The records of the American Jewish Historical Society, the oldest national ethnic historical organization in the United States, include correspondence of officers and staff as well as inter-office memos, multiple versions of the constitution and by-laws of the society, meeting minutes of administrative branches and committees, membership and financial records, reports, exhibit materials, records relating to the society’s library and archival holdings, press releases and newspaper clippings, and publications and newsletters created by the society. There are also materials from various programs, such as meetings and conferences, tours, lectures, awards and dinners, films, and educational programs.

The Annual and Mid-Winter National Conventions Records document the proceedings and outcomes of the conventions and conferences attended by Hadassah’s National Board as well as by convention delegates from the various regions of Hadassah. The conventions in particular are where local and regional leaders meet with each other and the National Board and learn about Hadassah’s various projects and committees. This record group also includes annual reports from 1926-2001.

The materials in the record group mostly consist of reproductions of building plans of the Hadassah hospitals on Mount Scopus and Ein Kerem from the 1920s to the 2000s. Other properties documented in the record group include buildings managed by Youth Aliyah, Hadassah Youth Services, Young Judaea, Hadassah Israel Education Services, the National Office, and the Hadassah Medical Organization. These records document a core Hadassah function, the building of medical and social service facilities in Palestine/Israel.

This is the collection of Arthur A. Goren, a historian and professor of American Jewish history at the Hebrew University and Columbia University. This collection consists of his research material and professional files from his academic pursuits and career as a professor, primarily at Columbia University. Included in the collection are copies of articles and photocopies of archival material used for research, drafts of speeches and manuscripts, handwritten and typed research notes, correspondence, clippings, photographs, and teaching and course material such as syllabi, readings, notes, and bibliographies.

This record group contains three-dimensional objects and printed materials that relate to the history of Hadassah. A bulk of this record group consists of promotional and commemorative objects and awards created by Hadassah for its Annual and Midwinter National Conventions, and for Young Judaea events. Examples of such items include t-shirts, hats, bags, buttons, stationery and keychains. Artifacts created by local Hadassah chapters and regions, as well as awards received by local and national Hadassah leaders from other organizations, are also included. Of a particular interest is the bronze death mask of Henrietta Szold.

This record group is made up of mostly audio and moving images materials, including ¼-inch open audio reels, 16mm film, filmstrips, cassette tapes, VHS tapes, CDs, DVDs, LPs, 3.5 inch floppy disks, and other media, dating from the 1920s up to 2010. The films and audio recordings document Hadassah's efforts to publicize themselves to their members and those outside of Hadassah, by raising awareness of their history, fundraising efforts, and projects in United States and Israel, especially the Hadassah Medical Organization and Youth Aliyah projects and programs. Hadassah also used recordings to document important proceedings, including departmental and board meetings, Midwinter Conferences, and National Conventions.

The AVI CHAI Collection contains a breadth of files relating to the administrative and outreach activities of the organization, from its founding in 1984 through 2019.

The AVI CHAI records stored at the AJHS relate to the foundation's activities in North America. The records relating to the AVI CHAI's activities in Israel are stored at the archives of the National Library of Israel.

The records consist of correspondence, reports, minutes, financial documents, digital files, and printed materials that chronicle AVI CHAI’s administrative communication and outreach programming. The collection consists of physical paper records (see detailed breakdown below), born-digital files (including computer files), as well as audiovisual materials such as audiocassettes, microcassettes and DVDs. There are some 35mm slides, but otherwise very few photographic prints or negatives. Of note in the collection are materials that outline the foundation’s research on, and enthusiastic support of, Jewish day schools, camps, teacher training and libraries.

Administration files include by-laws, incorporation documents, and insurance policies, among others.

Board records are comprised of meeting materials, such as minutes and agendas. They document the philosophy, direction and activities of the organization.

Communications files consist primarily the files of Deena K. Fuchs. They include media kits, graphics, working files for annual reports, and other materials.

Files related to AVI CHAI finances include investment portfolio documentation as well as quarterly and annual reports.

The core of the foundation’s history can be found in its Programs files which document the various programs initiated or supported by AVI CHAI. They include detailed files on the foundation’s loans to schools (including building programs) and to summer camps. Also included in this series are files relating to AVI CHAI communications activities, such as media kits, graphics, working files for annual reports, and other materials.

This record group contains materials related to the local units of Hadassah—groups, chapters, regions, and co-ops—as well as Junior Hadassah, a youth organization that functioned as a group within the Hadassah Chapter structure. The record group documents over one hundred years of Hadassah’s growth, and illuminates a century of American Jewish communal life, particularly that of Jewish women, across the United States. The record group reflects the formation, administration and activities of the individual groups, chapters, co-ops and regions, and contains information on local events and programs organized around fundraising, Zionism, Jewish heritage, religion and holidays celebration, the study of Hebrew and Yiddish, women's issues, fashion, health, technology and many other topics.

This record group documents the creation, management, and use of the Hadassah Archives and provides valuable contextual information for researchers, current managers, and future managers of the Hadassah Archives. As an organization, Hadassah created active records of business that were housed in its Central Files department. In the 1950s, Hadassah began the process of creating an official archives, precipitated by a project to locate and compile sources for a biography of Hadassah founder, Henrietta Szold, on the occasion of the 100th anniversary of her birth. This record group documents three specific periods of custodianship—the 1980s, 1996-2011, and 2015-2016—and the various archivists who managed and shaped the archives during those years. RG 23 includes born digital, digitized, and paper material.

This record group documents the work of the Hadassah national board through board and executive committee meeting minutes, board member subject files, correspondence and reports, as well as minutes and materials generated by Hadassah ad-hoc and non-Executive committees, from 1912-2012. This record group also includes files from milestone anniversaries of Hadassah and legal documents pertaining to its projects.

This record group includes documents created and maintained by the Office of the President, the Office of the Executive Director and the Chair of the Division Coordinators/Directors Committee. Prominent is the Henrietta Szold series, containing correspondence by and to Szold as well as printed materials written by and about her. The files in this record group were created by a national president or executive director, or for their use, or maintained in their office during their years in office. Included are correspondence, minutes, memos, publications, reports and subject files on topics with which these individuals were involved.

Hadassah Functions and Operations Records represent the bulk of aid and services provided to Hadassah's membership, from the 1920s to 2011. Materials found in the record group include correspondence, clippings, press releases, manuals and kits for chapters and members to implement programming and chapter structure, fundraising campaigns, scripts, study guides, programming for local and national meetings, biographical files, and training documentation. Departments documented in the record group include Public Affairs, Education, Women's Health, American Affairs, Zionist and International Affairs, Speakers Bureau, Fundraising, Program, Organization, Outreach and Tourism Departments. Materials related to the general administration of Hadassah are also in the record group; these materials include research and development of projects, archives department correspondence and other materials, Hadassah House administration, and strategic planning. The record group also documents Hadassah's efforts to expand membership outside of the United States, by the development of Hadassah International.

The Hadassah Archives documents the activities of Hadassah, the Women's Zionist Organization of America. Founded in 1912, the organization engaged hundreds of thousands of American Jewish women in the Zionist project. Materials include extensive records of its social welfare projects in Palestine and later Israel, such as Youth Aliyah and the Hadassah Medical Organization. Administrative records document the organization's governance, operations, and functions. The collection also includes the papers of Hadassah founder, Henrietta Szold, as well as the organization's national presidents, executive directors, and other important individuals. Additional materials also document Hadassah's organizational activity in the United States such as annual and midwinter conventions and the dozens of active local chapters from all over the United States. Hadassah maintained an active publishing schedule, and the records include hundreds of published newsletters, flyers, and magazines. Other materials include thousands of photographs, extensive audiovisual material, and hundreds of artifacts.

The Hadassah subject file record group is a collection of files of organizations, events, and genre subjects originally arranged alphabetically by Hadassah’s central filing department. These files served and serve as a ready reference source that represents both the direct and indirect involvement of Hadassah in both national and international affairs. This collection includes correspondence, clippings, newsletters, photographs, and other ephemeral documents.

Papers consist of copies of family photographs, a detailed genealogy research report, and two articles. The Halpern Research Report relates to the Halpern, Rothenberg, Klein, Cantor, and Lasker families. The articles, published in the Bronx County Historical Society Journal, are based on Carl Halpern's reminiciences of family members, growing up in the Bronx, and working as an office boy for the Hauserman Metal Manufacturing Company. The papers also include two oral histories, comprising a total of eight audiotapes that were conducted by Joel Halpern, Carl's son. The first, also recorded by Barbara Kirshenblat Gimblet, interviews Dr. Brusilov, from Long Beach, NY, who describes his life in eastern Poland prior to World War II. The second records Sam Alexander, also of Long Beach, NY, who participated in the Israeli War of Independence.

The Irving J. Block Papers are a blend of personal papers and organizational records, documenting the evolution of the Brotherhood Synagogue (Congregation Beth Achim) in Manhattan and Block’s role as rabbi and his involvement in efforts outside of the congregation. The collection is primarily comprised of correspondence, sermons, minutes, notes, clippings, photographs, audiocassettes, and drafts of Rabbi Block’s memoir.

Contains the Bulletin of the Jewish Center of Williamsbridge from the 1940s to the 1970s and gift books bound with yearbooks of the Center bound inside. Also includes material regarding Doctor Rabbi Akiba Predmesky (d. 1998), who served the Jewish community and the Jewish Center of Williamsbridge for over fifty years.

Contains material collected by the Jewish Media Service (JMS) on Jewish films, film company catalogs, resources and information from and about various media centers. The majority of the Jewish Media Service records date from when the JMS operated independently from 1975 to 1987. Types of material found in the collection include articles, brochures, catalogs, correspondence, examination study guides, filmographies, film stills, newsletters, pamphlets, photographs, posters, publications, scripts, and slides.

The collection contains articles, constitution and by-laws, correspondence, flyers, membership lists, newsletters, officers and trustees lists, photographs, souvenir journals, and speeches. Of interest is a copy of a dinner dance program from 1925, policies regarding religious observance in the U.S. Post Office, and correspondence lobbying for support of Israel and Jewish causes.

This collection documents the time Judah J. Shapiro spent as writer and broadcaster of the radio show “Highlights and Background of the Jewish News” on WEVD in New York City. He wrote and broadcast the show from 1971 until his death in 1980. The bulk of the collection is transcripts of the radio show. The show focused mainly on the politics and current affairs of the state of Israel.

This collection contains correspondence, press clippings, and other materials relating to Fein's career and activities while editor-in-chief and publisher of Moment magazine.

Lights in Action (LIA) was a network of students dedicated to inspiring Jewish pride and unity among college students. LIA student activists designed, created, and distributed Jewish/Zionist literature that reached approximately 100,000 students on over 120 campuses. In addition, LIA designed and coordinated national student projects like Shabbat Leumit, a guide to lead students across North America through the rituals during Shabbat. LIA also hosted and sponsored national conferences, summer programs in Israel, leadership training, and seminars on a variety of topics of interest to Jewish students. The records include Lights in Action publications and printed matter, administrative records, photographs and slides, audiovisual material, sound recordings, and born digital material.

The Lipsky Family Papers reflect the professional and personal activities of Eleazar Lipsky (1911-1993), his father, Zionist leader Louis Lipsky (1876-1963), and his mother, Charlotte Lipsky (1879-1959), as well as other family members. Eleazar Lipsky was a lawyer, novelist, Zionist and the head of the Jewish Telegraphic Agency in the early 1960s. While working on a multi-part family novel, Eleazar Lipsky gathered and arranged much of the family material in this collection. In addition to family history, the collection contains information on the American Zionist movement, Bernard Richards’s role in the Committee of Jewish Delegations at the 1919 Paris Peace Conference, and various legal battles involving such parties as the Jewish Week, the American Examiner, Doubleday, Philip Hochstein and Lillie Shultz. The materials include correspondence, an unfinished manuscript, legal transcripts, clippings, speeches, research materials, financial documents, miscellaneous writings and a few photographs.

This collection consists of the papers of Nathan Perlmutter, a lawyer, lecturer, author, political activist, and a long-time leader of the American Jewish community. It contains certificates, newspaper clippings, correspondence — including numerous condolence cards and letters sent to his family after his death — manuscripts and drafts of Perlmutter’s writings, obituaries, printed materials, programs, and subject files relating to topics he was interested in and that he wrote about.

The National Committee for Labor Israel (NCLI) was an American fundraising organization closely associated with Israel’s federation of labor and trade unions (Histadrut). NCLI provided financial support for the Histadrut’s educational, health, and social programs in Israel through national and regional solicitation campaigns. Major donors included Labor Zionist organizations, American labor unions, and other Jewish community associations. Financial problems eventually led to the dissolution of NCLI, and the bulk of this collection documents its final decades of operation. A large portion of the records pertain to development projects in Israel during the 1960s -1970s.

This collection documents the activities, administration, planning, proceedings, and correspondence of the National Jewish Community Relations Advisory Council, 1944-1994. The collection includes correspondence, programs, minutes, proposals, reports, clippings, press releases, and publications.

The New York Board of Rabbis is a cross-denominational Jewish organization for rabbis that seeks to foster fellowship, provide educational enrichment, and rise above theological differences to strengthen and defend the Jewish community advancing its’ educational, religious, and social values. The collection documents the governance of the Board and its activities in serving the Jewish community of New York and at large.

University professor, historian, and scholar Oscar I. Janowsky sought to understand Jewish culture and human rights in light of modern anti-Semitism, imperialism, and pluralistic states. Throughout his robust career he was a professor of history at the City College of New York, he also served as an advisor to League of Nations High Commissioner James G. McDonald, directed and authored major studies in the fields of Jewish community centers and education. The papers in this collection include his correspondence with colleagues and friends, research notes and article drafts, and his unpublished memoirs.

This record group contains personal papers and special collections documenting individuals, both Hadassah members and non-Hadassah members, who were important to Hadassah. Much of the material forming the collections in this record group came from the administrative files of the national office of Hadassah, though some of the material was donated to Hadassah. Key individuals represented within this record group include Hadassah national board members Anna Tulin Elyachar, Bertha S. Schoolman, and Denise Tourover Ezekiel, as well as Jesse Zel Lurie who served as the first professional editor of Hadassah Magazine (originally Hadassah Newsletter) from 1947 to 1980.

The papers of Jewish civic leader Philip Bernstein contain writings and professional papers related to his career with the Council of Jewish Federations and Welfare Funds, including his participation in the establishment of the National Foundation for Jewish Culture and the National Jewish Community Relations Council, and his work with many other Jewish communal organizations, including the Jewish Agency for Israel, the Joint Distribution Committee, the United Jewish Appeal, and the Federation of Jewish Philanthropies of New York.