This collection centers on Arthur Kahn's experiences during the First World War and his time as a prisoner of war in Siberia from 1915 until 1920 where he became the instructor of the sports club Maccabi Irkutsk.

The Elias Tcherikower Collection documents the professional and personal life of Elias Tcherikower, a scholar, communal activist, and one of the founders of the YIVO Institute for Jewish Research, and to a smaller extent personal life of his wife, Riva Tcherikower, née Teplitski. Collected here are Tcherikower’s writings, professional and personal correspondence, photographs, manuscripts by other scholars, research materials, printed materials, financial documents, conference and exhibit materials, minutes of meetings, bibliographic materials and personal materials of Riva Tcherikower, née Teplitski, and Chaim Tcherikower.

The Friedrich (Fritz) and Emma Ginsberg Family Collection largely documents the lives of Fritz, Emma, Gertrud, Ruth and Hilde Ginsberg in King William's Town, South Africa. Some material on relatives, especially Henriette Rosenstein and Samuel Wayburne but also others, will additionally be found here. The collection consists of correspondence, photographs, official documents, poetry, wedding documentation, notes, family trees, and other material.

The bulk of this collection consists of genealogical research materials about George Vladar's maternal side, the Jewish families Biheller from Cieszyn (Teschen), Poland and Perl/ Tugenthat from Bielsko-Biala (Poland), and on his paternal side, the non-Jewish Hungarian family Vladar and the non- Jewish Austrian Family Bittermann (various spellings) and Muehler (various spellings). The collection consists of numerous family trees, birth and death certificates, school reports, and a correspondence of Vladar's Grandparents Joseph Biheller and Marie, née Perl.

The Gustav Beck Collection includes materials documenting Gustav Beck's genealogical efforts, personal correspondence, documents, memoirs, and a large amount of photo albums.

The Herbert Strauss Collection documents the life and professional activities of Herbert Strauss, writer, historian, and teacher. The collection includes correspondence, court procedures, documents, lists, manuscripts and lectures, notes, photographs, printed materials, and a small amount of teaching materials. Materials constituting the collection reflect various aspects of Herbert Strauss’ personal life, teaching, research and writings in the fields of German-Jewish history and relations, Anti-Semitism, and assimilation. The collection includes both, personal and professional materials related to Herbert Strauss, with personal being by far the smaller.

This collection holds the papers of the lawyer and librarian Hugo Knoepfmacher. The main subject of the collection is his personal and professional life, although material concerning other members of the family is also present. The collection consists of official documents, notes, correspondence, manuscripts, some clippings, and a very small amount of published material.

This collection documents the academic, professional and private life of Jacob Barosin (1906-2001), a painter and artist of Russian-Jewish descent. Barosin was raised in Berlin, but he fled to France in 1933 and in 1943 survived a stint in the Gurs concentration camp. The collection primarily contains correspondence, ephemera, manuscripts, official documents, personal papers, and photographs.

The Leo Glueckselig Collection includes materials pertaining to Leo Glueckselig and other members of the Glueckselig family and consists mostly of personal correspondence, photographs, and documents, whereas other document types such as printed materials, manuscripts, art works, and a cookbook constitute a smaller part of the collection.

The Marianne Salinger Collection comprises a broad variety of personal and professional documents pertaining to Marianne Salinger and her family. Spanning four generations, the material is clustered around individual stories of several family members and their relationships, each illustrated by different document types and genres, including personal and official letters, diaries, clippings, photographs and slides, various certificates, advertisements, restitution papers, as well as a couple of annotated books of various genres such as children's books, one cookbook, one autobiography and a language textbook. Some translations are included.

Mizrakh Yidisher Historisher Arkhiv Collection consists of diverse materials that pertain to pogroms in the period between 1918 and 1921 that took place mostly in Ukraine but also in Belarus, Poland, and Russia. There is a wide variety of topics that are covered in the collection including Ukrainian-Jewish relations during a short lived Ukrainian Republic, Ukrainian-Jewish political, communal, and governmental organizations, Ukrainian government and the role of politicians and military Commanders in pogroms, most notably Symon Petlyura and Ataman Grigoriev, pogroms and its aftermath, military occupation of Ukraine by the German, Polish, Bolshevik and General Denikin’s armies and its relationship to pogroms, Jewish self-defense and relief work. Also included here are materials pertaining to the trial of Sholom Schwarzbard who was tried in France for assassination of Symon Petlyura. The collection consists of of large amount of lists and eyewitness testimonies, correspondence, complaints and petitions, reports and resolutions, statements and proclamations, memoranda and circular letters, conference materials, statues and by-laws, clippings and bulletins, military orders, and photographs.

The Grigori Gurevitch Papers consist of materials pertaining to his involvement with the revolutionary movement in the Russian Empire and abroad. The bulk of the collection consists of Gurevitch’s manuscripts on politics, history of Kiev, anti-Semitism, Russian political immigrants, and Jewish revolutionaries, notes, and drafts and also includes correspondence, small amount of clippings, receipts, two petitions, and a photograph

This collection contains the papers of Julian Hirszhaut, a Yiddish journalist and author of several works about the Holocaust in Poland. He collected a great number of historical documents on this topic, including hundreds of eyewitness accounts, which make up an important part of this collection. The materials in this collection relate to Hirszhaut’s important work gathering documents and testimonies of the Holocaust, as well as to his other professional activities as a journalist.

The Marc Ratner Papers consist of materials pertaining to Marc Ratner's political activities as one of the leaders of the SERP (Sotsialisticheskaya Yevreyskaya Rabochaya Partiia, Jewish Socialist Workers' Party, Rus: Социалистическая еврейская рабочая партия) which was a left leaning Zionist revolutionary party. The collection consists of correspondence, circular letters, clippings, minutes of meetings, essays, manuscripts, political resolutions and statements. The bulk of the collection consists of correspondence between party members, minutes of meetings and manuscripts.

Maxim Vinawer Papers consist of materials pertaining to Maxim Vinawer’s activities as a political and a communal leader. The collection covers the period between 1915 and 1926. These materials illuminate Vinawer’s participation in Russian politics as one of the leaders of the liberal Constitutional Democratic Party (Kadets), his appointment as a Minister of Foreign Affairs for the Crimean Regional Government in 1919, and his activities as a prominent figure among Zionist and émigré groups in Paris. The collection consists of correspondence, circular letters, memoranda, bulletins, clippings, minutes of meetings, essays, manuscripts, drafts and notes

This collection consists of Naftali Herz Kon's personal and official documents, personal correspondence, and correspondence with literary editors and organizations, as well as manuscripts, typescripts, drafts, fragments, and notes for both literary work (prose and poetry) and historical and biographical essays and reports. The Kon papers confiscated by the Polish government in 1961 and reclaimed by Kon's daughters in 2013 make up the final portion of the collection, and include personal correspondence, published and unpublished poetry, and historical essays.

This collection contains mainly correspondence between staff of the JDC Landsmanshaftn Department and members of various landsmanshaftn, benevolent organizations of immigrants originally from the same communities, as well as between the Landsmanshaftn Department and the interest-free loan associations (gmilas khesed societies) and heads of the various Jewish communities, mostly in Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union.

The Salomons-Fox family collection documents the lives of various family members of the extended Salomons-Fox family. Topics of the collection are the education; the emigration or attempted emigration to the United States, the establishment of a new life in America; and the professional career of the individuals represented in the collection. An extensive amount of the collection focusses on the artistic career and life of Dave Fox. Also included are papers pertaining to the circus artist and actor, Jackie (Leo) Gerlich, who appeared in the 1939 movie “The Wizard of Oz."

The Stanton Family Collection contains documents, correspondence, and photographs representing several centuries of Henry Stanton’s German-Jewish ancestors from the Sobernheim, Hinrichsen, Bütow, Bendix, Reiche, Abraham, Goldschmidt, Bleichröder, and Mond families. Family histories by Stanton based upon these materials are also included.

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 manuscripts of novels, short stories, poems, essays, lectures, speeches, translations, and other writings, correspondence, photographs, and personal documents and materials of Yiddish writer Chaim Grade and his wife Inna Hecker Grade. The collection helps to illustrate Grade’s literary development and impact on Yiddish literature over time, from his earliest poetic works written in Vilna and the Soviet Union, to his prolific and accomplished prose work composed mainly in the United States. The collection illuminates Inna Grade's intellectual and academic prowess, as well as the integral role that she played in the editorial and logistical aspects of Grade's literary output.

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

This collection documents the personal lives of Werner Weinberg’s immediate family and his in-laws, Hans and Rosa Halberstadt, as well Weinberg’s efforts to preserve the memory of the German Jews and the Jews of his hometown Rheda in particular as well as a limited amount of materials documenting his professional activities as a writer.

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.