Probus Club

The Probus Club, a national Jewish service organization serving the mentally and physically challenged, was founded in 1921 in New Haven. Originally a club for men, the name derived from the fact that members were recruited from the professional and business sectors. The Greater Hartford chapter formed in 1955. Today the Probus Club is non-sectarian, though it remains primarily Jewish, and women are an integral part of the organization. The Club sponsors group homes, scholarships, special education programs, field trips and special activities, and summer camps for children. The Probus Club collection is useful in demonstrating how a later generation continued the Jewish tradition of taking care of societal needs through charitable activity. The collection is weak in early materials but very strong in materials from the 1970s and 1980s.