of the City of New York in 1932, and her Masters in Social Work from the Columbia University School of Social Work in 1941, specializing in psychiatric social work. During World War II, she worked as a psychiatric social worker with the American Red Cross in United States Naval Hospitals. Ms. Jacobson also taught in several university schools of social work, including as an associate professor at the Florida State University School of Social Work in Tallahassee, Florida, where she was a long-time resident. She was also an active member of Temple Israel in Tallahassee, as well as a member of Hadassah and the National Council of Jewish Women.

On Sunday, September 6, 1970, Ms. Jacobson was returning home from a summer course at Hebrew University in Jerusalem when her plane was skyjacked by members of the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP). Her TWA jetliner, along with a SWISSAIR jet and a BOAC plane, landed in the Jordanian desert where the passengers spent ten days. Jews were separated from non-Jews and kept as hostages to terrorist demands. Ms. Jacobson was rescued along with other passengers with the help of the International Red Cross. She finally arrived in Tallahassee, Florida on Wednesday, September 16, 1970. Along with delivering speeches to many audiences, Ms. Jacobson wrote several essays on her skyjacking experience, the individual and group behavioral responses she observed, and the dynamics of hostages and their captors.

Ms. Jacobson died on Wednesday, April 27, 1994 in Tallahassee, Florida at the age of 82.

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Scope and Content Note

The Sylvia R. Jacobson Papers consist mainly of documents about skyjacking and Ms. Jacobson's specific skyjacking incident and experience in September 1970. Materials include personal stories, periodical clippings, correspondence, and several essays by Ms. Jacobson on the individual and group behavioral responses she observed during her skyjacking. Other materials include Ms. Jacobson's personal papers as well as general articles on flights, survivor syndrome and terrorism. Materials are arranged alphabetically by subject title, and either chronologically or alphabetically within each subject. The span dates for the collection are 1939-1994.

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Arrangement

See description of individual series.

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Restrictions

Access Information

The Sylvia R. Jacobson Papers are open to all users and available in the reading room of the American Jewish Archives.

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Administrative Information

Citations

Footnotes and bibliographic references should refer to the Sylvia R. Jacobson Papers and the American Jewish Archives.

Provenance

The Sylvia R. Jacobson Papers were donated by Rabbi Stanley J. Garfein, Tallahassee, Florida, in February, 2002.

Processing Information

Processed by Rachel Schwartz,May, 2002.

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Box and Folder Listing

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