Donations of Materials to AJHS Collections
The American Jewish Historical Society accepts donations of books, pamphlets, periodicals, artifacts, art objects, paintings, manuscript materials, sound recordings, films, ephemera and other similar materials for its library, archives and museum collections.
The Society's collections generally document the Jewish experience in the Americas, both North and South, from the commencement of European contact. We have defined our collecting strategy to include documentation on Jewish communal life, Jewish organizations, and the activities of American Jewish individuals on behalf of, and in relation to, Jewish communities in the Western hemisphere. In this regard, we encourage donations that meet the following criteria:
Published works relating to the history, life, and composition of Jewish communities in North, South, and Central America and the Caribbean, including local histories.
Institutional records and personal papers that chronicle the lives of Jewish individuals, families and organizations in the Western hemisphere.
Manuscript materials with Jewish content by Jewish and non-Jewish authors of the Americas.
Family histories and other Jewish genealogical source materials.
Published and unpublished materials in any language about prominent incidents, events or circumstances of Jewish life in the Americas; nationally significant Jewish organizations; and topics including (but not limited to):
- American Jewish religious life from New Age to Orthodoxy.
- American Jewish intellectual life
- American Jewish culture (literature, theater, visual arts, music)
- American Jewish economic and political life Geographical origins of American Jewry
- Immigration, settlement and adaptation to the Americas
- Jewish participation in and contributions to American life
- Women, gender and family structure in American Jewish life
- American Jewish biography and autobiography
- American Anti-Semitism
- American Zionism and American links to the land of Israel
- Suburbanization
- Black /Jewish relations
- Cookbooks and advertisements.
In 1994, the Society began a new initiative to increase its holdings on American Jewish women. As a part of this new endeavor, the Society has sponsored the publication of a two-volume encyclopedia, Jewish Women in America. Our most important goal, however, is to increase the representation of women in the Society's archival holdings. The Society therefore encourages women who have played active roles in Jewish communal life to consider donating their personal papers to the Society's collections.
In 1999, the Society initiated its Archive of American Jews in Sports. The mission of the archive is to collect, preserve and disseminate materials and information documenting the role of Jews in American sports (amateur and professional) and the role of sports in the American Jewish experience. Please see Jews in Sports Online.
Questions concerning how these guidelines would apply to specific materials being considered for donation to the Society may be directed to the Society's staff archivist or curator at the address below. The Society can provide referrals to other repositories where the staff determines that an item would be inappropriate for the AJHS collections.
Contact information for donations:
Lyn Slome, Director of Library and Archives
15 West 16th Street
New York, NY 10011
phone: 212-294-6160
fax: 212-294-6161
email: lslome@ajhs.org