Morris Troper papers

Morris Troper was born on November 18, 1892 in New York City. His father, Abraham, was born in Germany and immigrated to the United States as a young child while his mother, Rose, was born in Austria. Troper was the eldest of a large family and, at age 11, began to work to help his family. He graduated from City College in 1914, and earned an MA in Commercial Science from NYU in 1918. He also earned his JD from NYU in 1925. With Simon Loeb, he founded the accounting firm “Loeb and Troper” in New York City. In 1919, Troper married Ethel Gartner, the office manager of the Federation of Jewish Charities. She had been born in Hungary on August 6, 1890 and immigrated to the United States in 1905. Troper became involved in Jewish charities, including the American Jewish Joint Distribution Committee, and in late 1920, traveled to Eastern Europe to survey relief needs on their behalf. He traveled to Europe frequently throughout the 1920s and 1930s, including at least two trips to the Soviet Union in connection with Agro-Joint efforts. In the fall of 1938, Morris, Ethel, and their three children—Murray, Betty, and John—moved to Paris, where Troper served as the Joint’s European Director. He remained in that post until the Joint’s offices closed, fleeing to southern France and eventually setting up the Joint’s new European headquarters in Lisbon. In April 1942, he resigned from his position with the JDC to take a commission as a Lieutenant Colonel in the fiscal division of the United States Army. In 1957, Troper collapsed at a Joint dinner, and his wife Ethel died of a heart attack immediately afterwards. Troper recovered from his collapse and passed away in 1962.