The collection contains the papers of Shalom Schwarzbard (1886-1938), the Russian-born French Jewish watchmaker, revolutionary, writer and activist for Jewish self-defense. In May 1926 in Paris, Schwarzbard assassinated the exiled Ukrainian nationalist leader Simon Petlyura, whom he held responsible for the pogroms against the Jews in the Ukraine in 1918-1921. His trial in October 1927, at which he was acquitted, drew worldwide attention. The collection consists of correspondence, manuscripts of Shalom Schwarzbard's autobiographical writings, personal documents, clippings, and printed ephemera, as well as poems by Schwarzbard's wife Anna and others. Materials in this collection mostly relate to Shalom Schwarzbard's writings, his speaking engagements following his acquittal, and his efforts in the 1930s to organize Jewish war veterans and war victims of the First World War.

The collection relates to the life of Jewish refugees, mostly of German and Austrian origin, in Shanghai primarily between the years 1939-1948. It covers many aspects of their experience, including political and cultural events, relief and charity activities, and self-help. The collection originated from the YIVO exhibition that was organized and displayed in 1947 in Shanghai and later in New York. The collection consists of manuscripts, minutes of meetings, correspondence, newspaper clippings, and printed materials.

This collection documents the life of Siegfried Seligmann Mühsam. It contains material about his education, military service, career as a pharmacist, public service in Lübeck, as well as some writings. It contains also materials by and about Mühsam's ancestors and descendants, both original correspondence and genealogical research.

The collection contains various letters, deeds, and certificates related to Simon Anker.

This collection consists of materials gathered by Simon Dubnow, an influential political thinker, educator, writer, activist, and preeminent historian of Russian Jewry. The materials reflect central subjects of his historical research, such as communal organization, persecutions, and Hasidism, as well as pressing issues of his time, most significantly pogroms and the question of Jewish emancipation. Much of the material comprises information meticulously copied and sent to Dubnow by individuals throughout the Russian Empire for the purpose of aiding his research. The collection demonstrates Dubnow's importance in helping to establish the idea of Jewish ethnographic history.

This collection documents Sonia Wachstein's personal life and professional work. It includes personal documents, correspondence, diaries, and photographs concerning her personal affairs as well as her education and professional life as a social worker.

This collection contains correspondence, pamphlets, periodicals, newspapers, press releases, writings, clippings, brochures, fliers, and posters from the era of the Spanish Civil War, and later, documenting American and international fund-raising for humanitarian relief of Republican Spain; American and international public opinion about the war; the participation of Jews in the International Brigades; and reminiscences and commemorations of the war and, particularly, of the International Brigades, in later years. A portion of the material on relief work pertains to trade union activities, as documented in papers of Charles S. Zimmerman, of the International Ladies’ Garment Workers’ Union, in his capacity as leader of Trade Union Relief for Spain, in New York City. Other organizations represented include the Medical Bureau and North American Committee to Aid Spanish Democracy; the Spanish Information Bureau in New York; the Friends of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade; and the Israeli branch of the association of volunteers in the International Brigades. There are also autobiographical manuscripts by Benjamin Lubelski and Sigmund Stein, who participated in the International Brigades; and contemporary publications in a variety of languages, including publications of the anarchist-leaning Spanish trade union confederations CNT-FAI.

This collection consists of material relating to the Steiner family of Laupheim, Baden-Württemberg. It contains hundreds of letters between Hedwig Steiner and her sons Julius and Heinrich during World War One. It also includes other correspondence, vital, business, and educational documents, and photographs, as well as a few pages of a late 18th or early 19th-century Haggadah in Hebrew and Judeo-German.

This collection documents the Stern and Fantl families of Vienna, Austria from the mid-nineteenth century through 1980. Materials include personal correspondence, vital records (birth and marriage certificates), immigration and naturalization records, education records, passports, legal papers, contracts of sale for family property, photographs, poems, and Erwin Stern’s personal account of imprisonment in Dachau.

The Steven M. Lowenstein Collection documents professional activities of Steven Lowenstein, writer, researcher, historian, and teacher and consists of manuscripts, printed materials, statistical data, and correspondence. Documents comprising the collection reflect Dr. Lowenstein’s interests in a wide spectrum of topics related to Jews and Judaism, such as modernity and tradition and their influence on the religion and common folks, Berlin Jews of the upper strata, similarities and differences between agrarian/rural and urban Jews, Eastern and Western Jewry, popular and official Judaism, and secular and religious Jews, to name but a few topics.

The Steven Lowenstein Collections documents professional activities of Steven Lowenstein, writer, researcher, historian, and teacher. Documents comprising the collection reflect Dr. Lowenstein’s interests in a wide spectrum of topics related to Jews and Judaism, such as modernity and tradition and their influence on the religion and common folks, Berlin Jews of the upper strata, similarities and differences between agrarian/rural and urban Jews, popular and official Judaism, secular and religious Jews, and other Jewish related topics. However, there is a very small amount of materials related to Dr. Lowenstein’s professional activities other than research and writing.

The Steven Schwarzschild Collection documents professional activities of Steven S. Schwarzschild, researcher, philosopher, rabbi and teacher. It also documents (to a much smaller degree) the personal lives of Steven Schwarzschild and his wife Lily. The collection includes brochures, booklets, clippings, correspondence, notes, off prints, photographs, printed materials, and writings. Documents comprising the collection shed light on Steven Schwarzschild’s education, and reflect various aspects of Steven Schwarzschild’s involvement with Judaism, as leader of Jewish congregations in Fargo, North Dakota and Lynn, Massachusetts; his academic career, research and writings in the fields of philosophy and theology.

The Steven Siegel Collection documents the life and professional activities of Steven Siegel, archivist, genealogist, and an active member of the LGBT community. The collection consists of correspondence, seminar and conference materials, publications, lists, manuscripts, original genealogical research, minutes, official documents, photographs, project proposals, and questionnaires. Materials related to Steven Siegel’s personal life constitute a smaller portion of the collection and consist of personal correspondence, materials documenting his involvement with Cornell University and Congregation Beth Simchat Torah. Materials documenting Siegel’s professional activities include documents pertaining to the Jewish Historical Society of New York, the Jewish Genealogical Society, and the Council of Research Libraries in Jewish Studies.

This collection contains documents and records accumulated by Elias Tcherikower in his capacity as co-founder of YIVO, member of the Executive Office, and Chair of the Historical Section, 1925-1943. It is particularly significant for its records of the YIVO Historical Section, and extensive correspondence documenting the founding of the Institute.

The Territorial Collection Poland 1 is comprised of documents that were amassed at the YIVO in New York City. The Collection is of a mixed provenance and fragmentary nature. The commonality between the documents contained within this collection is that they all pertain to Jews in Poland prior to 1939. Documents of earlier years are also included. Collection consists of letters, essays, reports, correspondence, and clippings which pertain to the political situation, economic conditions, and cultural activities of Polish Jews.

The Territorial Collection, Poland 2 is comprised of documents that were amassed at the YIVO in New York City. The collection is of mixed provenance and is fragmentary in nature, consisting of miscellaneous materials dating back to World War II and its immediate aftermath. The Territorial Collection Poland 2 is a portion of the greater Territorial Collection (RG 116), which incorporates materials that are relevant to over 42 different countries and geographical regions. The overarching theme of the collection Poland 2 is the annihilation of the Jewish life in Poland under the Nazi rule. Chronologically, the Territorial Collection Poland 2 follows the Territorial Collection Poland 1, which pertains to pre-World War II Poland; and precedes the Territorial Collection Poland 3, which pertains to post-World War II Poland.

The collection was donated to the YIVO Institute by Hersch Wasser of Warsaw, Poland (before 1950) and Tel-Aviv, Israel (1950). Hersch Wasser was an inmate of the Warsaw Ghetto from 1940 until 1943. He was an associate of Emanuel Ringelblum and secretary of the Warsaw Ghetto underground archive, code named Oyneg Shabes, organized by Ringelblum for the purpose of gathering documentation and testimonies on the situation of Jews in Nazi-occupied Poland. After the war Hersch Wasser was instrumental in rescuing the archive.

The collection consists predominantly of documents about the life and the annihilation of Polish Jews in the period of the Nazi occupation of Poland. The documents pertain to the destruction of the Warsaw Ghetto, and of Jewish communities in various parts of Poland in the years 1940 through 1943. Some documents are of a later date. Included are diaries, eyewitness acounts, testimonies, documents from Jewish councils, official and underground publications.

This collection contains research files on émigrés from Germany, Austria, and German-speaking Czechoslovakia during the Nazi period (1933-1945). These files were compiled by researchers at the Research Foundation for Jewish Immigration in New York and the Institut für Zeitgeschichte in Munich in preparation for the publication of The Biographisches Handbuch der deutschsprachigen Emigration nach 1933/International biographical dictionary of Central European émigrés 1933-1945.

Contains the surviving papers of Rabbi Tobias Geffen who served as a rabbi in New York City (1904-1907), Canton, Ohio (1907-1910), and Atlanta, Georgia (1910-1970). Includes extensive correspondence with members of his family, autobiographies in Yiddish and English (several versions) and other material relating to his personal life.

The collection is of a fragmentary nature, and consists of miscellaneous materials that pertain to the role and activities of the Vilna Chief of Police in the everyday life of the city and province of Vilna, and to the relationship between the Vilna Chief of Police and other police, military and civil organs in the Vilna province. Most of the documents in this collection, which covers the tsarist period from the 1830s to 1918, were assembled during the latter part of the nineteenth and early part of the twentieth century

The Vilna Collection represents fragmentary materials that were part of the original YIVO Archives in Vilna before WWII. The collection includes a wide array of materials dealing with a great variety of aspects of Jewish life in the Pre-revolutionary Russian Empire and post-revolutionary Poland, Ukraine, Lithuania, and Soviet Russia. The Collection consists of personal correspondence, official correspondence with organizations and governmental institutions, financial and statistical reports, minutes of meetings of Jewish communal and political organizations, bibliographic materials, including card catalogues and bibliographies. Also included here are vital documents, such as birth certificates and birth registers, affidavits, certificates, diplomas, and travel documents. Additionally, there are petitions, resolutions, appeals, printed materials, manuscripts, lists, and questionnaires. There is a wealth of materials dealing with Jewish book trade and publishing, youth and sports organizations, education, Jewish communal life, and political activities.

This collection documents the history of the Harold (formerly Isaac) family. The collection focuses mainly on the brothers Walter and John Harold (born Walter Isaac and Hans Harald Isaac, respectively) and their family history going back to their earliest known ancestor, Herz Isaac of Hesse, Germany. Materials include vital documents, a family history narrative, photographs, passports, correspondence, notebooks, immigration papers, inheritance papers, and a few clippings.

This collection documents the genealogical research of the lawyer Walther Meyer. Among the many families mentioned here are branches of the Meyer, Eger, Oppenheimer, Borchardt, Neufeld, Ballin, Wertheimer, and Wallach families. Material on them includes many drafts of family trees as well as exchanges of genealogical research correspondence. This collection also contains official decrees and announcements pertaining to the Jewish communities of Hannover from the 1800s.

The Center for Jewish History has, in close collaboration with Internet Archive, captured the websites, content, and peripheral web-based applications of websites chosen by the Center for Jewish History and its five partner organizations to better fulfill their collecting missions.

As a young man in Gaukönigshofen, Germany, Werner Kleeman was imprisoned during Kristallnacht, sent to Dachau, and released a few months later. He immigrated to the United States and later took part in D-Day as a U.S. soldier. This collection contains correspondence, official documents, notes, and clippings regarding Werner Kleeman's military service, restitution claims, and pension claims, as well as drafts of his book From Dachau to D-Day. Papers from the military service, immigration, and restitution claims of his father Louis Kleeman comprise a substantial portion of this collection. Also included are genealogical tables, typescripts, and clippings focused mainly on the Kleeman, Loeb, and Lehman families. The final series consists of personal papers of Norborne P. Gatling, Jr., a U.S. soldier whom Kleeman knew.

This collection contains documents and manuscripts on Alsace-Lorraine, France, and Germany.

Rabbi William F. Rosenblum was head rabbi of the reform congregation at Temple Israel in New York City, 1930-1963. He was also an active leader in a number of Jewish social welfare and religious organizations. In addition to broadly documenting his rabbinical career and organizational activities, the William F. Rosenblum Papers reflect Rosenblum's interests in military chaplaincy, relations between Catholicism and Judaism, the media, race relations, post-WWII Europe, and the Vietnam War. Materials include correspondence, scrapbooks, sermons, speeches, notes, radio transcripts, clippings, photographs, audiotapes, and film.

This collection contains the papers of banker William Strauss. It includes his correspondence, a large amount of newspaper clippings, family trees, and research material pertaining to the Mendelssohn banking house.

The Wladimir G. Eliasberg Collection documents the lives of the members of the Eliasberg family and to a lesser extent professional activities of Wladimir Eliasberg. The collection consists of personal correspondence, writings, vital and professional documents, and printed materials.