What is the Portal to American Jewish History?
The Portal to Jewish American History is a "one stop shop" for researchers, students, and interested members of the public to access archival and digital collections on American Jewish History. Thanks to a generous grant from the Righteous Persons Foundation, this Alpha test site has been established which houses data on the collections of a number of important American Jewish history collections, nationwide. This growing site will help repositories of all sizes expand access to their works. Researchers will be able to find similar collections in disparate repositories. Web users will be able to easily discover digitized collections in an organized fashion. The Portal aims to enrich the community of academics, educators, students, and other researchers by exposing the amazing materials available to those studying American Jewish history.
Do you have a collection you think would work well in the portal? Right now we are not adding more repositories, but we definitely plan to! We will consider any serious research collection, worldwide, large or small, as long as its focus is on the history of Jewish life in America. Let us know about your repository by contacting us.
The Center for Jewish History unites under one roof collections that represent centuries of Jewish life--defining one people and many cultures. We are home to five preeminent Jewish institutions dedicated to history, culture and art: The American Jewish Historical Society (AJHS), The American Sephardi Federation (ASF), The Leo Baeck Institute (LBI), The Yeshiva University Museum (YUM), and YIVO Institute for Jewish Research (YIVO). The Center's mission is to preserve, research and educate. Our partners' collections are internationally recognized as some of the most important resources for exploring and documenting all aspects of Jewish experience and identity.
Collections include old and rare books, periodical collections, photos, memoirs, official decrees, personal letters, contemporary publications and more. Art collections include posters, paintings, sculptures, archeological artifacts, historical textiles, ceremonial objects and more.
The American Jewish Historical Society provides access to more than 20 million documents and 50,000 books, photographs, art and artifacts that reflect the history of the Jewish presence in the United States from 1654 to the present. Among the treasures of this heritage are the first American book published in Hebrew; the handwritten original of Emma Lazarus' The New Colossus, which graces the Statue of Liberty; records of the nation's leading Jewish communal organizations and important collections in the fields of education, philanthropy, science, sports, business and the arts. Founded in 1892, AJHS is the oldest national ethnic historical organization in the nation. AJHS is one of five partner organizations at The Center for Jewish History in Manhattan and has a branch in Boston.
The Philadelphia Jewish Archives Center was established in 1972, as a joint project of the Philadelphia Chapter of American Jewish Committee and the Jewish Federation of Greater Philadelphia. Its mission was to collect, preserve, and organize the records of the Greater Philadelphia Jewish community and make them available to scholars, students, researchers, and the general public. PJAC collections document the individuals and organizations that participated in Jewish communities and Jewish life in the greater Philadelphia region, including Southern New Jersey, and parts of Pennsylvania as far West as Harrisburg.
In 2009, the PJAC board transferred ownership of its over 800 archival collections to Temple University where they became a part of the holdings of Temple University Libraries' Urban Archives, where PJAC's holding continue to grow. Temple established the Urban Archives in 1967 to document the social, economic, and physical development of the Philadelphia region from the mid-19th century to the present. It is one of the most extensive archives in the national documenting the development of an urban region during this time period and is a department within the Temple University Libraries' Special Collections Division.
The Myer & Rosaline Feinstein Center for American Jewish History promotes the study of Jewish experience in America. Founded in May 1990, the Feinstein Center is part of Temple University's Department of History in the College of Liberal Arts. The Feinstein Center is dedicated to pursuing new avenues for research and teaching in the field of American Jewish history. It sponsors conferences, symposia, academic fellowships, publications, and public events all devoted to new approaches to understanding the many dimensions of Jewish experience in the United States. The Feinstein Center aims to serve the scholarly community and also engage with the broader public in its mission.
Visit us at our website – www.temple.edu/feinsteinctr
Features include:
- A database of archives related to American Jewish history.
- Syllabi from courses on American Jewish history and experience.
- Information about all of our events—past, present, and future.
- Visual recordings of recent conferences.
The Ira M. and Peryle Hayutin Beck Memorial Archives was established in 1976 in memory of Ira M. Beck, a prominent Denver businessman devoted to cultural arts and Jewish communal life. The Beck Archives and the Rocky Mountain Jewish Historical Society work together in tandem to preserve and publicize the vibrant Jewish experience in the Rocky Mountain Region.
The Archives contain a variety of materials including manuscripts, private papers, institutional records, oral histories, photographs, newspapers, memorabilia and microfilmed documents that reflect the history of organizations and businesses, and the lives of individuals who have contributed to the building of Jewish life in the area. Of special interest are the Jewish Consumptives' Relief Society (JCRS) and National Jewish Hospital for Consumptives (NJH) collections, which shed light on immigration, health, and ethnic history in America.
The Jewish Historical Society of Greater Washington and its Lillian & Albert Small Jewish Museum preserve, chronicle and present the story of the local Jewish community through archival collections, exhibitions, educational programs, publications, and the restoration and preservation of the oldest synagogue building in the nation's capital.
