The Center for Jewish History

The Center for Jewish History is home to the American Jewish Historical Society, the American Sephardi Federation, the Leo Baeck Institute, Yeshiva University Museum, and the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research.

The collections at the Center constitute one of the most important resources for the documentation and exploration of the Jewish experience and include old and rare books, periodical collections, photos, memoirs, official decrees, personal letters, and contemporary publications about all aspects of Jewish identity. The art collections include posters, paintings, sculptures, archeological artifacts, historical textiles, and ceremonial objects. These rich and varied collections define one people and many cultures.

The Center's reading room is staffed by librarians from each partner organization, thus enabling researchers to access all the collections.

The Center's Genealogical Institute serves as a clearinghouse for researchers seeking information on people and property throughout the Diaspora. Computer terminals and in-house expertise facilitate the searches for all levels of users.

The Center's on-site digital and preservation labs greatly facilitate the work of staff conservators in making it possible to avoid the transfer of often fragile documents.

The web sites of the partners and of the Center, linked to one another, offer digitized images of a growing number of collections to a worldwide audience.

The Center's auditorium, with state-of-the-art audiovisual equipment and exceptional acoustics, makes it possible to show films, offer concerts and lectures, and transmit these programs live to remote audiences.

The Center's extensive art galleries offer frequently changing exhibitions mounted by the partner organizations.

The most exciting aspect of the Center is the proximity of the partner organizations to each other—a development unique in American Jewish history. Eastern European Jewry, Sephardic Jewry, German-speaking Jewry, and the American Jewish experience coexist to provide a synergy that was almost unimaginable until now.