Almost all of the materials in this collection pertain to the period between the fire of 1917 and the beginning of the German occupation of Salonika in 1941. The materials are arranged and divided into series to reflect both the chronological development and the structure and functioning of a wide cross-section of the Jewish community and its bureaucracy. The materials include metrical records of the Jewish population, most significantly three volumes from the 1917 census of the Jewish community (Series I), records of the Beit Din (Series II), financial records and correspondence of the communal council (Series III and IV), correspondence pertaining to the production and distribution of matzah (Series V), correspondence related to housing and the administration of Jewish neighborhoods (Series VI), records and correspondence of the commission of education (Series VII), records of the Salonika-Palestine company (Series VIII), records of the Banque Union (Series IX), printed materials from Salonika (Series X), and miscellaneous documents and printed materials from World War II on (Series XI).

The collection includes materials pertaining to the Jewish Defense Organization, a radical Zionist Jewish organization devoted to protecting Jews from their enemies, imaginary and real, using all means possible. Collection consists of correspondence, financial documents, legal documents, such as depositions, subpoenas, transcripts, and a large amount of printed materials. The bulk of the materials consist of a variety of printed materials and materials pertaining to a number of legal cases against various members of the Jewish Defense Organization and the organization itself.

This collection contains the administrative records of Jewish Education Committee as well as materials from the National Council for Jewish Education and the American Association for Jewish Education. The Jewish Education Committee was a Jewish educational organization in New York concerned with coordination of educational activities as well as development of educational resources for the Jewish secular school systems in the U.S. and was organized in June 1939. Materials include correspondence, memoranda, minutes, reports, conference materials, surveys, and publications.

The Jewish Education Service of North America (JESNA), formerly known as the American Association for Jewish Education, was founded in 1939. The Association promotes and supports Jewish education in communities throughout the United States and Canada by supplying studies of Jewish education, developing supplementary educational materials, and collaborating with Jewish organizations. This collection primarily contains the results of surveys and consequent reports, in addition to some correspondence, meeting minutes, and newsletters of the administration. Somewhat unrelated, the Jewish Media Services's files on films and filmmakers make up the last series of this collection, as JESNA took over some of the responsibilities of this organization in the early 1990s.

The Jewish People’s Chorus of Los Angeles was a chorus associated with the Jewish Music Alliance, an organization meant to promote Yiddish folk and revolutionary music, founded by Jacob Schaefer in 1925. This collection contains manuscripts of music performed by the chorus as well as a few performance notes.

The records chronicle the ideology behind the Reconstructionist movement, the founding and activities of the Jewish Reconstructionist Foundation, and its growth and transformation from an ideology and movement into an established American Jewish denomination, Reconstructionist Judaism. The records also document two seminal figures in Reconstructionist Judaism, Mordecai Menahem Kaplan and Ira Eisenstein. Included in the collection are the administrative records of the Foundation (minutes, financial records, bylaws), publications produced by the Foundation including manuscript submissions for the influential publication The Reconstructionist, correspondence, sermons, prayer books produced by the Foundation, syllabi, sheet music, photographs, and speeches, among other material. In the correspondence are letters from Martin Buber, J. Edgar Hoover, and Albert Schweitzer.

Part of the Lithuanian Kingdom from the beginning of the fourteenth century, and the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth from the mid-sixteenth century, Minsk was annexed to the Russian Empire in 1793, following the second partition of Poland. Under tsarist rule, the city became the capital of the Minsk province. From 1920 to 1991, it was the capital of the Belorussian Soviet Socialist Republic (BSSR). At present, Minsk is the capital of the Republic of Belarus. The Records of the Minsk Jewish Community Council, or Kahal, are a fragment of the original archives of the Minsk Jewish community, which dates back to the sixteenth century. Most of the documents in this collection, which covers the tsarist period from the 1820s to the 1917 Russian Revolution, were assembled between the last decade of the nineteenth and the beginning of the twentieth century. The collection is of fragmentary nature, and consists of miscellaneous materials that relate to the role and activities of the Minsk Kahal in Jewish life; the relation between the Jewish body politic and local authorities; and between the Jewish body politic and the Jewish residents in the Minsk province

The records of the National Council of Jewish Women, New York Section document the organization's community service, advocacy, and supportive administrative, fundraising, membership, and public relations activities from the Section's early years to the present. Included is a large amount of material from the National Organization in relation to the New York Section. This material is dated from 1896 to 1999 and consists of administrative, events, and advocacy matters. The New York Section's community services files include its work on aging, child care, consumer telephone referrals, counseling support, crime prevention, the disabled, domestic violence, early child education, feminism, homelessness, hunger, immigrants, Israel, Jewish education and promotion, literacy, probation, the sick, summer recreation for children and the elderly, and war relief. The Section's advocacy files consist of lobbying efforts for the rights of children, the disabled, the elderly, families, the homeless, immigrants, Israel, and women. The collection is primarily in English, with some Hebrew, Yiddish, German, Greek, Spanish, Chinese, and Italian. Among the types of material are audio tapes, blueprints, correspondence, minutes, photographs, publications, scrapbooks, and scripts.

The National Jewish Welfare Board Military Chaplaincy Records document the evolution and activities of NJWB’s military chaplaincy agency, which was known as the Commission on Army and Navy Religious Activities (CANRA) from 1942 to 1947, as the Division of Religious Activities (DRA) from 1947 to 1953, and then as the Commission on Jewish Chaplaincy (CJC) after 1953, during the Executive Directorship of Aryeh Lev (1946-1975) and Philip Bernstein (1942-1946). The collection also consists of Aryeh Lev’s records during his service as assistant to the Office of the Chief of Chaplains of the Army (1940-1945), as well as Lev’s personal papers. Most broadly, the collection chronicles the role of Jewish chaplaincy and Jewish participation in the U.S. military effort from WWII to the Vietnam War. Subjects addressed include the establishment of Judaism as one of the major faiths in the U.S. military, patterns of observance among service members, and post-WWII relief work by Jewish chaplains on behalf of displaced persons. Materials include minutes, reports, correspondence, speeches, sermons, autobiographical writings, photographs, questionnaires and printed materials.

The records of the North American Jewish Students Appeal (NAJSA or APPEAL) contains documents on two levels of concern: those documents dealing with the NAJSA as a student-run organization promoting Jewish identity among college-aged youth; and those documents dealing with the APPEAL as a fundraising organization for several well-known student constituent organizations. The Constituents were: the Jewish Student Press Service, Lights in Action, the North American Jewish Students Network, the Progressive Zionist Caucus, Response: A Contemporary Jewish Review, Yavneh Religious Students Organization, and Yugntruf Youth for Yiddish. Documents include correspondence, financial records, minutes, press releases, information on grants awarded to student organizations for programming and publishing, student journals and newspapers, photographs, and ephemera.

The Phi Epsilon Pi fraternity, active between 1904 and 1970 with a predominantly Jewish membership, was established in New York City and eventually opened at least 48 chapters on college campuses across the U.S. and one in Canada. The bulk of the records in this collection were generated, received and collected by the national fraternity officers between 1912 and the late 1950s. Topics represented include black-Jewish relations, military service in WWI and WWII, educational, housing and occupational discrimination, and WWII refugee aid. Materials consist of correspondence, reports, minutes, clippings, serial publications, photographs, pins, financial records, floor plans, manuals, and directories.

Spanning from its inception and incorporation in 1925 to its culmination in 2002, the Queens Jewish Center collection highlights this congregation's wide-range of religiously oriented and secular educational activities, ceremonies, developments, events, and programs. Predominant in this collection are the reports, bulletins, financial, legal and property records, and meeting minutes. In addition, books, clippings, correspondence, pamphlets, programs, publications, negatives photographs are also contained with in this collections.

The Rabbinical School and Teachers’ Institute in Vilna was one of two Jewish state schools established in the Russian Empire in 1847 to train state appointed (kazënnye) rabbis and teachers for Jewish elementary state schools in the Pale of Settlement. The purpose of these schools was to undermine and replace the traditional kheder system of education. The other such school was in Zhitomir. The state schools were unpopular because of their assimilationist policies. The Vilna Rabbinical School was closed in 1873, but the Teachers' Institute remained in existence until 1914

This collection contains the institutional records of the Sephardic Jewish Brotherhood of America, a fraternal organization founded in New York in 1921 to serve and unify the American Sephardic Jewish community. These records primarily pertain to issues of membership, including mortuary and sick benefits, scholarships and access to charitable funds, as well as information about community receptions and various other cultural activities.

The Tarbut Hebrew Teachers Seminary was founded in 1921. The school was part of a network of educational institutions established by the Tarbut movement in Poland. Teachers' seminaries were created to train Tarbut teachers for the Hebrew elementary school system. The collection contains records of the seminary in Vilna, Poland. It holds administrative records as well as correspondence. Correspondence is with the Tarbut Central Office in Warsaw, the Vilna School District, the Keren Kayemet L'Israel, the Vilna Jewish Community Council, branches of Tarbut throughout Poland, organizations, bookstores, and publishers. Other documents included in the collection are by-laws, financial documents, contracts, statistical materials, and printed and mimeographed materials. Academic records are also found in this collection. These types of records include correspondence with students and teachers, applications for admission to the seminary, teachers' files, student grades, and diplomas. There are also minutes of the Pedagogical Council, curriculum outlines for various subjects, teaching schedules, and lessons prepared by student teachers.

Records in this collection display the activities of the Union of Sephardic Congregations under the presidencies of Dr. David de Sola Pool and Dr. Solomon Gaon. Much material is available on the preparation and distribution of Sephardic prayer books produced by the Union. Other topics featured in this collection include information on national and international Sephardic communities, the Union's relief efforts for refugees and disadvantaged communities, and employment of Sephardic rabbis and cantors.

From the 16th century onward the Jewish community of Vilna was governed by an autonomous administrative body, called the Kehillah (or Kahal). Under the Russian domination (from 1794) the Kehillah steadily declined in power until the institution of Kahal was altogether abolished in 1844 by an imperial edict throughout the Russian empire. The Tsedakah Gedolah which replaced the former Kehillah in Vilna was limited to charitable and religious functions. In 1919, as Vilna became part of Poland, the Tsedakah Gedolah was replaced by an elected New Kehillah (Yid. Naye kehile). This institution was eventually dissolved in 1940 by the Soviet authorities. These are incomplete records of the Kehillah covering mainly the period of the Tzedakah Gedolah, 1844-1918, and the New Kehillah, 1919-1940. Some pre-1844 records are included. Originally part of the YIVO Archives in Vilna, only a third of the collection was recovered after World War II. Additional records of the Vilna Kehillah are in the custody of the Central Historical Archives in Vilnius, Lithuania. The collection relates to all three administrations, although records of the first "kahal" period cover only the years 1800-1844 and these are very sparse. The collection also includes numerous documents of the Jewish Refugee Relief Committee, established at the beginning of World War II under the auspices of the Kehillah. That committee functioned from 1939-1940.

The records of the Workmen's Circle include administrative papers, publications concerning social services provided by the organization, publications from various branches worldwide, and a large amount of educational material pertaining to schools run by the Workmen's Circle. Much of the educational material is from schools in the New York City area.

These records reflect the activities of the World Sephardi Federation (WSF), an organization that sought to address the educational and social needs of the Sephardim both in Israel and the Diaspora. The collection is comprised mainly of memos, reports, correspondence, and newspaper clippings that document both the cultural traditions of the Sephardim in the Diaspora and their political and social standing in contemporary Israel. The collection is primarily in English, although it also contains memos and reports in French. In addition, some of the correspondence is occasionally in Spanish. The newspaper articles and clippings are in Hebrew or English.

This collection contains the minutes, correspondence and financial records of the Yemenite Jewish Federation of America, an organization that aims to provide cultural enrichment and financial support to Jews of Yemenite heritage living in Israel and the United States. There is also a fair amount of information about grants that the Federation sought, their scholarship program and various fundraisers and events that the YJFA sponsored or participated in.

The Records of the YIVO Ethnographic Committee is a sub-group of Record Group 1, Records of YIVO - Vilna. The activities of the Ethnographic Committee consisted of collecting folklore materials, preparing and analyzing folklore questionnaires, corresponding with folklore collectors throughout the world, and maintaining a museum. This collection also includes surviving fragments of the collections of the S. Ansky Jewish Historical and Ethnographic Society which was active in Vilna from 1920 until 1940, and of Invayskult, also known as the Jewish Bureau of the Belorussian Academy of Science in Minsk (founded in 1925 and dissolved in the 1930s). Record Group 1.2 includes both administrative files of the aforementioned institutions and folklore and historical materials, which were gathered in these institutions' archives.

This collection, also known as the "New Discoveries" at the Martynas Mažvydas National Library of Lithuania (MMNL), in Vilnius, Lithuania, comprises documents from YIVO’s prewar archives in Vilna, the Vilna Ghetto, and postwar Vilna, which were newly discovered at the MMNL in 2017. The physical collection continues to be held at the MMNLL.

The Aspirantur, a graduate training program for scholars of Jewish culture, was founded by the YIVO Institute For Jewish Research in 1935. Led by key figures such as Simon Dubnow, Max Weinreich, and Zalmen Reyzen, the Aspirantur educated students who continued to play an important role in the growth of Jewish studies, including Lucy Dawidowicz, Avraham Sutzkever, and Yosl Mlotek. This collection contains research projects produced by the students, evaluations by their professors, and administrative materials produced in the course of running the program, including planning documents, applications, and correspondence.

This collection contains records of the Zukunft monthly journal, which was devoted to publishing political, scientific and literary articles in Yiddish. It contains newspaper clippings, correspondence, meeting minutes, materials relating to conferences and anniversary issues, financial reports, programs, mailings, subscription materials, and typed and handwritten manuscripts submitted for publication.

Collection consists of bulletins, invitations, programs, and an audiocassette pertaining to the 150th anniversary celebration of the first Reform congregation in Philadelphia. An exhibit guide within the collection provides extensive historical information. The collection also includes a biographical sketch of the late Rabbi Bertram W. Korn, and a service of installation for Rabbi Bradley N. Bleefeld. The audiocassette consists of a compendium of services used by the Congregation over the last 150 years.

The file contains various materials pertaining to the religious Zionist youth movements Esra (עזרא) and Zeire Misrachi (צעירי מזרחי, ברית תורה ועבודה) in Germany, and comprises two folders.

The majority of this collection contains documents related to the time prior to the merger of the Mizrachi Organization of America and Hapoel Hamizrachi of America (which eventually formed the Religious Zionists of America). Also included are items concerning their sub-entities and affiliates as well as information regarding Mizrachi’s Youth and Education Department, National Education Committee, and Education and Expansion Fund. Types of materials encompass souvenir journals, publications (Yiddish and English), youth leader’s guides, cultural guides, manuals, newsletters, pamphlets, brochures, activity and annual reports, plays, press releases, convention and event invitations, a musical score, and a children’s Hebrew primer. Of interest is the issue of New Horizons, published by the National Committee for Unity of Religious Zionism that describes the merger. Also of appeal is a 1952 souvenir program for the Hapoel Hamizrachi of Boston that honors and includes an address by Jerusalem Mayor S.Z. Shragai.

The Renate Bridenthal Family Collection primarily documents the lives and especially the emigration experiences of Renate Bridenthal's parents, Elchunon and Irene Rubin. Papers of Irene Rubin are prominent in the collection and include restitution correspondence and her writing. Documents related to Renate and her brother Harribald's early lives and emigration is are also present. The collection consists of extensive personal and restitution correspondence, official documents, newspaper clippings regarding Irene Rubin's death, drafts of her writing, and three albums.

The collection includes correspondence; poetry and manuscript drafts; official, educational and military documents; sermons; newspaper clippings; family trees; notes; and a few photographs.