Collection Development Committee

Policies

Partner Collection Scopes

Overview

The library, archives, and museum collections at the Center for Jewish History support research and study in the history and culture of the Jewish people. They are comprised of the repositories of five institutions: American Jewish Historical Society, American Sephardi Federation, Leo Baeck Institute, YIVO Institute for Jewish Research and Yeshiva University Museum. Generally the collections focus on the modern period and specialize in East European, German-speaking, Sephardic and American Jewry. The primary languages of the collections are Yiddish, German, Hebrew, English, Ladino and Judeo-Arabic. Materials in the collections include books and periodicals, unpublished paper documents, artifacts, and other non-print materials; the Museum has a sizeable archeological and ethnographic collection, spanning ancient, medieval and modern periods.

American Jewish Historical Society

The Society’s library, archives, and art and artifact collection includes books, periodicals, newspapers, and manuscripts in several languages, family histories, agency records, photographs, microfilm, sound recordings, paintings, works of art on paper, textiles, sculpture, ritual objects, cultural objects, and material in other media, all of which document the western hemispheric American Jewish experience.

While the Society’s collections include material from the 16th through the 20th centuries, its holdings are particularly strong for the late 18th, 19th, and early 20th centuries.

The subject strengths include:

1. The American colonial and Revolutionary eras
2. Immigration, settlement and adaptation to America
3. American Zionism
4. American Jewish cultural life, especially Yiddish theater
5. Jewish philanthropic and social service organizations

Also collected is documentation on genealogy and family history, anti-Semitism, political action groups, and later 19th and early 20th century newspapers serving Jewish communities throughout the United States.

American Sephardi Federation

The goal of the American Sephardi Federation Library and Archives is to consolidate and build a comprehensive repository for the preservation and transmission of Sephardic memory, including oral histories and genealogy, representing the richness of the different Sephardic communities. Holdings and services will reflect the overall mission of the American Sephardi Federation.

The collections will include print, sound and visual materials, from the Golden Age to the present, on history, literature and culture of and about the Sephardi and Mizrahi communities. The collections will represent all languages including Ladino and Judeo-Arabic, and any country with a Sephardi/Mizrahi presence, including the Americas, the Balkans, the Iberian Peninsula, the Middle East, the Mediterranean countries, North Africa, and Turkey.

Leo Baeck Institute

The Institute’s library and archives include books and periodicals (microform preferred), non-published materials and a collection of art and artifacts related to the history of German-speaking Jewry. Included in the collection are manuscripts, official and personal documents, photos, diaries, letters and correspondence, writings on life and daily experiences, documents on births, marriages, divorces, circumcisions, and bar mitzvahs, family trees, diplomas, certificates and membership cards of all kinds, visas and emigration documents, newspaper pages/clippings on specific events, posters, prayer books, rabbinical documents, writings from the lives of religious organizations and schools, records of German-Jewish organizations and Jewish communities, etc., as well as non-book materials including videotapes, computer files, records, audio tapes (e.g. oral history projects), etc. Books by non-Jewish authors on Jewish subjects are acquired.

The language of the collection is primarily German, followed by Judeo-German and Hebrew, as well as other languages (e.g. English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.) if these languages are also used by German-speaking Jewry, or if the subject matter of the material concerns Jewish communities in German-speaking lands and lands to which German-speaking Jewry have emigrated

The time period covered is from the early Jewish settlements in German-speaking areas until today. The main focus is from the Middle Ages to the Holocaust (including the revival of Jewish life in post-war Germany and Austria), but emphasizes the period that begins with the 17th Century (Enlightenment). The post World War II period until today is also included.

The subject strength of the collection is history and culture of German-speaking Jewry largely unrestricted as to subject. Special emphases are:

1. History and legacy of Jewish communities in German-speaking lands
2. Local history and genealogy
3. History of cultural and religious life
4. History of Jewish daily life including social and family structures and institutions
5. Emigration
6. The Zionist and Anti-Nazi movements

Other areas such as the Holocaust and anti-semitism are collected selectively.

YIVO Institute for Jewish Research

The Institute collects print and non-print materials, printed and electronic books, documents, photographs, films, sound recordings, artifacts, art works, and ephemera relating to all aspects of Jewish history and culture around the world. Of particular interest are materials relating to the everyday life, culture and history of East European Jews and their descendants in the United States.

The holdings of the YIVO Institute reflect its collecting policies, overall mission and scholarly interests in the past 75 years. The collections concentrate on four main areas:

1. Yiddish language, literature and culture, including significant holdings on Yiddish theater and music
2. History and culture of East European Jews
3. History of the Jews in the United States, with special focus on 20th century immigration and acculturation
4. The Holocaust and its aftermath

The YIVO Institute is primarily a modern historical repository. The bulk of its holdings pertain to the 20th century. There are groups of materials which date from the 17th through the 19th centuries and discrete items from the 15th and 16th centuries.

The primary languages of the documents are Yiddish, English, Hebrew, Russian, Polish, French and German, with a significant collection in Ladino.

Yeshiva University Museum

The Museum’s collection is comprised of over 6,800 artifacts and documents which represent the cultural, intellectual and artistic achievements of over 3,000 years of Jewish experience.

Formats include fine and folk art (including sculpture, paintings, and works on paper), photographs, amulets and jewelry, clothing and accessories, posters and synagogue models. Holdings are particularly strong in ethnographic material, costume and ephemera.